![]() The report recommends that the NSF complete that external review in 2023. “TMT has the added risk that the site has not yet been selected, adding cost and schedule uncertainty,” the report says. While Mauna Kea is the preferred location for the telescope, the observatory is also eyeing a site on La Palma in Spain’s Canary Islands. The report also recommends that the TMT finalize its site selection. researchers would get telescope viewing time that’s comparable to the country’s financial investment in those projects and that data collected by both telescopes be archived publicly. Researchers recommend that the NSF make funding contingent on an external review of the large telescope projects to ensure that they are financially viable, that U.S. A review by panels of experts that participated in the report gave both projects a “medium-high programmatic risk rating.” TMT is expected to cost more than $2 billion and the GMT about $1 billion. “Our report says serious attention also needs to be paid to investments in the foundations of this research.” - Professor Robert Kennicutt There’s a gap between commitments each telescope has on hand with the total cost to build each observatory, the report said. “It seems clear that neither project can be successfully completed without an unprecedented level of federal support from NSF,” the report says of the TMT and the GMT.īut the report also lays out potential risks that both projects pose, specifically in regards to financing. A panel of researchers recommended that astronomers do a better job of engaging with Indigenous communities and that Hawaii and TMT officials improve relationships with Native Hawaiians in particular. The TMT may need to complete another environmental study as well as engage in outreach efforts to qualify for the federal funding, according to the NSF. must invest in at least one project to maintain its position as a leader in world astronomy, the report says.īoth the TMT and GMT could receive up to $800 million from the National Science Foundation. Inouye Solar Telescope were among projects that the astronomy survey recommended for funding in previous reports, Simons said. Projects like the Hubble Space Telescope, the Gemini Observatory and the Daniel K. Extremely Large Telescope Program to have that ranking after 2020,” Simons said. And that’s why it’s so important for TMT as part of what’s called the U.S. “This has a track record that whatever comes out (that is the) No. Important Endorsementĭoug Simons, director for the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy, stressed the importance of the report in a recent interview with the Civil Beat Editorial Board. community is well-equipped to capitalize on the wealth of information that will keep it on the cutting edge of the worldwide endeavor to understand the cosmos,” he added. ![]() “But our report says serious attention also needs to be paid to investments in the foundations of this research - including in the people who carry it out - and in ensuring that the U.S. “We stand on the threshold of new endeavors and scientific capabilities that could transform our understanding of how galaxies form and how our universe began,” Robert Kennicutt, a professor at the University of Arizona and the steering committee co-chair, said in a press release. researchers who reviewed thousands of proposals for science projects and were advised by panels of experts tasked with looking at specific aspects of astronomy. ![]() It was written by a steering committee of U.S. The report is produced every 10 years by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine and sets the course for astronomical research for the next decade. Media outlets received an embargoed advance copy of the report on Wednesday. The TMT International Observatory declined to comment on the report’s findings until it had a chance to review its recommendations, which were being published publicly Thursday morning. Protest groups see any new building on Mauna Kea as further desecrating the summit, which is already home to 13 telescopes. The Hawaii Supreme Court in 2018 cleared the way for construction to resume, but ongoing protests and a need for more funding have prevented the project from moving forward. Mauna Kea was the site of Native Hawaiian-led protests in 20 that, along with court challenges, brought construction of TMT to a halt. “These observatories will create enormous opportunities for scientific progress over the coming decades and well beyond, and they will address nearly every important science question across all three priority science themes,” the report said. The endorsement of the $2 billion TMT that is slated to be built on Mauna Kea, a volcano on the Big Island considered sacred by many Native Hawaiians, and the GMT in Chile is an important step for observatories seeking federal funds.
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