Stop three on the Catch Up Tour is about my work with the Arecibo Science and Advocacy Partnership (ASAP). This is an organization dedicated to advocating for the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.
This work became incredibly important shortly after I started grad school when the main radar telescope at the observatory collapsed. At the time of its collapse, Arecibo was the largest radar telescope in the world and played an incredibly important role in many different scientific disciplines. Arecibo data is used for understanding our atmosphere, studying the Sun, and learning about the planets in our solar system. Crucially though, it’s also used for national defense. It was originally created to try and detect nuclear missiles, but it can also monitor certain satellites. And most importantly, it was used to monitor the asteroids coming near the Earth to understand if they might be dangerous.
It’s really rare to have a world class facility that carries out just one of these roles, let alone all of them together. This is why I got involved with ASAP to try and advocate for replacing Arecibo. In my time with ASAP, I eventually came to be the Chair of the Advocacy Committee, and helped reach out to many Congressional offices to discuss Arecibo. We got language supporting Arecibo passed in a number of bills, including a resolution specifically about the telescope.
More recently, we have been focusing on reforming ASAP to better adapt to the current situation. As of this writing, the NSF, which operated the observatory, recently shuttered most of the site, and passed off management to an education focused entity. We are currently restructuring ASAP so that it can be 100% dedicated to advocating to the public and to the government to find a way to rebuild the telescope.