[meteorite-list] Campbell, Planetary Society urge Congress to save Arecibo

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Nov07/arecibo.congress.html

Chronicle Online e-News

Campbell, Planetary Society urge Congress to save Arecibo
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Nov07/arecibo.congress.html

Nov. 9, 2007

By Lauren Gold
LG34 at cornell.edu

As part of a continuing effort to save the 
Arecibo Observatory from fatal budget cuts, 
Cornell astronomy professor Donald Campbell 
testified before Congress, Nov. 8 on the 
importance of the telescope's radar system for 
the identification and tracking of potentially 
hazardous near-Earth objects (NEOs).

On the same day, the Planetary Society, a space 
advocacy organization co-founded by the late 
Cornell astronomer Carl Sagan, issued a statement 
to Congress in support of the planetary radar 
system at Arecibo and its research. "If some 
object out there really is on a collision course 
with Earth, and we don't have the means to track 
it properly," the statement said, "the price we 
would pay would be astronomical."

The observatory's future has been in jeopardy 
since November 2006, when an advisory panel to 
the Division of Astronomical Sciences at the 
National Science Foundation (NSF) recommended 
that its operating funds be reduced to $8 million 
from $10.5 million over three years and then 
halved to $4 million in 2011. If the observatory 
failed to raise funds from external sources to 
make up the difference, it would be forced to 
close.

In October, U.S. Rep. Luis Fortuño (R-Puerto 
Rico) and Dana Rohrabacher (R- Calif.) introduced 
legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives 
to ensure continued operation of Arecibo.

Campbell was among five scientists to address the 
Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics of the 
House Committee on Science and Technology. He 
discussed the role of Arecibo's radar system, 
which is one of only two high-powered radars in 
the world used for studying solar system bodies, 
on characterizing NEOs and their potential threat 
to Earth.

Arecibo's radar is over 20 times more sensitive 
than its counterpart, NASA's Deep Space Network 
70-meter antenna at Goldstone, Calif., Campbell 
noted. But because it is less maneuverable, both 
systems are vital and complementary.

"The more we know about NEOs in general and about 
specific ones that pose a threat to Earth, the 
easier it will be to design effective mitigation 
strategies," said Campbell. "NEOs form a very 
diverse population encompassing a large range of 
sizes, shapes, rotation states, densities, 
internal structure and binary nature."

Radar provides the best way to survey and 
categorize such objects, he said. "For an object 
that we know poses a direct threat to Earth, 
radar can provide vital input to mitigation 
planning, including planning for any precursor 
space mission."

Campbell also noted Arecibo's unique role in 
supporting research in radio astronomy, radar 
planetary studies (including the study of NEOs) 
and ionosphere physics, as well as in education 
and outreach activities.

"If the Arecibo radar system is decommissioned 
... a tremendous amount of basic science related 
to NEOs and other solar system bodies would be 
lost," he said.

In its concurrent statement, the Planetary 
Society called the Senior Review recommendation 
"a misguided attempt to free up funding for new 
projects that do not yet exist."

Arecibo is part of the National Astronomy and 
Ionosphere Center, a national research center 
operated by Cornell under a cooperative agreement 
with the NSF.

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