Arecibo Futures - The Arecibo Collapse: Impact on the Health of its Science Communities
Channel: Michael Nolan
Date: 04/11/2021

A "Lunch seminar" sponsored by the Arecibo Science Advocacy Partnership over Zoom to present the results of the NSF-sponsored Arecibo Observatory Options workshop held in June 2021.

The Arecibo Collapse: Impact on the Health of Its Science Communities A Panel Discussion moderated by Prof. Nicole Lloyd-Ronning.

A panel discussion to explore the impact of the Arecibo collapse on the professional careers of young scientists and Puerto Rican radio scientists, and how it could affect the future of the Arecibo single-dish radar and receiver technology expertise in the US.
 
“Many of us watched a huge part of our professional careers come crashing down that fateful day last December..”
—Ed Rivera and Patrick Taylor
 
Abstract:  The recent collapse of the Arecibo platform means that we lost the most sensitive planetary and aeronomy radars and RF receivers for astronomy.  In the last few years, many Arecibo breakthroughs were emerging like the NEO characterizations, FRB and gravity waves observations, the rotation of the electrons around the Earth’s magnetic field, and the Space Plasma Laboratory.  Most of these unique observations/experiments were only possible at Arecibo.  
 
The absence of the Radio Telescope is significantly impacting the Arecibo researcher community, especially those who were trained to design or operate the multiple RF instruments, were developing new Arecibo techniques, or who had based their research exclusively around the Arecibo telescope.  In this “Lunch series,” we intend to begin a candid discussion about the impacts on the professional lives of Arecibo researchers and assess the larger impacts on the possible loss of knowledge as many scientists and engineers are beginning to re-orientate their careers.   
The panel includes active Arecibo users at the time of the collapse.   

This event is a further in the series of ASAP “lunchtime” talks/discussions exploring issues and proposals pertinent to Arecibo’s future.  Recordings of the earlier talks can be found on the areciboscience.org website.

Chat (edited):

01:21:14 Tracy Becker: Thanks to all the panelists for sharing their stories
01:21:17 Dana Ficut-Vicas: Why not rebuild?
01:26:18 Tapasi Ghosh: Given that ngVLA is very likely to happen, and might have radar built in, would anybody like to comment on the time gap between now and when ngvla will be available?
01:27:12 Sean Marshall: Wait, will ngVLA have radar? I thought NRAO considered radar but it is not part of their plan.
01:27:57 Gerrit Verschuur: If it is not beyond the heme of this meeting, what has been the effect on the staff of Puerto Ricans in telescope operation, electronics and so on?
01:28:08 Jonathan Krall (he/his): Rebuilding would be a significant DEI action on the part of the scientific community. Can any of you think of anything else that we are doing that compares to the effect of rebuilding Arecibo?
01:33:21 Dale Ferguson: It needs to be rebuilt so the science will have a place to live.  If your house were destroyed by a hurricane would you live in a hut until a new house was built?  No, you'd repair the damage so you'd have your preferred place to live. Science has to have a place to live, also.
01:36:22 Dale Ferguson: A whole new area of science - properties of arcs on satellites, was destroyed in the Arecibo collapse.  No smaller telescope can see satellite arcs at the distance of the moon.
01:36:38 Tapasi Ghosh: Question to ED:Is there any project now in your area of work involving PR high-school kids,  even remotely?
01:37:05 Abel Mendez: I was training undergraduate students on using the observatory, one is now in Harvard starting a PhD in astronomy. Other two are working on archived data.
01:38:43 Tracy Becker: The AO STAR Academy program continues https://www.naic.edu/stars/
01:39:50 Christopher Salter: I stress that the Legacy Telescope was NOT obsolete when it fell. It was still doing unique science. It needs to be rebuilt quickly, as cheaply as possible, and be as good or better than before. FAST does NOT fill the whole role of even the legacy telescope.
01:40:17 Kevin Douglas: Agree with Chris!  Unique science is sufficient motivation!
01:40:29 Ed Rivera-Valentín: ^^^ 100% agree Chris!
01:40:41 Nicole Lloyd-Ronning: https://nap.edu/resource/26141/interactive/
01:40:53 Julia Deneva: yes, and FAST has only one receiver. Arecibo had many more, different observing frequencies easily accessible
01:41:05 Natalia Lewandowska: Exactly!