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Good to see this moving ahead. When we were in Hawaii recently there is a lot of talk about the TMT (Thirty Metre Telescope) that is going on Mauna Kea. They have halted work due to the protests but it should noted that when I was on the mountain the number of protesters was about a dozen.
From discussion with people involved (including the guys who was "leading" the protest on the mountain) the builders have acceded to the demands made,
in that they will remove some telescopes, but the next step which is sending up a rock crusher to prepare the site is in limbo. This is because the protest leader has said he will not do anything to prevent individuals taking action against the rock crusher. It is such a big piece of equipment that it takes 3 days to get to the summit and once it is on the road, it cannot stop moving or it will simply slide back down.
All goes to show that big astronomy is a lot more than just building big scopes!!
Malcolm
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