[meteorite-list] Campbell, Planetary Society urge Congress to save Arecibo

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2007 15:03:12 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <200711132303.PAA11368_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Nov07/arecibo.congress.html

Chronicle Online e-News

Campbell, Planetary Society urge Congress to save Arecibo
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Nov07/arecibo.congress.html

Nov. 9, 2007

By Lauren Gold
LG34 at cornell.edu

As part of a continuing effort to save the
Arecibo Observatory from fatal budget cuts,
Cornell astronomy professor Donald Campbell
testified before Congress, Nov. 8 on the
importance of the telescope's radar system for
the identification and tracking of potentially
hazardous near-Earth objects (NEOs).

On the same day, the Planetary Society, a space
advocacy organization co-founded by the late
Cornell astronomer Carl Sagan, issued a statement
to Congress in support of the planetary radar
system at Arecibo and its research. "If some
object out there really is on a collision course
with Earth, and we don't have the means to track
it properly," the statement said, "the price we
would pay would be astronomical."

The observatory's future has been in jeopardy
since November 2006, when an advisory panel to
the Division of Astronomical Sciences at the
National Science Foundation (NSF) recommended
that its operating funds be reduced to $8 million
from $10.5 million over three years and then
halved to $4 million in 2011. If the observatory
failed to raise funds from external sources to
make up the difference, it would be forced to
close.

In October, U.S. Rep. Luis Fortu?o (R-Puerto
Rico) and Dana Rohrabacher (R- Calif.) introduced
legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives
to ensure continued operation of Arecibo.

Campbell was among five scientists to address the
Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics of the
House Committee on Science and Technology. He
discussed the role of Arecibo's radar system,
which is one of only two high-powered radars in
the world used for studying solar system bodies,
on characterizing NEOs and their potential threat
to Earth.

Arecibo's radar is over 20 times more sensitive
than its counterpart, NASA's Deep Space Network
70-meter antenna at Goldstone, Calif., Campbell
noted. But because it is less maneuverable, both
systems are vital and complementary.

"The more we know about NEOs in general and about
specific ones that pose a threat to Earth, the
easier it will be to design effective mitigation
strategies," said Campbell. "NEOs form a very
diverse population encompassing a large range of
sizes, shapes, rotation states, densities,
internal structure and binary nature."

Radar provides the best way to survey and
categorize such objects, he said. "For an object
that we know poses a direct threat to Earth,
radar can provide vital input to mitigation
planning, including planning for any precursor
space mission."

Campbell also noted Arecibo's unique role in
supporting research in radio astronomy, radar
planetary studies (including the study of NEOs)
and ionosphere physics, as well as in education
and outreach activities.

"If the Arecibo radar system is decommissioned
... a tremendous amount of basic science related
to NEOs and other solar system bodies would be
lost," he said.

In its concurrent statement, the Planetary
Society called the Senior Review recommendation
"a misguided attempt to free up funding for new
projects that do not yet exist."

Arecibo is part of the National Astronomy and
Ionosphere Center, a national research center
operated by Cornell under a cooperative agreement
with the NSF.

-- 

Received on Tue 13 Nov 2007 06:03:12 PM PST