RIP Arecibo, many Goldeneye 007 grudge matches were settled on you

GiGaBiTe

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The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico suffered support cable breakages, severely damaging the dish below and putting the supported cradle above the dish in a perilous state. If one more cable snaps, the whole structure is at imminent risk of collapsing. The decision was made by several engineering firms and the National Science Foundation that it would be too costly and too dangerous to repair the dish, so it has been scheduled to be decommissioned and demolished, putting an end to its 57 year history.

2564574-0fdd-4b6b-9399-173e0f2ad1a2-AFP_AFP_8VH9UB.jpg

https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/19...-decommission-structural-collapse-cable-break
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...close-national-science-foundation/6344609002/

For those too young to understand the title, it was used as a set in the 1995 Bond movie, GoldenEye; Which was later adapted into a hit video game for the Nintendo 64 in 1997, Goldeneye 007. In the game, the Arecibo Observatory was modeled into the map "Antenna Cradle".
 
Yep, been following this story. Sad to see it go. We still can walk on it in the video games though!

They should put a dummy of Alec Travelyan at the bottom and blow it up, that would be fitting.

 
Definitely a great thing it was pictured in films and games to see and be on it without actually being there.

A 15,000 pound steel cable with that much tension on it snapping will turn a human into a fine mist of red juice if hit by it. Normal crane steel cables have been known to slice people in half. Steel cables under tension are terrifying. The sound they make just before snapping is enough to make you shart yourself.
 
Definitely a great thing it was pictured in films and games to see and be on it without actually being there.

A 15,000 pound steel cable with that much tension on it snapping will turn a human into a fine mist of red juice if hit by it. Normal crane steel cables have been known to slice people in half. Steel cables under tension are terrifying. The sound they make just before snapping is enough to make you shart yourself.
Heck yeah, you don't want to be anywhere near that. I've heard that twang before from guide wires, and quickly scurried the other direction.
 
Were they not periodically inspecting the cables and planning to replace them? Guess they hadn't expected to do any repairs and just obsolite it when it was no longer safe/useful?

Sad...

Apparently many or all of the cables are decades old or have never been replaced, according to the sources I read. It makes sense they'd start snapping sooner or later because of the humidity, salt, high winds, hurricanes and earthquakes.

The past few decades have been turbulent for Arecibo due to lack of funding from the NSF. I think to repair the broken cables was quoted in the $15 million dollar range, and that leaves all of the other existing cables which are decades old and could snap at any time.
 
Understandable, but still sad. That place is monumental in scale, and provided lots of data over the years. It may be a bit behind in sone aspects, but it was still an excellent tool.
 
Definitely a great thing it was pictured in films and games to see and be on it without actually being there.

A 15,000 pound steel cable with that much tension on it snapping will turn a human into a fine mist of red juice if hit by it. Normal crane steel cables have been known to slice people in half. Steel cables under tension are terrifying. The sound they make just before snapping is enough to make you shart yourself.
Die Hard 3 has such a scene ;)


Now I want to load up Goldeneye Source.... >_>
 
Sad, but let's be honest.....it's 60 year old technology. Surface Area with parabolics matters a lot but I think the way you go in modern times are like we see today, arrays of smaller, pointable dishes. For those who want to check it out, its also featured early in the film Contact. Get your Carl Sagan on.....
When the cable snapped they were showing pictures of how the place was in such disrepair........
 
As an astrophysicist who has had the privilege of using some of the great observatories and with friends who have made their mark with observations taken with Arecbio, this one really hurts.

Sad, but let's be honest.....it's 60 year old technology. Surface Area with parabolics matters a lot but I think the way you go in modern times are like we see today, arrays of smaller, pointable dishes. For those who want to check it out, its also featured early in the film Contact. Get your Carl Sagan on.....
When the cable snapped they were showing pictures of how the place was in such disrepair........
Unfortunately it's not quite that simple. You can get similar resolution with facilities like the VLA or ALMA, but there's no substitute when it comes to sheer aperture.
 
Couldn't they send a robot in to do the work remotely controlled?

Never knew it was supported by cables, I thought it was built into a mountian.
 
As an astrophysicist who has had the privilege of using some of the great observatories and with friends who have made their mark with observations taken with Arecbio, this one really hurts.


Unfortunately it's not quite that simple. You can get similar resolution with facilities like the VLA or ALMA, but there's no substitute when it comes to sheer aperture.
I stand corrected. Thank You.
 
Man, I regret not going there. I drove right by it for my wedding in 2016. I told my wife we needed to go see it, but we just didn't have the time with all the marriage stuff going on. Oh well, back to Goldeneye. :/
 
As an astrophysicist who has had the privilege of using some of the great observatories and with friends who have made their mark with observations taken with Arecbio, this one really hurts.


Unfortunately it's not quite that simple. You can get similar resolution with facilities like the VLA or ALMA, but there's no substitute when it comes to sheer aperture.
I dunno, interferometry is so much more cost effective for must better resolution than a single large dish telescope. Will you have the raw ability to gather light? No, but does it make that much of an issue in the radio spectrum? Honestly it's time to move on.
 
Puerto Rico has been known to not take care of things, the people there are still recovering from Michael two years ago.
I'm going to stop you right there. I'm from Puerto Rico, born and raised. The Arecibo observatory was funded by the National Science Foundation with partial support from NASA, it was managed by Cornelle from its completion in 1963 until 2011, after which it was transferred to a partnership led by SRI International and as of 2018, a consortium led by the University of Central Florida. These are all American institutions, not Puerto Rican. So the Arecibo observatory was left to rot by Americans; and as hard as it is to imagine, Americans leave things to rot a lot.
 
I'm going to stop you right there. I'm from Puerto Rico, born and raised. The Arecibo observatory was funded by the National Science Foundation with partial support from NASA, it was managed by Cornelle from its completion in 1963 until 2011, after which it was transferred to a partnership led by SRI International and as of 2018, a consortium led by the University of Central Florida. These are all American institutions, not Puerto Rican. So the Arecibo observatory was left to rot by Americans; and as hard as it is to imagine, Americans leave things to rot a lot.
Interesting. That doesn't surprise me either.
 
I dunno, interferometry is so much more cost effective for must better resolution than a single large dish telescope. Will you have the raw ability to gather light? No, but does it make that much of an issue in the radio spectrum? Honestly it's time to move on.
Depends on the observation, really. Without the light gathering ability, the integration time needed for some observations becomes prohibitively large, especially if you don't have the budget for the observing time.
 
Oh no, I wanted to see this next time we went. We’ve been to PR three times. That poor island. Between the hurricane, earthquakes, and now Covid I am concerned with even returning. - the economy and thus crime are probably out of control
 
Oh no, I wanted to see this next time we went. We’ve been to PR three times. That poor island. Between the hurricane, earthquakes, and now Covid I am concerned with even returning. - the economy and thus crime are probably out of control

Crime, drugs and political corruption has been rampant since PR became a US territory in 1898. Anyone with the means to leave the island usually does so to escape the gangs, drugs and violence.

The "touristy" areas are usually safe since the government doesn't want foreigners to be afraid to visit and spend money, but if you go outside of those areas, your life is in your hands; Much like Mexico and several Central and South American countries.
 
Crime, drugs and political corruption has been rampant since PR became a US territory in 1898. Anyone with the means to leave the island usually does so to escape the gangs, drugs and violence.

The "touristy" areas are usually safe since the government doesn't want foreigners to be afraid to visit and spend money, but if you go outside of those areas, your life is in your hands; Much like Mexico and several Central and South American countries.
Please stop, you have no fucking idea what you are talking about. Puerto Ricans care about tourists as it is one of our main forms of commerce. And for the most part we tend to not mess with tourists because we see it as detrimental to our way of life. I left Puerto Rico and it wasn't because of the gangs, drugs or violence; I left because of the politicians and their corruption; and I imagine a lot of others left for the same reason in the last two to three decades. Also, Puerto Rico is nothing like mexico and other Central and South American countries. You are 100% ignorant on this regard and I'm asking you to stop posting straight bullshit.
 
Please stop, you have no fucking idea what you are talking about. Puerto Ricans care about tourists as it is one of our main forms of commerce. And for the most part we tend to not mess with tourists because we see it as detrimental to our way of life. I left Puerto Rico and it wasn't because of the gangs, drugs or violence; I left because of the politicians and their corruption; and I imagine a lot of others left for the same reason in the last two to three decades. Also, Puerto Rico is nothing like mexico and other Central and South American countries. You are 100% ignorant on this regard and I'm asking you to stop posting straight bullshit.
I think its a beautiful country / territory. Isn't that always the case though? Same shit here in America, Politicians corrupt and ruin everything! Absolute power corrupts, absolutely.
Only stupid people could take a pristine piece of land like Puerto Rico & North America...and turn it into a shopping mall. :punch:

I'm kind of shocked that SpaceX didn't purchase it and use it as some sort of command center. We could have had the real Golden Eye base!
 
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Please stop, you have no fucking idea what you are talking about. Puerto Ricans care about tourists as it is one of our main forms of commerce. And for the most part we tend to not mess with tourists because we see it as detrimental to our way of life. I left Puerto Rico and it wasn't because of the gangs, drugs or violence; I left because of the politicians and their corruption; and I imagine a lot of others left for the same reason in the last two to three decades. Also, Puerto Rico is nothing like mexico and other Central and South American countries. You are 100% ignorant on this regard and I'm asking you to stop posting straight bullshit.

You'll need to take up your irrational anger with official sources for such statistics, because I'm going on information from them.
 
Were they not periodically inspecting the cables and planning to replace them? Guess they hadn't expected to do any repairs and just obsolite it when it was no longer safe/useful?

Sad...
Why keep it? Its not capturing images of Black holes, or gravity waves, or even Russian spy frequencies so.... blow it up.
 
Aperture is king...and this will be hard to replace. Sadly I suspect it will end up costing more to tear it down than to have repaired it...
 
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