You can't see posts that were removed. Blatant "partisan politics" comments are not allowed. Other posters were dragging politics into it - not you. Dave W7UUU
Was always a big fan of Arecibo. When I vacationed in Puerto Rico back in 2012, I made it a point to rent a car and drive out to see it. I will say this about the posts saying about asking Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos to try and get it fixed. I'm not sure fixing it would be the best solution. If you want to keep it, I would just rebuild it. It's 53 years old and while it had upgrades. The entire site was about as shabby as it can get. That said, a network of smaller well spaced radio telescopes would be a better (and depending on what exactly was build) and possibly cheaper option. Not to mention it was this (radio array) innovation that wound up winning a Nobel Prize in Physics!
The 'sticks' at the bottom are actually quite large antennas for ionospheric heating, a WA3FET design. Large collections of smaller dishes are essentially higher insertion loss, and many will have rf interference, which has to be edited out of the data set. When sensitivity is the limiting factor. single large dishes always do better. The 'moss' on the dish panels looks like corrosion, but is jungle rot; has very little actual degradation at RF. 73 Chip W1YW
Can't fully evaluate the failures, corrosion, etc, until all the broken cables are retrieved. Here is the NSF news release that contains links to most of the actual engineering reports, so far. https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=301674 One of the three linked reports, from the firm of Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc (WJE) actually details a plan to safely stabilize the situation leading to a possible recovery. https://www.nsf.gov/news/stabilizationefforts.pdf "With the additional tasks completed, we are confident the stability of the structure will no longer be compromised by the failure of an additional M4 main cable. Restoration and investigative work can then safely proceed with the original plan." Of course, the tasks suggested are a bit ... adventureous? Like doing a space-walk to repair a Shuttle. Maybe they could wear Go-Pro's and live stream the action on PPV to get a payback. Hollywood should step up, commercialize the rescue. (not the salvage!) "Task 5 – Removal of Azimuth Counterweight. There is currently about 45,000 pounds of lead counterweight positioned on the top of the azimuth structure. Most of the lead is in slabs weighing approximately 200-lbs each. An attempt will be made to throw the lead from the azimuth using workers positioned from a helicopter ..." Sigh.
But as Americans, we love the keen deliciousness of destruction after years of success.....its the American way! :-(((((((
MSM could stream 24/24 that AO is the only way to foresee an Iron Sky invasion, thus saving the (free) World. Hey! they should auction those rotten cables, by inch or ounce. Priceless, given the threat.
From the photos, to me it really kinda looks like it's ALL corroding away collectively, more or less at the same rate Reminds of that History Channel show, "Life After People" Dave W7UUU
SURE why not - awhile back all the suspender cables of the Golden Gate bridge were replaced. Chunks of them are available either as comemorative decorations or made into furniture.
That’s what I thought too. It looks like many years of “deferred” maintenance. An especially bad thing in a tropical climate.
