For the first time in Hawaiʻi's 50-year history with astronomy, observatories will be removed from Maunakea. Two are scheduled for decommissioning this year: the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory and the University of Hawaiʻi's Hōkū Ke‘a Observatory.
"It's become very evident, just sort of working through the process, that the process for taking down a facility is as long as it takes to get one built. The permitting process, at least, because you have to go through all the same steps, all the same kind of permits and everything that are required to build a facility," said Gregory Chun, the executive director of the UH Hilo Center for Maunakea Stewardship.
First up is the Caltech observatory, which came online in 1987 and closed in 2015. Its telescope will be relocated to Chile.
Most of the instruments and interior technology have already been removed from Maunakea, said Nahua Guilloz, the director of stewardship programs for the center. The main instrument remaining is the telescope's mirror, stretching 34 feet in diameter.
Moving the oversized object on a flatbed truck is a multi-day process that will require intermittent shutdowns on the Mauna Kea Access Road and the Daniel K. Inouye Highway, known as Saddle Road.
"It's real slow moving because it's a very sensitive instrument. It'll take them five hours to come down five miles," Guilloz said.
Including a practice run, the transportation maneuver is expected to take place over six weeks starting in May or the beginning of June. The exact dates have not yet been set, but more information will be released.
Caltech expects the decommissioning and restoration efforts will be completed during 2023 — at a cost of more than $4 million.
It’s an event that some Big Island residents have been looking forward to since protests against the Thirty Meter Telescope highlighted the number of observatories atop Maunakea that were no longer in use.
Chun and Guilloz said there are processes in place to ensure the decommissioning is completed with environmental and cultural sensitivity.
"The rocks and the landscape will be restored to look like how it was before. So they'll really use the surrounding area, the material that we have stockpiled from other projects, and really try to make that area blend in," Guilloz said.
Caltech is the first of five observatories that will be removed to make way for the Thirty Meter Telescope. Separately, the university's Maunakea plan includes a maximum of nine observatories post-2033.
"Decommissioning is also a condition of the TMT permit, but we had made that commitment in 2022 regardless of whether TMT happened or not," Chun said.
The University of Hawaiʻi said Tuesday that a second one, its Hōkū Ke‘a Observatory, will soon begin the decommissioning process.
This interview aired on The Conversation on April 19, 2023. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
