Arecibo collapses

[astroron]

A great loss.:sadeyes:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55147973
Cheers:thumbsup:

[alpal]

That's so sad - it really is gone forever -
I thought there may have been a way to save it.

[glend]

They were unwilling to spend the money necessary to fix it, before it collapsed.

[alpal]

There is a video showing all that is left.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRHXCWr7xt0

[Outcast]

I don't think money was the issue Glen, what I have read indicates that, their main concern was that the structure was so unsound that attempting repairs presented an unacceptable & potentially deadly risk to construction workers.

[julianh72]

I don't think that's going to "buff out"! :(

[julianh72]

That's correct - they had several teams of very highly regarded Structural Engineers look at options for recovery, but their conclusion was that the remaining ropes were already loaded to an unsafe condition, and imminent collapse was in fact expected.

There was no way to safely get people close enough to work on the ropes (repair or replace) - when a highly-tensioned rope lets go, an enormous amount of energy is suddenly released, and the free end of the rope can move at supersonic speeds. They were still trying to find a way to do a safe controlled demolition - such as using robots or drones to cut the ropes - but nature beat them to it.

[astroron]

This report says that cables were braking at one a day.
There was no way of saving it safely.
It had passed it's use by date.:sadeyes:
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/12/arecibo-telescope-collapses-ending-57-year-run?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=cb475c9587-briefing-dy-20201201&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-cb475c9587-43849317
Cheers:thumbsup:

[alpal]

Another longer video showing that a building was also ruined.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkfFuz13dYE