Hawaii's world's largest telescope planned, budget not booked, suspended due to opposition from residents

Hawaii's largest telescope planned in Hawaii Not budgeted, suspended due to opposition from residents February 29 4:49

The plan to build the world's largest reflective telescope on the island of Hawaii in the United States has been stopped due to opposition from local residents, so the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has added the maintenance costs that have been budgeted seven years ago to the budget plan for the new year. It turned out that it did not account. It is unusual for a large academic research project in the country to be interrupted in accounting.

Plans to construct the world's largest 30-meter-diameter reflective telescope "TMT" on the top of a mountain on the island of Hawaii in the United States are being carried out by observatories and universities in five countries, including Japan and the United States, as international projects. Maintenance costs have been included since the fiscal year.

However, since the plan was stopped by the opposition movement of local residents in Hawaii, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology did not include the facility maintenance cost of approximately 3.1 billion yen in the estimate request in the budget proposal for the new year. understood.

According to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, it is unusual that the cost of facility development for a large-scale academic research project is interrupted.

Japan is supposed to manufacture 574 mirrors for telescopes, but the production of more than 200 unfinished mirrors could be interrupted.

On the other hand, approximately 600 million yen in international contributions to maintain the project was budgeted.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology says, "The significance of the project has not fluctuated, so I would like to consider the future budget while checking the local situation."

According to the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, "we will seek more local people's understanding so that construction can resume as soon as possible, although the impact on the overall plan is small at this time."