Change rattles the world's biggest dish

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Message 1109428 - Posted: 24 May 2011, 22:04:38 UTC

All change at Arecibo:


Nature: Change rattles the world's biggest dish

After nearly half a century, Cornell University loses stewardship of the renowned Arecibo radio telescope


Keep searchin',
Martin


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Message 1109437 - Posted: 24 May 2011, 22:59:18 UTC

Interesting! This story, along with the ATA going into hibernation will have a big affect on radio astronomy.

Hope SETI@home will still be able to piggyback to get its data.

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Message 1109481 - Posted: 25 May 2011, 2:30:10 UTC - in response to Message 1109437.  

sounds like a management change. I bet the science will go on


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Message 1109491 - Posted: 25 May 2011, 2:51:46 UTC
Last modified: 25 May 2011, 2:51:57 UTC

That's exactly what it says. A new management team: Instead, the US National Science Foundation (NSF) has offered the job — and the US$41.2-million five-year contract that goes with it — to a consortium that includes SRI International, a non-profit research institute based in Menlo Park, California; the Universities Space Research Association in Washington DC; and the Metropolitan University in Puerto Rico.

Seti@home is not part of any of those groups. So it is very unlikely that the project will be affected.

Matt or Erick may be able to explain if this does have an effect. I hope to hear from them regarding this.
"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible". Hebrews 11.3

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Message 1109507 - Posted: 25 May 2011, 3:26:26 UTC - in response to Message 1109491.  

Interesting to see what ramifications this may have for S&H.


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Message 1109605 - Posted: 25 May 2011, 12:34:50 UTC

They should have given the management to Berkeley...
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Message 1109711 - Posted: 25 May 2011, 19:03:11 UTC - in response to Message 1109705.  

At the very least they should be an official partner.

As long as Berkely doesn't have to fund the maintenance for the telescope on the current budget. That could get very expensive.

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Message 1109824 - Posted: 26 May 2011, 2:45:51 UTC - in response to Message 1109711.  

At the very least they should be an official partner.

As long as Berkely doesn't have to fund the maintenance for the telescope on the current budget. That could get very expensive.

Steve


I am actually surprised they weren't even asked.
"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible". Hebrews 11.3

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Message 1109963 - Posted: 26 May 2011, 14:04:08 UTC - in response to Message 1109824.  

At the very least they should be an official partner.

As long as Berkely doesn't have to fund the maintenance for the telescope on the current budget. That could get very expensive.

Steve


I am actually surprised they weren't even asked.


Me too. It's a shame and kind of an insult I think. Berkeley is doing the most productive and interesting thing of all with Arecibo.
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Message 1109972 - Posted: 26 May 2011, 14:14:17 UTC - in response to Message 1109963.  
Last modified: 26 May 2011, 14:15:01 UTC

... Berkeley is doing the most productive and interesting thing of all with Arecibo.


That may be true for possible/potential scientific impact and for public involvement. However, in the game of politics and funding I would guess the influence from s@h is disproportionately small...


It isn't that long ago that the NSF called for the closure of Arecibo... To keep going, staff were laid off and even the on-site canteen was closed.

So why do bureaucrats require a wake-up call from the rest of the world? Or is it all just a game of politics?


Hopefully, Arecibo will now benefit from renewed interest from this latest shake-up.

Keep searchin',
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Message 1110438 - Posted: 27 May 2011, 16:45:27 UTC - in response to Message 1109972.  
Last modified: 27 May 2011, 16:47:20 UTC

... Berkeley is doing the most productive and interesting thing of all with Arecibo.


That may be true for possible/potential scientific impact and for public involvement. However, in the game of politics and funding I would guess the influence from s@h is disproportionately small...


It isn't that long ago that the NSF called for the closure of Arecibo... To keep going, staff were laid off and even the on-site canteen was closed.

So why do bureaucrats require a wake-up call from the rest of the world? Or is it all just a game of politics?


Hopefully, Arecibo will now benefit from renewed interest from this latest shake-up.

Keep searchin',
Martin


The NSF NEVER called for the closure for Arecibo. That is a common misconception. A few years ago, they just simply were about to run out of funding for the telescope. I wrote an article about that and the severe budget cuts and funding of the NSF in July 2008 (there was a thread about it here and a front page mention at the time, but I cannot locate that thread): Searching for asteroids, extraterrestrial life a little more rocky: Budget cuts threaten to close Arecibo, world's largest radio telescope

The NSF has been severe neglected lately and lost a lot of funding from the government when they made cuts. Even NASA was hit. So its not like they said to hell with Arecibo.

At the time: Currently, the NSF funds the operations of Arecibo with just over US$10 million every year. By 2011 they plan to drastically cut that funding to only $4 million a year, nearly 65% less than the current budget. To counter that loss, the United States House of Representatives passed a bill that would authorize NASA to spend at least 2 million dollars of their nearly $21 billion budget to fund portions of Arecibo until 2009. But that still leaves more than half of the loss to be recovered, and if something isn't done soon the facility will be closed by 2011 — or sooner if additional cuts are made.
"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible". Hebrews 11.3

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Message 1116193 - Posted: 12 Jun 2011, 11:16:25 UTC - in response to Message 1110438.  

The NSF NEVER called for the closure for Arecibo. That is a common misconception. A few years ago, they just simply were about to run out of funding for the telescope. I wrote an article about that and the severe budget cuts and funding of the NSF in July 2008 (there was a thread about it here and a front page mention at the time, but I cannot locate that thread): Searching for asteroids, extraterrestrial life a little more rocky: Budget cuts threaten to close Arecibo, world's largest radio telescope

Soon no longer to be the world's largest dish, according to New Scientist (UK magazine, 11 June 2011 publishing date).

THE largest and most famous radio telescope in the world - the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico - is about to be upstaged. In a remote part of Guizhou province in southern China, construction has begun on a true behemoth of engineering, the Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), an instrument that promises to transform radio astronomy.

According to a sidebar in the printed edition (p21),

Closer to home, FAST will join the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. It will be able to study 5000 sun-like stars for alien transmissions. "FAST could detect a transmitter like the radar on the Arecibo dish at a distance of more than 1000 light years," says Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute.
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Message 1116235 - Posted: 12 Jun 2011, 13:12:08 UTC
Last modified: 12 Jun 2011, 13:12:46 UTC

Let us not forget the Square Kilometer Array project:
SKA
Its data should be processed by a grid called Skynet, based on a software called Nereus developed at Oxford University. But AFAIK, Nereus would run only on Macs and Linux PCs, thereby omitting all Windows users. Is this right? I, Linux user, believe it is not.
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Message 1116264 - Posted: 12 Jun 2011, 14:30:07 UTC

Tullio; To answer your question: 'Is it right'? As a Mac user, I agree, it isn't. Rather a surprising arrangement, too, given that most computers in the world use the Microsoft platform. Michael
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Message 1116275 - Posted: 12 Jun 2011, 15:00:42 UTC - in response to Message 1116264.  

CERN is testing a different method, by creating a VirtualMachine which runs on any computer having a VirtualBox software loaded, which is free. Then its scientific programs, written in a Scientific Linux environment, can be run on any Mac, Windows or Linux PC.
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Message 1116283 - Posted: 12 Jun 2011, 15:15:44 UTC - in response to Message 1116235.  

Let us not forget the Square Kilometer Array project:
SKA
Its data should be processed by a grid called Skynet, based on a software called Nereus developed at Oxford University. But AFAIK, Nereus would run only on Macs and Linux PCs, thereby omitting all Windows users. Is this right? I, Linux user, believe it is not.
Tullio

Could be, only one platform to support...

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Message 1116285 - Posted: 12 Jun 2011, 15:24:04 UTC - in response to Message 1116283.  


Could be, only one platform to support...

See my preceding post about CERN. They support Scientific Linux only.
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Message 1116301 - Posted: 12 Jun 2011, 15:44:04 UTC - in response to Message 1116285.  


Could be, only one platform to support...

See my preceding post about CERN. They support Scientific Linux only.
Tullio

Virtual machines run slow. Porting between various Unix is not hard to do.

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Message 1116309 - Posted: 12 Jun 2011, 15:50:59 UTC - in response to Message 1116301.  
Last modified: 12 Jun 2011, 15:51:23 UTC


Virtual machines run slow. Porting between various Unix is not hard to do.

Scientific Linux is running as a guest OS on my SuSE Linux 11.1 and CERN programs do not appear to be slow. But they also run on Window farms and they get many more credits than I do.
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Message 1116312 - Posted: 12 Jun 2011, 15:58:12 UTC - in response to Message 1116309.  

But they also run on Window farms and they get many more credits than I do.

Really? My experience is that Windows is always slower than Unix.

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