Arecibo is getting decommissioned

[CloudWatcher]

11. Trump vs. science and Puerto Rico

I was certainly prepared to flame Trump about this, but then this line caught my eye:

Based on the stresses on the second broken cable -- which should have been well within its ability to function without breaking -- engineers concluded that the remaining cables are likely weaker than originally projected.

So the bottom line is that they don't know how bad it is, can't properly model what they've got, and can't even find out without putting people's lives at risk. Just taking it apart (before it collapses on its own) will be a challenge.

If there was more time, perhaps robots could be used and better models could be developed, but it sounds like everyone is spooked because the engineering models don't match reality.

It would be nice if they could tear it down and replace it there, but I don't know how much sense that makes from a science perspective.