Thirty meter telescope on mauna kea12/30/2023 ![]() ![]() The building itself will be 180 feet high and 14 feet below ground level. The entire project area is expected to take up 5 acres, including the telescope dome, support building and parking lot. The TMT is going to be built on a new site, not on top of decommissioned telescopes. The mountain facilities also have a history of chemical and waste spills that include up to 1,000 gallons of sewage overflowing in 2008.īut the university has improved its management of the mountain over the past two decades and the TMT International Observatory, the nonprofit organization behind the TMT, says this project will be a zero-waste facility with minimal impact on the mountain.Ĭivil Beat examined some of the key environmental questions about the project:Ĭivil Beat recently received this question from a reader: “How much more land is intended to be used for the new telescope or are they removing one or two of the old telescopes and using the same pads for the new one? I’ve been told they are taking thousands of more acres? Is this true?” A 1998 state audit found that observatories left trash and old equipment and damaged historical sites and endangered species candidate habitat. It doesn’t help that the University of Hawaii has a poor history of managing the mountain. Other facts are more nuanced or complex than they initially appear. Some of the environmental claims raised on social media, like rumors about the TMT being fueled by nuclear power, are false. An artist’s rendering of the Thirty Meter Telescope shows the observatory in the bottom left of the frame. But many opponents also have concerns about the environmental impact of what would be the world’s largest visible-light telescope. ![]() Some who consider the mountain sacred believe adding another structure to be desecration, no matter what that structure is. Hundreds of activists remain at the base of Mauna Kea Access Road and plan to stay to prevent construction trucks from heading up the mountain. Emotions have been running high about the plan to build another telescope on Mauna Kea, a mountain on the Big Island that’s already home to a thriving astronomy industry. ![]()
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