SANTA CRUZ >> An international coalition of astronomers, including key personnel from UC Santa Cruz, are building the largest telescope in the world at the summit of a sacred Hawaiian mountain.
Construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea, which is considered hallowed ground to native Hawaiians, has sparked heated protests and indefinitely closed the summit of the mountain to the public.
If completed, the $1.4-billion telescope’s 98-foot (30 meters) aperture would allow for more than nine times the collecting area of the largest current optical telescopes, and could provide 12 times sharper resolution than the Hubble Space Telescope.
Michael Bolte is a professor of astronomy at UC Santa Cruz and a member of the Thirty Meter Telescope International Observatory Board of Directors. He calls the telescope “the biggest leap in capability since Galileo.”
According to Bolte, the key design component of the Thirty Meter Telescope is its array of segmented mirrors, an innovation devised by UC Santa Cruz Astronomy and Astrophysics Professor Jerry Nelson.
“The segmented mirror telescope was just an incredibly clever idea,” Bolte said. “Instead of one giant piece of glass, Nelson segmented it into little hexagons, allowing for a leap in scale no one thought possible.”
The Thirty Meter Telescope would not be the first on Mauna Kea’s summit. Since the creation of an access road in 1964, 13 telescopes funded by 11 countries have been constructed at the summit, including two 10-meter Keck telescopes utilizing Nelson’s segmented mirror technology.
With its high altitude, dry environment, and stable airflow, Mauna Kea’s 13,796-foot summit is one of the best sites in the world for astronomical observation.
“It’s a terrific window to the universe,” Bolte said.
It is also highly controversial.
“We oppose the project because Mauna Kea is a genealogical tie to our people,” said Dawn Keniaupio, a documentary filmmaker and activist. “It is where we come from. The top of the mountain is where the gods reside. It’s the highest level of Hawaiian spirituality.”
For the last 100 days a group of protesters have held a vigil just past the Mauna Kea’s Visitor Center, a popular stop for tourists acclimating to the elevation.
According to Keniaupio, hundreds of well-organized opponents of the Thirty Meter Telescope have successfully halted construction on the project for the second time since construction began in April.
In a recent statement, Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin said the road is indefinitely closed to the public for safety reasons. Chin cited concerns that rocks and boulders placed in the road “could get someone killed.”
Bolte said he understands the project is culturally sensitive, but insisted that the members of the project, which includes scientific organizations from Canada, Japan, and China, have been careful to include all stakeholders in the process.
“The legal process for the permit took eight years,” he said. “During that time, we worked with folks in the local community. A lot of the concerns I’m hearing today aren’t new, but they’re being voiced by groups who perhaps were not around when we were having those discussions years ago.”
“I thought we were pretty successful,” he added. “We had pretty wide support from the community.”
Chin said he’s working with Gov. David Ige, the University of Hawaii, the Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Department of Public Safety to reopen the road to Mauna Kea Summit as soon as possible, but did not provide a timetable.
