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Comment by myself248 | Hacker News Reader

Fuuuuuuuck.

I understand the decision to dismantle the failing structure which is currently unsafe and tricky to repair.

But might a new one be built in its place? How can we push for that?

I mean, it's location is still surely ideal. But it's clear the construction that's there isn't safe. I wonder if, provided they're able to dismantle the remaining facility without complete collapse, if it'd be reasonable to "rebuild" on the same site.

It sounds like the towers should be rebuilt, all of the cables replaced, etc. And obviously the dish at minimum needs repair. I can't imagine anything would be salvageable from a complete collapse, but if they can bring down the observatory safely, it might not be crazy to think they could erect a new one over the dish at a later date.

Is it an ideal location though? From an astrophysics perspective I bet it's ideal, but from a structural perspective it's still a large steel structure in the tropics that's also simultaneously in both a hurricane and earthquake zone, which to me seems closer to a worst case scenario than a perfect spot to build.

Ignoring geopolitical matters I wonder if an installation on the same latitude in the mexican mountains would be better spot to build such a thing.

I mean the geopolitical status of Puerto Rico is not necessarily better, given that even today PR has terrible power infrastructure and no clear plan to fix it.

Maybe if it was the 51st state instead of a colony, the political will would magically appear?

You have a good point, but we also have many decades' worth of engineering improvements that could likely be used to mitigate some of the risks.

It would seem unlikely in PR given the state of infrastructure there.

The hurricane destroyed a lot of the already failing power and port infrastructure, for instance.

https://www.rollcall.com/2019/11/12/report-puerto-ricos-infr...

Back in the 1950s the US Government built a lot of space infrastructure in the South (Stennis, Redstone &c) to develop the backwards corners of the nation. There's no political will for that any longer, it seems.

That was far more an artifact of the seniority of certain Southern senators on appropriations committees than any commitment to regional improvement. That seniority was a byproduct of (a) horribly racist voting practices keeping those seats long term in the same hands and (b) no competition.

Yes, tell me all about Richard Shelby (AL). But whatever the reason was, the money did end up in the South and it became less agricultural as a result.

It's kind of crazy how the elimination of pork-barrel stipulations ended up polarizing politics.

Admitting Puerto Rico as a state, thus enabling Puerto Rico to have representation in congress who could argue for more infra being built there, would likely be critical.

Yep, and removing the Jones Act which causes everything PR imports from the mainland to be dramatically more expensive is a necessary 2nd step too.

We could remove the Jones Act, causing cargo to be carried by ships with lax (affordable) regulation, or we could get a similar cost and regulation result on American ships by adjusting our regulations to worldwide norms.

It's really the same problem as regulating "dirty" and "unsafe" factories out of the USA. We don't get fantasy-world factories in the USA. We just lose jobs and all control, with the products produced in terrible conditions abroad.

So, do we want to suffer the cost of the regulations? If so, simply keep the status quo with the Jones Act. If not, then deal with the problem directly, and eviscerate the regulations that are making Americans uncompetitive.

Unlikely, too much risk PR would be a blue state.

That’s why it will have to be when Dems have both Congress and the executive —- GA run-off is so critical. Since Puerto Rico already passed a referendum on joining the US as a state all it would take is simple majority.

The Huntsville area (including Redstone) is booming - there is a lot going on there in terms of space infrastructure. I think Huntsville is on track to surpass Birmingham (the city) as Alabama's largest. Political will is much less important now.

I can't speak to the Stennis Space Center other than to say it needs a new name...

Puertorican here who grew up visiting the Observatory!! Became a NASA engineer (at KSC.) It was the dish that made a huge impact on me.

The answer is to invest in rebuilding this, or else puertoricans will continue to lose local sources of inspiration. That's a loss for America.

China has similar construction called FAST/Tianyan [1], while Russia runs RATAN-600 [2] since 70s but it differs much from Arcibo and FAST in term of construction.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-hundred-meter_Aperture_Sp...

[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RATAN-600

By paying for it? It has been struggling with financing for a long time.

What kind of money to make it running we're talking about? Articles don't seem to directly specify the number.

With half the country against public education and science literacy in general, I don't have much hope for a replacement at this point.

Or maybe use all that money to build a good one on the Moon.

all of that money, plus a thousand times more.

Yes, of course it costs more, just as that telescope costs way more than the one I have at home.

Ah well, if we're seeing it that way then I propose we just build it halfway between here and Proxima Centauri.

They've seriously struggled to find a few million per year just to keep the thing running and do the bare minimum of maintenance (or perhaps less than the bare minimum). I think they'd be hard pressed to scrounge up the billions of dollars they'd need to put a new one on the moon

Give your own money and/or find someone that will invest in the project.

Anybody got the number to SR Hadden?

Why, yes, it would be exquisitely handy to have two such instruments!

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