US National Science Foundation (NSF) decommissions Arecibo Observatory's massive radio dish:

 https://www.space.com/arecibo-observatory-radio-telescope-to-be-destroyed

Let me get this straight. We could BUILD it safely almost 60 years ago but we can't REPAIR it safely today? Something just doesn't sound right here. Did engineering and construction take three steps backward over that timeframe? I'll bet it has more to do with the funding (or lack thereof) to do it safely than the inability to do it safely. What a loss.

Edited November 19, 20205 yr by W2DR
kant spel

One of the most essential symbols of human's achievements for me.
Good-bye, Arecibo! 😥

Day after it's demolished, alien UFO lands in crater and the crew start laughing at us! 

49 minutes ago, W2DR said:

Let me get this straight. We could BUILD it safely almost 60 years ago but we can't REPAIR it safely today? 

 

I think there's a diference though, between systematically and safely constructing something, in carefully planned stages and trying to repair a huge structure that has lost its integrity in a random fashion.

Its probably also true that other more modern radio telescopes have superceded it.

59 minutes ago, W2DR said:

Let me get this straight. We could BUILD it safely almost 60 years ago but we can't REPAIR it safely today? Something just doesn't sound right here.

60 years ago, the standards of "safety" were a bit more lax

 

The NSF states that the infrastructure is failing so they have decided to decommission the telescope.  Of course they could fix it but they don't really want to spend the money.  My guess is that it was decommissioned because they desperately need funding for the Next Generation Very Large Array, which will cost over a billion dollars, and I have heard estimates as high as 2 billion dollars.

I think the NSF should just ask the Federal Reserve to create some money and give it to them like the government does for everything else.😉

Dave

43 minutes ago, Mace said:

60 years ago, the standards of "safety" were a bit more lax

 

I agree. But so have construction techniques.  

1 hour ago, Mace said:

60 years ago, the standards of "safety" were a bit more lax

 

...and yet it managed to remain active for those 60 years, so they builders must have done something right back then..

I don't think it was, but if the surface of the dish was strong enough and smooth enough, it would have made one heck of a bowl for skateboarding in! 

Goodbye iconic Battlefield 4 map... The amount of times I've dropped the antenna by shooting the cables with tank rounds... good times... 

2 hours ago, martin-w said:

I think there's a diference though, between systematically and safely constructing something, in carefully planned stages and trying to repair a huge structure that has lost its integrity in a random fashion.

Its probably also true that other more modern radio telescopes have superceded it.

A lot of debris fell when the first cable snapped and totally destroyed a very large segment of the actual reflector dish. The second cable snapped from the same pylon leaving only two more-or-less intact cables. Judging from the amount of rust, it appears that lax maintenance over the past 60 odd years have contributed to the relative weakness of the cables.

Contributing to the problems, I'm fairly sure that the past dozen or so hurricanes have taken their toll as well!

China commissioned their gigantic radio telescope six years ago, and of course it is much larger than Arecibo to boot!

15 hours ago, HighBypass said:

...and yet it managed to remain active for those 60 years, so they builders must have done something right back then..

I don't think it was, but if the surface of the dish was strong enough and smooth enough, it would have made one heck of a bowl for skateboarding in! 

Goodbye iconic Battlefield 4 map... The amount of times I've dropped the antenna by shooting the cables with tank rounds... good times... 

 

Yes, but have you tightrope walked the cables?

Was absolutely addicted to BF4, a true classic. After getting into COD Warzone though I've not touched it for many months. Warzone is truly epic. 

2 hours ago, martin-w said:

Yes, but have you tightrope walked the cables?

Indeed I have, but never managed to get all the way to the end thanks to the enemy LOL! 

Its kind of pointless anyways... I mean the aliens have already been here and after what we did to and with the roswell crash survivors I doubt the greys want to come back and if they do it wont be peaceful.. Plus the lizard hybrids have already infiltrated society and hold key positions in goverments around the wolrd.  No need to spend further money on rebuilding a technological relic to communicate with beings that are already here , among us. 

Plus we have several radar and antenna arrays much more powerful than areciebo and they are not pointed out into space looking for signals from aliens , because the powers that be know they are already here. Maybe some and most likely some in leadership roles in space programs around the world. Controlling and guiding our space prgrams according to their plans. 

Elon Musk= alien   ...why else would someone launch a car into space... Someone back on his home planet wanted a Tesla and they could very well just walk into a dealrship and load it into a space ship... So Musk launched it and sooner or later it will be reported that the car is out of tracking range or that the signal failed and that will be the sign that an alien craft has picked up the car in space and it is enroute to wherever he is really from.  

Earths only hope to ever gain independance from alien influence was Space Force.  But with the current political situation  , that program too is doomed to be bent to the Aliens will. Goodluck earth..

 

PS. I know what I am talking about , I am not some paranoid alien conspricay  nut..

I have watched every episode of x-files several times and listen to art bell coast 2 coast before he got weird. 

 

Thanks, I needed a laugh.😁

8 hours ago, AmeliaCat said:

I have watched every episode of x-files several times and listen to art bell coast 2 coast before he got weird. 

I remember one Art Bell episode that would fit right into this thread. He was interviewing a guy who claimed to be a an engineer who worked on a top-secret government project. He then went on to explain the construction of an under-ground highway from Area 51 to Wright-Patterson AFB so that they could secretly move the alien spaceships which had landed in the desert. I loved Art Bell - what great late-night entertainment.

Edited November 21, 20205 yr by W2DR
kant spel