A small crew of local workers will go to the Thirty Meter Telescope site this month to conduct site preparation activities, starting with equipment maintenance and repairs. An exact date has not been announced.
“We would like to thank our many supporters in the community,” said Henry Yang, chair of the TMT International Observatory Board of Governors. “Each of our partners remains committed to building the Thirty Meter Telescope in Hawaii. In California, Canada, China, Japan and India, work is being conducted to develop and build various components for the observatory, and we look forward to the day when it will come together.”
“We are deeply committed to respectful stewardship of the mountain, and to the vision that integrates science and culture in Hawaii and enriches the educational opportunities and local economy,” added Yang. “We will continue to follow the state’s laws, procedures and processes, as we have done for more than eight years, while respectfully awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision.”
About TMT:
The Thirty Meter Telescope Project has been developed as collaboration among Caltech, UC, the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy (ACURA), and the national institutes of Japan, China, and India with the goal to design, develop, construct, and operate a thirty-meter class telescope and observatory on Mauna Kea in cooperation with the University of Hawaii (TMT Project). The TMT International Observatory LLC (TIO), a non-profit organization, was established in May 2014 to carry out the construction and operation phases of the TMT Project. The Members of TIO are Caltech, UC, the National Institutes of Natural Sciences of Japan, the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Department of Science and Technology of India, and the National Research Council (Canada); the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) is a TIO Associate. Major funding has been provided by the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation.
For more information about the TMT project, visit tmt.org, www.facebook.com/TMTHawaii or follow @TMTHawaii.
