Any thoughts on the TMT?
Last edited Fri Apr 17, 2015, 03:04 PM - Edit history (1)
After seven years of due process, the initial construction phase of the TMT (thirty meter telescope) is being delayed by protests. Activists are blocking the access road, claiming to be "protectors" of the mountain, Mauna Kea. There are already thirteen telescopes there. Most of the protests center around the "sacred" nature of the area. Native Hawaiians are on both sides of this issue, with some stressing the science of discovery that allowed Hawaiians to be here in the first place, and others claiming that cultural and spiritual practices are more important.
http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/local-news/hundreds-turn-out-oppose-tmt
= new reply since forum marked as read
And the opposition to this project is bollocks.
The TMT is to be built on the existing observatory grounds which were set aside for this very use decades ago.
Note the altitude there, 4,205 meters (about 13,800 feet). Of course, workers there have to be acclimated to the 40% of sea level atmospheric pressure there. And of course, oxygen is available on site for those who get faint. It is an environment useful for little else but world class astronomy which is why the observatory is located there in the first place. And note that no other site in the northern hemisphere comes close to the Mauna Kea summit for visual astronomy. None!
To build the TMT anywhere else would be negligent. Mauna Kea is where this telescope belongs.
Regards
