Gary,
Thanks for all the great quality information.
So do you think this is more an issue of retiring an existing research program for a bigger and better program that will effectively take over the same tasks - but unfortunately being relocated in another part of the world (for better seeing and sky access) with an entirely different and moire advanced technology and capability or it it a case of just shutting one sort of research and starting another type of research ?
Hope I am not putting you on the spot, but is this actually progress with collateral local damage to our Australian astronomy or is it just mindful reduction. I have previously seen the thread on IIS where the discussion of funding indicated that world astronomy expenditure was increasing not decreasing.
It does seem such a shame that for what is really a trifling amount of money that the Aussie government couldnt pick this up - even as an educational program to train other professional astronomers . . . . you know the story - one duplicated school library for $1.5M could have funded this for another 10 years or more !
Thanks
Rally
Quote:
Originally Posted by gary
. . . . . .
When you consider its 3.2-gigapixel prime focus
digital camera will take a 15-second exposure every 20 seconds, it will be
a formidable instrument for looking for NEO's in southern skies.
It costs hundreds of millions of dollars and the US National Science Foundation
has given it the thumbs up for the next stage, so in a way, when you look at it
on a global scale, funding for NEO searching is actually increasing not decreasing.
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