[asapmembers] ASAP Member Newsletter March 2017
secretary at areciboscience.org
secretary at areciboscience.org
Mon Mar 6 16:09:28 UTC 2017
6th March 2017
Dear ASAP Member,
We apologize for our silence. The Board has been busy over the last year tracking and responding
to the NSF communication regarding the future of the Arecibo Observatory. A major effort was the ASAP
reply to the "Dear Colleague Letter" outlining ASAP's suggestions about how the Observatory should be
managed. The Arecibo Observatory is unique as a multi-discipliary facility and the benefits of this were
well argued in the EOS article by Behnke and Robinson. The Board was recently "de-briefed" by the
NSF AST Program Manager for Arecibo, who found no specific faults with ASAP's management ideas.
Soon after the AGS Division of NSF released their "Portfolio Review" which was quite critical of the
Arecibo Atmospheric Science effort. ASAP Board experts found the review incorrect in some important
assertions, and a number of letters were submitted in an effort to correct these misconceptions. The AGS
Review was then assessed by a committee of the National Academy Sciences, and the resulting report
has now been published.
Meanwhile the NSF AST embarked on a complicated Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process
under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to assess possible actions related to Arecibo.
Possible future actions were assessed from continued operation under NSF funding to mothballing and
demolition. The EIS process does not consider science directly, but does assess a range of environmental,
economic and cultural effects of potential NSF actions. The ASAP Board arranged for participation at the
San Juan and Arecibo "scoping" meetings in June by Board members—thanks to ASAP member funding—
and the Board submitted written testimony relating to the process and the preferred NSF actions. The AST
EIS document is now in draft and its route to completion was discussed at a "Town Hall" session at the
January AAS meeting. At the same time, the NSF AST warned that a solicitation for management of AO
would be announced in the first quarter of 2017.
The January AAS meeting in Grapevine, Texas, featured an Arecibo Special Session showcasing
recent Arecibo Science, a press conference featuring recent Arecibo scientific results and a separate
Fast Radio Burst press conference wherein Arecibo had a major part in the science of this spectacular
repeating FRB.
But the AST is moving at near light speed regarding Arecibo rearrangements, and shortly after the
AAS meeting was over we learned that the above management solicitation was announced. Further,
the Green Bank Telescope is now operating as the Green Bank Observatory rather than under NRAO
management as stipulated by the NSF with an uncertain future as outlined in the "Fates of Two Big Radio
Telescopes" news article in Physics Today.
The solicitation offers a ramping down of NSF AST and AGS support to only $2M/year total by the
end of the 5-year management contract. NASA support for the AO radar program appears secure at
a roughly $3.5M/year level, but no larger commitment is being considered (as ASAP had advocated
in our DCL Reply). So, roughly $4.5M in additional new funding must be marshaled to meet the AO's
$10M minimum operating budget. ASAP's DCL Reply had suggested an "Arecibo International
Observatory" with a significant fraction of its funding from international sources. In any case, the AO
staff is reeling with this news, and the NAIC management is considering how to forge a workable
proposal for the Observatory's future.
SRI, in an email to the CEDAR community, announced they will not participate in the NSF
recompetition for the future operation of AO, and URSA appears to be positioning itself to become
a new lead proposer. We currently know of no other entity that is considering a management
proposal. Simultaneously, the AST leadership has changed dramatically. AST Division Director
Jim Ulvestad has become MPS Director, and Ralph Gaume, formerly the AO Program Manager,
is now Acting Astronomy Division Director. Joe Pesch is now the AO PM. Rumor has it that the
vacant AST Division Director position will be hard to fill in the current Washington environment.
Two new members have been elected to the ASAP, Profs. Brett Isham of Interamerican University
and Jean-Luc Margot of UCLA. Brett is ASAP's first and much needed Board member resident in
Puerto Rico and Jean-Luc brings needed depth in planetary astronomy to the Board. The Board
has also formed two committees, a Government Outreach Committee and a Membership Committee.
Our struggle to secure Arecibo's future—and that of single-dish radio astronomy in the US—will
be a tough one, and we need the active assistance of all ASAP members. We know that AO's science
is unique and essential, but it is now clear that science will not prevail alone, and political advocacy
is needed. Therefore, we request that each of you
--Contact your senators and representative,
--Determine which staffers have the NSF and NASA "beats" and whether they serve on committees
that deal with science funding,
--Do your best to inform them about the importance of Arecibo science from your own perspective
(see the attached advocacy Ten Reasons piece), and
--Then sent us an email with the information that you have managed to obtain!
Thanks very very much in advance!
As always we welcome your thoughts and suggestions. And there is no better time than the present
to talk to a colleague or an appropriate student about joining ASAP! Membership numbers really count!
With sincere thanks and regards,
The ASAP Board
Frank Djuth <djuth at ix.netcom.com>,
Tim Hankins <thankins at aoc.nrao.edu>,
Carl Heiles <heiles at astro.berkeley.edu>,
Brett Isham <brettisham3 at gmail.com>,
Amy Lovell <alovell at agnesscott.edu>,
Jean-Luc Margot <jlm at astro.ucla.edu>,
Mathews John <jdm9 at psu.edu>,
David Nice <niced at lafayette.edu>,
Joshua Peek <goldston at gmail.com>,
Joanna Rankin <Joanna.Rankin at uvm.edu>,
Scott Ransom <sransom at nrao.edu>,
Julio Urbina <Jurbina at engr.psu.edu>,
Dan Werthimer <danw at ssl.berkeley.edu>,
Qihou Zhou <zhouq at miamioh.edu>,
Joel Weisberg <jweisber at carleton.edu>
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