Hawaii telescope operators abandon millions of dollars’ worth of instruments and evacuate workers during protests on Mauna Kea
Directors of an existing telescope on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea evacuated workers Tuesday amid growing protests that blocked an access road to the site of a second $ 1.4 billion “thirty-meter telescope” (TMT) to be built on the mountain .
Directors shut down the East Asian Observatory on Mauna Kea on Tuesday as a safety precaution for staff and effectively eliminated millions of dollars’ worth of instruments on telescopes at the facility that require constant maintenance, Hawaii News Now reported.
Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources officials are preparing to arrest protesters, including many elderly people who are blocking a road to prevent a giant telescope from being built on a mountain that some indigenous Hawaiians hold sacred on the Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii, July 17, 2019. (Cindy Ellen Russell / Honolulu Star Advertiser via AP)
THE POLICE IN HAWAII CONDUCT STATED PROTESTS IN THE STANDOFF AROUND THE CONSTRUCTION OF MAUNA KEA TELESCOPE
“It is a risk for us to step back at this point,” Jessica Dempsey, assistant director of the East Asian Observatory, told Hawaii News Now. “We didn’t make this decision easy for ourselves, but we would like to emphasize the importance of safety for our employees and the facilities.”
Some native Hawaiians consider Mauna Kea a sacred place.
The police, the Hawaiian National Guard and self-proclaimed local “protectors” have been embroiled in a tense stalemate there since construction began on Monday. On Wednesday, 33 people were arrested while on a sit-in on Mauna Kea Access Road, a state spokesman told the Honolulu Star Advertiser. Those arrested were charged with offenses and were immediately released.
Demonstrators are said to have left vehicles in the middle of the Daniel K. Inouye Highway, which leads to the construction site of the Thirty Meter Telescope. Police eventually withdrew from the protest after an agreement was reached that protesters would clear their cars off the road to allow construction equipment to be transported up the hill, the newspaper reported.
“It is a risk for us to have to resign at this point. We did not make this decision easy for ourselves, but would like to emphasize the importance of safety for our employees and the facilities. “
Mauna Kea, Hawaii’s highest peak at nearly 14,000 feet, was chosen as the site for the telescope in 2009 because of its height and lack of light pollution. The size of the TMT will allow it to see into deep space and produce images 12 times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope, its website adds.
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When completed, the telescope will have a primary mirror diameter of 30 meters, which is “three times as wide and nine times as large as what is currently the largest visible light telescope in the world,” according to its website. The creator of the project is the TMT International Observatory LLC, which describes itself as a “non-profit international partnership” between educational and scientific institutions worldwide.
Fox News’ Tyler Olson contributed to this report.
