[asapmembers] Arecibo Science Advocacy Partnership, MEMBER ALERT #2

[secretary at areciboscience.org]

Dear ASAP Members,

If you feel as strongly as your Board that the Arecibo Observatory deserves to be resurrected, please read the powerful ASAP Board Statement below.  It details exactly why it is so important to move forward, making the best use of the existing site and staff (see also the ASAP Facilities Statement attached for more detail):
 
“The United States has the opportunity to create a new, cutting-edge, multi-disciplinary observatory in Puerto Rico, which will complement and surpass all other current and planned facilities. A new Arecibo radar and radio telescope will build on the millions of dollars of investment in instrumentation, techniques, facilities, and personnel that have been made at Arecibo over the past sixty years.” 

Since you value the future of the Observatory, please:

·      Post points from the paper on social media, particularly in response to the limited accounts that have appeared thus far. 

·      Spread the paper directly to your colleagues, and ask them to pass it on.  Some people seem to be giving up much too quickly on this issue.  We can’t drop the ball now. 

·      Get in touch with any press contacts you have, including and especially local and university outlets, and explain how the decision not to fund a new cutting edge telescope at Arecibo affects you, your students and your future research. An ASAP media release will be emailed to you shortly.  

·      Write your Congressional representatives and Senators.  Every agency in government has been forced to reconsider bad decisions because enough people in Congress cared and held oversight hearings.  Both the House and Senate affirmed AO in the CHIPS Act, which “encouraged” NSF to strengthen and expand the Observatory’s role, not cut it past the bone, and gut its scientific mission.  Congress intended “education, outreach and diversity programs” but also emphasized “future research capabilities and technology at the site.”  A sample letter is given below, and you can find your Representative and Senators here <https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member>. 

		Best Regards and Many Thanks,

				The ASAP Board







Sample Letter to Congress
> Dear -------
> 
> I’m writing to encourage you to support efforts to resurrect the world’s leading radio/radar telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.  Since the collapse of the original instrument in December 2020, the U.S. has relinquished leadership in Arecibo’s research fields.  they are key to planetary and national security, our understanding of climate change and our ability to study and understand the universe.
> 
> As a ------your job ------, I’ve received significant funding and opportunities for myself and students to pursue --------.  Other scientists in your district/state have been similarly fortunate.  
> 
> Unfortunately, since Arecibo’s collapse, the only choice for some of our projects now is to use a Chinese instruments which only receives radio signals.  It has no transmission capacity, which among other things means that it cannot map asteroids and their orbits in detail.  In fact, there is no instrument on the planet now which can compare to the former telescope’s detailed capabilities.
> 
> Attached please find the Position Paper on the Future of the Arecibo Observatory.  It was prepared by an association of which I’m a member, the Arecibo Science Advocacy Partnership.  It includes more than 300 scientists and others who advocate for the Observatory and the legendary science that has been done there, and, we trust, will be again.
> 
> Thank you for your assistance in raising this issue, particularly with the appropriate Committees so that hearings can be scheduled.
> 








					
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