24 May 2010

Big Island Weekly

Letters to the Editor

Observatories Benefit Hawaii’s Economy

The telescopes on Mauna Kea have contributed a wealth of knowledge and are among the most productive on Earth. They also enrich human understanding by providing invaluable access to the furthest reaches of the Universe. But for all their wealth, value, and enrichment, they don’t generate any revenue and are not a lost opportunity to augment the state budget, as was suggested in the May 19 article “Cash Cow.”

The observatories perform fundamental research. They are not an industry and none earns revenue by charging fees for observing time.  In fact, most of the observatories are prohibited from doing so either by their terms of incorporation or by their funding.

The only funds received for “observation viewing nights” are used to pay the high fixed operational costs of the observatories.

However, it is also wrong to assume that Hawaii receives no benefits from the observatories. They bring real dollars to the state and also contribute considerably to the quality of life, particularly on the Big Island. And, as correctly noted, students and researchers at the University of Hawaii receive viewing nights on the telescopes. The confusion is generated when you try to equate viewing time with real dollars. Time on a telescope is a valuable commodity to the scientific community, and scientists spend many hours developing compelling arguments why their research deserves a portion of this limited resource. However, access to astronomical facilities, even the best on Earth, is not purchased or sold for profit.

While the observatories do not make any money, they do enjoy one of the world’s best sites for astronomy.  Because of this, the question of what is a fair contribution for the use of these lands for astronomical research is a valid one.

As I have previously testified at numerous public meetings, the planned Thirty Meter Telescope recognizes this and has already made significant financial commitments to support programs to malama Mauna Kea, provide workforce pipeline resources, and also intend to contribute $1 million a year as part of a community benefits package that will be locally managed and spent on the Big Island. These contributions do not come from any imaginary revenue. They are an integral part of the high costs of operating an observatory and an essential part of that budget.

Mahalo and Best Regards,

Jacqui L. Hoover, Executive Director

Hawaii Island Economic Development Board, Inc.

THINK Fund: Multi-Million Dollar Community Benefit Package Focus on Education

Hilo, HI—The Hawaii Island Economic Development Board (HIEDB) has formed an organizing body to help establish the framework and governance for The Hawaii Island New Knowledge (THINK) Fund that will guide the Thirty Meter Telescope’s (TMT) community benefit package should they decide to pick Mauna Kea as their telescope site.

“TMT stated their intention early on to start a new paradigm. We took them at their word and we’ve been cultivating the proposed THINK Fund to foster excellence in learning and to raise the island’s intellectual capital. Should TMT choose Mauna Kea to site their telescope, we estimate the THINK Fund would receive approximately $1 million per year for the life of the lease for educational initiatives on Hawaii Island. The THINK Fund will be overseen here on Hawaii Island with decisions made by Hawaii Island residents,” stated community advocate and tomato farmer Richard Ha. “We believe our kuleana for the children of this island is to reach for the stars.”

Members of HIEDB’s organizing body include Richard Ha, Bob Saunders, Roberta Chu, Duane Kanuha, Riley Smith, John DeFries, Jacqui Hoover and Skylark Rossetti. HIEDB’s organizing body is developing THINK’s structure, governance and mission.

THINK Mission

The THINK Fund mission is to foster excellence in learning for all students of Hawaii Island through public and private fundraising and the establishment of a permanent endowment through the Hawaii Community Foundation. THINK will serve as the nucleus for attracting, gathering together, and then redistributing private and public sector resources in support of educational initiatives. THINK endeavors to advance academic, physical, emotional and social progress for students. THINK is committed to self-directed, lifelong Hawaii Island learners who think critically and creatively, and function as caring, responsible, productive members of society.

THINK Vision

The THINK vision is to raise the intellectual capital of Hawaii Island by enriching the education of students, particularly in core areas of math and science. By raising public and private support, THINK can fund requests from teachers, students and community organizations for the sole purpose of enhancing and strengthening the learning experience within the community.

THINK Purpose

THINK will support teachers, students and community organizations of Hawaii Island in preparing the next generation of community leaders.

Guiding Principles

Seventy-five percent of THINK will be directed to yearly programming with the remaining twenty-five percent adding to endowment. THINK’s funding initiatives will focus on K-12 and college through:

• Scholarships and mini-grants (teachers and students)

• Educational programs (teachers and students)

• College awards (students)

• Educational programs specific to Hawaiian culture

• Educational programs specific to astronomy

• Educational programs specific to math and science

• Community outreac

Consideration is underway on the methodology of segmenting funds by program category. Funds will be directed to residents of Hawaii Island only.

The HIEDB organizing body will select the founding Board of Advisors for THINK. The seven-member board will be comprised of one representative each from Hilo, Keaukaha/Panaewa/Puna, Kau, Kona, Kohala, Waimea and an at-large HIEDB seat.

Next steps include collaboration with the Hawaii Community Foundation to develop the Board of Advisors Core Competencies, Fund Responsibilities Document, policies to define each distribution area and its parameters along with the application process.

The Thirty Meter Telescope is in its Draft Environmental Impact Statement process with a decision on site selection due this summer.

About HIEDB

Hawaii Island Economic Development Board was founded 25 years ago as a private non-profit corporation for the purpose of furthering balanced economic development and job creation on the Island of Hawaii in partnership with Federal, State, County and private resources.

About TMT

The Thirty Meter Telescope will give astronomers the clearest and deepest picture of the Universe ever. TMT will be the most capable and sophisticated telescope ever constructed. The core technology of TMT will be its 492-segment, 30-meter diameter primary mirror giving TMT nine times the collecting area of today’s largest optical telescopes. First light is planned for 2018.

January/February 2010

The Wave Hawaii, A publication of the Hawaii Science & Technology Council

Jacqui Hoover and Larry Lieberman

Towering past the clouds in the tropical night sky, more than two miles above sea level, the peak of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawai‘i is home to some of the world's most advanced telescopes and observatories. It is from this vantage point, at the top of the most massive mountain on the planet, surrounded by the darkness of the Pacific Ocean stretching for thousands of miles in every direction, that the world’s leading astronomers study our solar system, our galaxy, and the Universe beyond.  It is also at this very special location that one of mankind’s most ambitious and spectacular efforts in scientific achievement is underway:  The construction and operation of the Thirty Meter Telescope, or TMT.    

Most experts agree that there is no better place on the planet from which to study the heavens than the top of Mauna Kea.  The site is unique among astronomy locations around the globe. Mauna Kea offers one of the best viewing points on earth, relative ease of access, availability of nearby support resources, a politically stable host nation, and a local community with an economic infrastructure able to incorporate the wide variety of activities involved in undertaking such a massive science project.  

When completed, TMT will be the largest and most powerful telescope ever constructed.  The project represents a crowning achievement in humanity’s long search for answers about our universe, living up to the most far-reaching star-gazing dreams of astronomy pioneers like Copernicus, Galileo, and the early Polynesian trans-Pacific navigators who were among the most advanced astronomical observers of their time.

The project is also a crowning achievement for Hawai‘i, not just for the enormous worldwide scientific importance it will bring to this state in years to come, but also for the tremendous positive impact it will have on the state’s economy.  By the time it is completed, the TMT project will create hundreds of direct and indirect construction, operation, and support jobs that will inject millions of dollars into the local economy, while simultaneously positioning Hawai‘i as the astronomy center of the world.  To bring a project of this scope to fruition requires the coordination of a large group of partners and participants, from every corner of the globe. 

FIRST LIGHT IN 2018

An international team of scientists, engineers, and technicians is now working diligently to bring the much-anticipated TMT project to “first light,” or initial operation of the telescope’s full 30-meter primary mirror, in 2018. In addition to the primary mirror, there are many advanced sensors and other highly specialized instruments that will be incorporated into TMT operation over time, allowing unprecedented levels of data acquisition and analysis.  This is a monumental task involving the combined skills of talented people from many countries, each providing innovative state-of-the-art techniques for analyzing the origins and composition of celestial bodies.  

Once completed, TMT will enable scientists to study the Universe with unprecedented clarity, helping answer many of the most complex and compelling questions in astronomy and physics, such as the nature of the early Universe, the formation of distant galaxies, the components of the Milky Way and other nearby galaxies, the formation of stars and planets, the presence of “exoplanets,” or other planetary systems outside our own, and detailed exploration of the solar system we call home. TMT will also conduct pioneering research into the nature of Dark Energy and Dark Matter, which underlie the fabric of space and may hold clues to the deepest mysteries of science.     

One concept that gives TMT so much promise is that it will integrate the most successful technologies from other modern-day telescopes, while also harnessing new, frontier instrumentation and design. This approach allows TMT to “stand on the shoulders of giants,” leveraging the tools and best practices of the world’s most successful astronomy projects.  TMT’s location atop Mauna Kea will also allow collaboration with other observatories nearby, resulting in levels of international cooperation never before possible. 

One of these leveraged technologies, a key component of TMT that has been previously proven by the successful Keck Telescopes, is called a “segmented primary mirror.” This innovation enables engineers to create a giant primary mirror by shaping individual smaller segments and holding them in place with very high precision. Comprised of 492 individual segments, this core technology of TMT will yield a primary mirror that measures 30 meters in diameter, dwarfing all existing telescope mirrors. This massive yet exquisitely precise mirror will enable TMT to achieve the best resolution and light-gathering power of any observatory to date. In fact, TMT will have nine times the collecting area of today's largest optical telescopes and produce images that are three times sharper. 

Though the primary mirror will be much larger than the mirrors of existing telescopes on Mauna Kea, the dome that houses the telescope will not be that much larger. A significant amount of engineering expertise and time has gone into ensuring that the telescope and its support building will be as compact as possible.


The TMT also will be the first telescope to integrate an adaptive optics system into its original design. This sophisticated optical-mechanical system will measure the blurring effects of the atmosphere and make minute adjustments hundreds of times per second to counteract these effects. Incorporation of adaptive optics will allow the land-based TMT to capture images far clearer and more powerfully magnified than existing space-based telescopes like the Hubble.  

The result will be a telescope that looks right through Earth’s atmosphere and directly into deep space, reaching further and seeing more clearly than any previous telescope by a factor of 10 to 100, depending on the type of observation.

SCIENTIFIC CAPABILITIES

It’s an incredible technical achievement and a significant economic gain for the state of Hawai‘i, but what does all this new technology mean for the scientists who will use TMT?  The answer is simple.  TMT will be by far the most powerful tool astronomers have ever had to explore humanity's most intriguing “big picture” questions of the formation and makeup of the distant and ancient Universe, as well as reveal new and intriguing details of objects in our own galactic neighborhood and allow exploration into previously unknowable arenas of physics dealing with the fundamental nature of existence.

With an estimated decades-long lifespan, TMT will provide new observational opportunities in essentially every field of astronomy and astrophysics. TMT will be an incomparable tool for investigating a very wide range of topics, including: 

* Exploration of galaxies and large-scale structure in the young Universe, including the era in which most of the stars and heavy elements were formed and the galaxies in today’s Universe were assembled.

* Investigations of massive black holes and their correlation to the formation of galaxies in the very early Universe.

* Exploration of planet-formation processes and even the direct observation of extra-solar planets.

And, as has been the case for every previous increase in capability of this magnitude, TMT will be on the forefront of new discoveries, uncovering new questions and new phenomena.   

In keeping with the spirit of the greatest explorers throughout history, TMT takes mankind’s quest for discovery to new levels.  This is a project to celebrate and take pride in, not only for the people of the Big Island and across the state of Hawai‘i, but for our nation and the many partner nations who will participate, and ultimately for humanity as a whole.  With TMT, we truly and finally will have a window to the Universe. 


For more information and updates on TMT, visit www.tmt.org.

A native of Hawai‘i Island, Jacqui L. Hoover is Executive Director of the Hawaii Island Economic Development Board and President of the Hawaii Leeward Planning Conference.  She also serves on the Hawai‘i County Energy Advisory Commission and University of Hawai‘i at Hilo Keaholoa Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) Advisory Board. Larry Lieberman is the CEO of Natural Power Concepts, a Hawai‘i-based alternative energy technology incubator. Mr. Lieberman is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Hawai‘i Science & Technology Institute and an active advocate for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education initiatives statewide.

Copyright © 2010 The Wave Hawaii. All Rights Reserved.

A publication of the Hawaii Science & Technology Council