TMT wants community healing

Now that the Thirty Meter Telescope has won a key endorsement for an influx of federal dollars, a top official with the controversial next-generation observatory said it will begin to prepare a funding proposal to the National Science Foundation while focusing on trying to heal its relationship with the community.

Kerry Slater, TMT chief of staff and vice president of communications, said she was pleased by Thursday’s results of the Astro­- 2020 decadal survey report that named TMT and its sister project, the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile — working together as the U.S. Extremely Large Telescope Program — as its top ground-based astronomy funding priority.

“It validated the transformational nature of the TMT,” she said Friday in a phone interview from California.

The report described the telescope partnership as a visionary effort that will enable unprecedented research in nearly all areas of astrophysics, from understanding the fundamental nature of the universe to the search for life on distant exoplanets.

The report, prepared by a panel of astronomers and intended as a guide for federal funding for astronomy projects over the next 10 years, called on the NSF to award at least $1.6 million to the U.S. Extremely Large Telescope Program, with each project ideally splitting the money.

Slater, an attorney who has worked as chief of staff under TMT Executive Director Ed Stone for two years, described the report as a milestone that lays out a path forward for the powerful $2.65 billion telescope.

But she also acknowledged the community continues to be divided on the project.

“That’s why we are making it our priority to redouble our efforts to listen and learn from the community. We want to be inclusive and listen to all viewpoints,” she said.

TMT Project Manager Fengchuan Liu, who took over for former Project Manager Gary Sanders earlier this year, is now based in Hilo and has met with numerous community members with varying opinions, Slater said, and his efforts will continue.

“We want to focus on the critical conversations that need to be had with the community,” she said. “We want to focus on the here and now with dialogue and engagement.”

Slater declined to offer any details about the financial hurdles or other challenges facing the TMT as outlined in the Astro2020 report. The report noted that even with new federal funding, the TMT is looking at a deficit of $310 million.

“We are very committed to this project, and I’m sure the partners will explore every avenue” in search of the financing to complete the project, she said.

The TMT International Observatory is a nonprofit partnership between the University of California, Caltech and the science institutions of China, India, Canada and Japan.

The report calls on the NSF to assess the viability of the two partner projects before making a final decision about funding in 2023. And during that two-year period, the TMT should confirm its site — either on Mauna Kea or at its backup site on La Palma in the Canary Islands. The document said that with the site still undecided, the TMT comes with the added risk of schedule uncertainty and added cost.

Slater declined to say anything about site selection, except to say that Mauna Kea — judged a superior telescope site by the Astro2020 panel of astronomers — continues to be the favored TMT location over La Palma.

While polling indicates a majority of Hawaii residents support the next-generation telescope, the project has been a source of protest and legal dispute for at least a half-dozen years, even as TMT officials and the greater Hawaii island astronomy and business communities have searched for some kind of path to allow it to proceed.

Construction was blocked by protesters in 2015 and 2019, and beyond concerns about the environment and desecrating sacred land, the giant telescope has grown into a symbol of Native Hawaiian oppression and a cause that for many has achieved the same standing as the fight to stop the U.S. military bombing of Kahoolawe.

Meanwhile, the NSF says it is nearing the end of an informal outreach effort designed to gain a better understanding of the viewpoints regarding the proposed TMT and the future of astronomy on Hawaii’s tallest mountain.

The NSF launched the project last year after the TMT submitted a proposal for design and planning. Since August 2020, the agency has conducted over 90 virtual talk-story sessions with more than 150 people and received about 120 written comments.

“These discussions have been both fruitful and informative to NSF in gaining a better understanding of the varying viewpoints regarding both TMT and the future of astronomy on Maunakea,” the foundation said in a notice on its website.

Anyone who wants to share an opinion with the foundation may send comments to AST-MK@nsf.gov by Nov. 21, the scheduled end of the project.