Collapsed Radio Telescope Represents Million-Dollar Losses
Multiplier effect for tourism and international scientific community
Giovanna Garofalo, The Weekly Journal Dec 9, 2020 Updated Dec 9, 2020
Last week, Puerto Rico and the worldwide scientific community was devastated when the massive radio telescope at the Arecibo Observatory collapsed, mere months after an auxiliary cable broke in August, followed by more infrastructural failures. A decades-long testament to mankind’s pursuit of discovery, its loss represents a blow to neighboring communities that relied on its attraction for the area’s tourism economy, as well as the island’s scientific heritage.
Conservative estimates by community leaders consulted by THE WEEKLY JOURNAL asserted that the loss of the radio telescope could have an economic impact of $50 million for the local economy, including more than 50 job losses and a hit on restaurants, lodging establishments and other businesses in the Arecibo area.
Kemuel Alicea Monrouzeau, a former Tourism guide at the Arecibo Observatory, affirmed that the collapse of the radio telescope could have detrimental effects to Arecibo’s tourism economy, given that it is the main attraction in the area.
“Losing the [radio telescope] will cause public interest toward the municipality of Arecibo to drop because the observatory has received between 1,000 to 12,000 visitors daily, including school trips, due to the scientific education it offered to children in topics like astronomy,” he said.
Sol Mayra Santiago, owner of Tu Escondite, an inn mere minutes away from the observatory, said that 40 percent of the establishment’s clientele were tourists drawn by the radio telescope.
“We had just opened the inn completely last November, and [last week] we received this news, which makes us rethink the future of our business,” she lamented.
Municipal data pointed to future losses in contributions for patents and sales, ticket sales for the more than 90,000 people who visited annually, and the economic impact generated by the roughly 200 scientists who conducted their research with the radio telescope. In addition, the collapse has a multiplier effect estimated between $10 million and $12 million from the annual budget for the radio telescope’s operation.
In terms of scientific heritage, the Arecibo radio telescope has played a key role in many discoveries. Of these, Alicea highlighted the discovery of the first binary pulsar in 1974, an exoplanet in 1992 and Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), such as asteroids.
“This means that the loss of the observatory in Puerto Rico causes a great loss in the island’s education and the science, business and even communications sectors because it is integral to everything,” he said.
Calls for Rebuilding
The observatory and the former radio telescope are properties of the National Science Foundation (NSF), whose spokespersons said it was impossible to save the structure from collapsing.
Following the collapse, Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González requested a public hearing by the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology to discuss how to move forward, highlighting the observatory’s contributions to STEM education.
“The Arecibo Observatory was the first one that identified an exoplanet, the first one that helped us see images outside of our solar system. It has done so many great things throughout history, so to not rebuild I think would be a loss to science and a loss to the island,” said Dr. José Morey, a consultant for NASA, Forbes, MIT and the White House Office of Science and Technology.
According to Morey, rebuilding the radio telescope would take about five years, at least. However, with more advanced materials and technology, he affirmed that a new radio telescope could outlast its predecessor, the latter of which was built in 1963, lasting 57 years. “We can build it and make it last 100 years,” he stated.
“We owe it to the scientific community, we owe it to Puerto Rico, and we owe it to the memory of the observatory and all it did for us, to rebuild it bigger and better. I think we can do it. I think Congress and NASA and the NSF should focus on rebuilding it and I think we should focus on creating a coalition to gather the funds to build it anew,” Morey said.
Estimates put the cost of rebuilding the radio telescope at $350 million.
- Reporter Ileanexis Vera Rosado contributed to this story.
Giovanna Garofalo, The Weekly Journal
Reporter for The Weekly Journal. She is a journalist with experience in social media management, translations, and digital marketing.