January 4, Puerto Rico recently announced that it would repair the Arecibo Telescope.
Located on the island of Puerto Rico in the United States, Arecibo Telescope is the second largest single-mirror radio telescope in the world.
On December 1, 2020, the National Science Foundation (NSF) confirmed that the platform of the Arecibo telescope collapsed and there were no casualties.
All three support towers of the telescope were broken, and the 900-ton receiving platform fell to the disc-shaped reflection disk below. In addition, the supporting steel cable of the telescope has also broken.
In response, Puerto Rico recently announced that it will rebuild the Arecibo Telescope and upgrade its configuration to become a world-class education center.
At present, Puerto Rico is planning a preliminary work of $8 million (about 51.79 million yuan), which will be used to clean up the wreckage of the telescope.
Industry insiders believe that the reconstruction of the Arecibo telescope may cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and the current $8 million is far from enough.
However, this is still a good start for the reconstruction of the Arecibo telescope.
