On 21-Nov-20 11:14 am, David Spain wrote:
Alain Fournier writes:

It is sad that the Arecibo telescope will soon be demolished. I understand
that it is the right thing to do given the dangerous state in which it
is. Still, it is sad to lose such an instrument.


Alain Fournier

Radio astronomers make for bad civil engineers appearently. It was just
a few short months ago that we were reading that new cables would be installed
in an attempt to repair the telescope. Now with an additional cable
break it has become too unstable to safely repair. But this is
deterioration over time. You can't tell me it was impossible to to spot
these issues well enough in advance to have not waited until it was too
late. So much for science in the public interest. Has it become the case
that this telescope has actually outlived its usefulness and no one was
willing to point out the emperor has no clothes? From what I can see, it
was already a wasting asset and must have been for years.

Dave


What makes you think the radio astronomers were involved in the civil
engineering assessments?

Sylvia.