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SALTO Communication
Dear Arecibo Users:
In this communication would like to bring you up to date concerning our present status following the NSF-Arecibo Town meetings and associated events.
Between June 26th and 27th four meetings took place in Arecibo and San Juan with representatives of the National Science Foundation, Dr.Wayne Van Citters, Dr. Eileen Friel, etc. There were two "town meetings", one at a community center in Arecibo, the other at the Observatory where participants of the CEDAR meeting at Santa Fe participated over a video link. The other two meetings were with specific groups representing the Government of Puerto Rico, the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), plus entrepreneurial and other Puerto Rican interests that could help be part of future funding models for the Observatory.
These meetings were lively and well attended. Many questions were answered by Dr. Van Citters and ideas put forward as to how to address the future of Arecibo. The following points come from the presentations by Dr. Van Citters:
- By Spring 2009, Cornell/NAIC will have to present an operations plan which will require no more than $4M/year from the AST division of the NSF. The plan could include private or public contributions; both non- and for-profit components are welcome. Cornell/NAIC is to arrange/negotiate any such matters. This will then be reviewed by the NSF in respect of their continued support. If unsatisfactory, then the Observatory may be decommissioned.
- Cornell will be the operating institution and there is no plan to call for a re-competition of the cooperative agreement.
The Government of Puerto Rico and other nearby municipalities, as well as the campuses of the University of Puerto Rico, were represented in these meetings, demonstrating that there is strong community support for the continuation of the Observatory on the island.
At the present time, NAIC are developing and carrying out efforts to raise the necessary funds to maintain Observatory operations. We are also building the framework for future operations in order to ensure continuing support. Among the major directions are the following:
- Developing a commercial model to ensure that Observatory-related marketing brings in sufficient income to justify the efforts involved.
- Liaison with the Government of Puerto Rico to create a model for long-term local financial input to Observatory operations. This is seen as involving both educational and economic aspects.
- Writing grant proposals that utilize the special expertise of the Observatory in the development of new technologies through SBIR and STTR programs.
- Building national and international partnerships with universities and research centers.
In July 2007 we hosted engineers contracted by the NSF to evaluate the possible decommissioning of the telescope.
The platform painting project proceeds apace, and the progress can be seen on-line by clicking on the "Painting Project Webcam" link on the http://www.naic.edu web page.
An accident in early July, in which one of the contractor's employees was injured, caused a 3-week delay for investigation of the circumstances, and to review safety aspects of the operation. Thankfully, the injured worker is recovering and progress continues.In addition, we are organizing a workshop on "Frontiers of Astronomy with the World's Largest Radio Telescope", to be held in Washington DC on September 12-13. This will explore the areas of astronomy where Arecibo continues to makes a major difference. (For details and program, see http://www.naic.edu/~astro/frontiers)