Arecibo radio telescope’s massive instrument platform has collapsed

[ATCclears]

Arecibo radio telescope’s massive instrument platform has collapsed

Entire support system fails, all cables and instruments crash into the dish.

arstechnica.com

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[The Heretic]

 

[albin25]

I'm guessing there have been no regular inspections/cable replacements over the years.
Y'know before those cables became too scary to inspect/replace.
Typical... defer maintenance long enough and eventually it makes repair impossible.

Now they're probably going to be asking for a new one.

 

[Flopsweat]

...the risks of another cable snapping in the vicinity of any human inspectors made even evaluating the strength of the remaining cables unacceptably risky.

 

[made in china]

I'm guessing there have been no regular inspections/cable replacements over the years.
Y'know before those cables became too scary to inspect/replace.
Typical... defer maintenance long enough and eventually it makes repair impossible.

Now they're probably going to be asking for a new one.

I read a fairly detailed story of the downfall of Arecibo.
Supposedly, regular cable inspections ceased shortly after the completion of it's upgrades in the mid-90's.
Really a shame.
The story also said that basically no one has stepped up in recent decades to commit long term funding.

 

[Pahonix]

I hope they rebuild it.

Better and bigger. We need more science!

 

[sobo]

I hope they rebuild it.

The NSF has already said they won't, and there's another telescope somewhere else that will take over what Arecibo was doing.
That bit of news was in another article from a coupla weeks ago when the NSF announced that they were deactivating the telescope cuz of the danger of collapse.
I forget what other scope will shoulder the load that Arecibo was carrying, but all of the articles I've read indicate that it wasn't much of a load nowadays cuz of the reduced maintenance in the first place.

 

[Ramjet12]

 

[Flopsweat]

View attachment 785745

Yeah that'll buff out.

 

[clearconscience]

We really need more monitoring of asteroids and comets.
I could care less about global warming, but a large space rock terrifies me

 

[arakboss]

Finally the Pterodactyls will get a birdbath.

 

[Flopsweat]

Finally the Pterodactyls will get a birdbath.

The MFP on loop (very nsfw) https://hooktube.com/watch?v=8FZmBDvk5Xc

 

[arakboss]

The MFP on loop (very nsfw) https://hooktube.com/watch?v=8FZmBDvk5Xc

That's one bad MFP!

 

[ATCclears]

 

[Bon Sauvage]

For want of a nail....

 

[Flopsweat]

Analysis of the collapse:

https://www.hooktube.com/watch?v=59WQIRvezzI