The Thirty Meter Telescope, backed by an international consortium of institutes and agencies, would be larger than any telescope now in existence - in an entirely different size class from the 13 other facilities already built on Mauna Kea. TMT International Observatory A contentious telescope “It’s still early in the life of the new authority, but there’s actually a pathway forward.” The telescope structure of the TMT would be roughly 180 feet (55 meters) wide and 160 feet (50 m) tall. “There really was what appeared to be a no-win situation back then, and no way of how this was going to be resolved between the community and government and astronomy field,” MKSOA board member and native rights activist Noe Noe Wong-Wilson told Astronomy at the AAS meeting. But its members say they have found the common ground that seemed unreachable in 2019, when protests and tensions flared. The board still faces many challenges, and potential skepticism from activists who seek a smaller footprint or total removal of astronomical facilities from Mauna Kea. 9 at a session of the 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Seattle, Washington. The MKSOA is “a new community-based management model that for the first time includes cultural practitioners, lineal descendants, and natural resource and education experts from throughout the community as mutual stewards of Mauna Kea,” said Kaʻiu Kimura, director of the ʻImiloa Astronomy Center at the University of Hawaii in Hilo, speaking Jan. What may be different this time is the process and the approach - what the board calls a model of mutual stewardship. The broad outlines of such a deal would be similar to terms previously agreed on by the University of Hawaii with the state Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) as conditions for obtaining the building permit for TMT’s construction, which never commenced in the face of protests. And although board members don’t want to get ahead of the process, an emerging compromise could see the embattled TMT built atop the peak in exchange for the decommissioning of several telescopes. Its members say it marks a new approach, one that for the first time gives Native Hawaiians a voting role in overseeing the mountaintop. Then, in 2028, the Maunakea Stewardship Oversight Authority (MKSOA) will take over stewardship of the mountaintop from the University of Hawaii (UH), which has managed the site since 1968.Ĭrucially, the MKSOA includes representatives from both astronomical observatories and Native Hawaiian communities. Under a law signed in June 2022 by then-Hawaii Governor David Ige, a five-year transition period formally begins in July of this year. Since the beginning of this year, a new state-appointed oversight board has been preparing to assume management of Mauna Kea. CooperĪfter years of protests that halted the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on Mauna Kea and divided communities in Hawaii, a major change in the management of the summit is underway. International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/B. The summit of Mauna Kea, sacred to Native Hawaiians, is home to 13 astronomical facilities, two of which are currently being decommissioned.
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