Hawaii vs. Chile

Yours truly keeps track of TMT developments but somehow missed the information below. TMT, of which UC is a partner, is competing with a Chilean telescope project for NSF funding and it appears that only one project will be funded. The Chilean telescope construction is already underway, while TMT is stalled by state politics in Hawaii over concerns by native Hawaiians, as blog readers will know. From Science Policy News:

The National Science Foundation’s governing board has set a $1.6 billion ceiling on the agency’s potential contribution of construction funding for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and/or the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). The decision, announced  on Feb. 27, implies that NSF is unlikely to fund construction of both telescopes. In particular, the board has asked NSF to report back by May on “its plan to select which of the two candidate telescopes the agency plans to continue to support.”

Asked for clarification on this statement, a board spokesperson replied, “Based on what the board knows now, it anticipates that a down-selection will be necessary.” The spokesperson also said the board looks forward to getting an update in May on the status of “partner contributions” to the projects. NSF has funded  design and technology development work for each telescope but has not requested construction funds for either. Each telescope is far from covering their total costs through partner contributions, leading them to seek support from NSF.

The GMT’s partner institutions have committed more than $850 million in cash and in-kind contributions to date toward a total project cost of $2.54 billion, according to a spokesperson for the project. The TMT’s partners have contributed cash and in-kind contributions totalling $2.0 billion, according to a spokesperson for the TMT. The spokesperson did not offer an estimate of the total cost of the TMT, stating the amount is “dependent upon a number of factors, in particular the schedule.” Construction of the GMT has already begun in Chile, but TMT construction on Mauna Kea in Hawaii has been paused since 2019 due to reservations from local community members who view the mountain as sacred. The TMT has considered using a site in the Canary Islands as an alternative.

The NSF board’s action does not guarantee that the agency will seek construction funds for even one of the telescopes, and the ultimate contribution may be well less than $1.6 billion even if it proceeds. The agency is weighing proposals for other major scientific infrastructure projects both across other disciplines and within astronomy itself, which has struggled in recent years to cover the operations costs of new telescopes. The ultimate arbiter of what will be funded is Congress, which controls NSF’s construction budget on a project-by-project basis...

Full story at https://ww2.aip.org/fyi/nsf-likely-to-drop-one-of-two-giant-telescopes-from-consideration-for-construction-funds.