Private sources step up to fund telescope that rivals the defunct Arecibo telescope

Budget holes left by decreased government funding for scientific equipment and research could have thwarted, the planned construction of a radio telescope in Nevada, but advocates believe the project is well on its way to beating the odds. The “Deep Synoptic Array-2000" is an outgrowth of NSF funding and led by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech). The concept is to replicate the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico. That telescope collapsed in 2020.   

The new telescope has been supported with funding from Schmidt Sciences and with in-house expertise from Caltech. According to an article in Physics Today, “the private money has allowed the radio array to go from idea to almost reality faster than have telescopes that rely on what has become an increasingly uncertain federal allocation process.” Another advantage of not relying on federal funding is that, as noted in the article, the team has not had to wait on federal funding cycles to progress to the main project. The assurance that the project will move forward has also been advantageous for signing on collaborators from national observatories and universities.  

According to the article, “if all goes as planned, scientists will begin construction in about a year” on the Deep Synoptic Array-2000. It will be located in Spring Valley, Nevada.  

Government funding has not become obsolete, however. Scientists hope that the government will someday fund the estimated $10 million annual cost to operate the facility.