A battle over sacred ground that began nearly 7 years ago, according to the New York Times, will come to a close within the next few months.
This month, both proponents and opponents of building another NASA telescope will meet at the University of Hawaii in Hilo to begin a series of hearings discussing the construction of a deep-space telescope.
The telescope in question is the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), which exhibits a primary mirror 30 meters in diameter. A larger primary mirror sharpens observations and heightens sensitivity of the telescope as a whole. Theoretically, engineers could arbitrarily increase the diameter of the mirror, but decided to cut the mirror at 30 meters because this diameter was “an attractive and achievable scientific ‘sweet spot’ at near-infrared wavelengths,” the TMT website said.
In the late 1990s, NASA made plans for three giant telescopes costing billions: the European Extremely Large Telescope (Chile), the Giant Magellan (Chile) and the Thirty Meter Telescope (Hawaii).
Mauna Kea, located on the Big Island of the Hawaiian archipelago, is the sacred mountain and ideal location for the telescope — it receives little light pollution, which distorts the quality of telescope vision and photography, and is a dry landscape with relatively calm weather.
In addition, Mauna Kea’s summit would plant the telescope at 13,100 feet above sea level, nearly two and a half miles above the thickest atmospheric interference. For this reason, 13 other telescopes were constructed on Mauna Kea over the past 46 years.
Mauna Kea has long been a significant and important cultural sanctuary to many native Hawaiians. Many use Mauna Kea as a ceremonial site for spreading cremated remains, and leave offerings on roads and existing structures. To native Hawaiians like Lanakila Mangauil, a strong opponent to the TMT construction, Mauna Kea is a sacred place, “the wau akua, the realm of where the gods live,” Mangauil said to the New York Times.
In 1968, the University of Hawaii took out a 65-year lease for 11,000 acres of land encompassing Mauna Kea. Many protesters began to distrust the University of Hawaii because, two years later in 1970, the university allowed the construction of telescopes on the mountain.
Some Hawaiians support the TMT construction, noting the importance of astronomy to Hawaiian culture, stated the Hawaii Tribune-Herald. The mission of the TMT is analogous to the search for ancestral origins of the universe, Wallace Ishibashi Jr. told the New York Times.
On Sept. 27, 2016, a convoy of vehicles brought nearly 30 individuals to the summit of Mauna Kea for a site visit. This group included representatives from each party involved in the hearings, which were slated to begin on Oct. 11, 2016, but were postponed when Richard Naiwieha Wurdeman, an attorney representing opponents to TMT construction, withdrew from the case due to scheduling conflicts, according to the Washington Times.
Kealoha Pisciotta, a former telescope operator on Mauna Kea, has become a leading voice against the further construction of telescopes on the mountain. “It’s not science versus religion,” Pisciotta told the New York Times. “We’re not the church. You’re not Galileo.”
