[asapmembers] TODAY: Thurs., July 7th 12 pm ET: ASAP Lecture/Discussion "A Preliminary Plan to Quickly Restore Utility to the Arecibo 305m Telescope"

Thu Jul 7 12:49:16 UTC 2022

Dear Colleagues,
	Lecture/Discussion: Thurs., 7th July, 12 noon ET
	Title: A Preliminary Plan to Quickly Restore Utility to the Arecibo 305m Telescope
	Dr. Dale Ferguson — USAF Spaceforce
			(A fuller biography is given below)
	Host:  Dr. Eliana Nossa, George Mason University.
	Zoom Link: See below

Abstract:
	Since the collapse of the Arecibo 305m telescope platform on Dec. 1, 2020, 
there has been much discussion of building a new Arecibo telescope or rebuilding 
the facility that was destroyed. In the collapse, the tops of the three platform support 
towers were sheared off, and the feed arm fell free from the swinging platform and 
destroyed 25% of the dish. Fortunately, the Control Building, with the computers, 
spectrometers, masers, atomic clocks, 430 MHz Klystrons, etc., was spared. 
	By replacing the main dish support cables and resurfacing with coarse mesh, 
the main dish can be repaired as a reflector for < HF operation.  By replacing the 
damaged aluminum panels to make the dish whole again, RF operations at up to 
500 MHz can be resumed. In this presentation, we outline the steps that can be 
taken to restore HF (High Frequency, 3-30 MHz) ionospheric heating, 430 MHz 
ionospheric incoherent scattering radar, passive radio observations of satellite 
arcing and pulsars, and to extend the field of view to 47 degrees from the zenith. 
This would restore and improve much of the utility of the Arecibo dish. Part of this 
plan involves supporting, positioning and pointing novel point feeds from lightweight 
football-camera-like cables, strung from the rebuilt tower tops. It is believed that 
the dish may thus become broadly useful long before replacement facilities can be 
engineered and constructed.

This event is a further in the series of ASAP “lunchtime” talks/discussions exploring 
issues and proposals pertinent to Arecibo’s future.  Recordings of the earlier talks can 
be found on the areciboscience.org <http://areciboscience.org/> website.  

	Please reserve the date, and look for the zoom link just below.

		Best regards and wishes,
			ASAP Secretary

> ASAP Lunch Talk – Dale Ferguson
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Dale C. Ferguson received the Ph.D. degree from The University of Arizona, Tucson, in 1974. 
He is currently the Lead for Spacecraft Charging Science and Technology with the Space Vehicles 
Division, Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, NM. 
From 1978 TO 1981 Dale was a pulsar staff member at Arecibo. Since 1982, he has been 
addressing spacecraft charging problems.  In 2018-2019, he spent six months in the Arecibo 
Observatory developing and deploying an instrument to measure spacecraft charging known 
as the AFRL DAGGER Project.  The broadband 327 MHz "Point Feed" was located at the focal 
surface of the Arecibo dish.  

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