The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, or Pan-STARRS, would replace a nearly 36-year-old University of Hawaii 88-inch telescope if it’s built at the summit of the Big Island volcano.
A preparation notice for an environmental impact statement was issued last month with public meetings planned on the Big Island, Maui and Oahu to review the issues that will be addressed by an EIS.
Although the primary site is on Mauna Kea, the preparation notice says that the Haleakala summit – where a prototype of Pan-STARRS is being set up – is the primary alternative.
Haleakala is considered less suitable in part because it is at a lower elevation, at 10,000 feet compared to 13,500 feet on Mauna Kea, and is subject to more cloud cover that would block the view of the sky.
Maui also is more prone to light pollution, according to UH Institute for Astronomy Assistant Director Mike Maberry. While the Big Island has had restrictions on outdoor lighting for 20 years, Maui County has not yet approved a law that would reduce the amount of outdoor light pollution escaping into the sky, and a proposal currently before the County Council would require only additional shading without requiring streetlights that reduce overall output.
With the prototype Pan-STARRS observatory set up in the former LURE facility on Haleakala, Maberry said a 1.4-gigapixel camera will be installed in the fall, able to capture minute amounts of light to locate asteroids circling in the solar system.
“Because of the amount of light pollution on Maui, it would take twice as long to complete a survey of the sky for near-Earth objects as it would on Mauna Kea,” he said.
Still, a meeting will be held on Maui on Jan. 30 to discuss the EIS preparation process for Pan-STARRS, beginning at 6 p.m. at the Cameron Center.
Public meetings on other islands, all beginning at 6 p.m., will be held Jan. 23 at Kealakeha Intermediate School in Kona, Jan. 24 at the Waimea Civic Center, Jan. 25 at the University of Hawaii-Hilo Campus Center and Jan. 31 at the UH Hawaiian Studies building on Oahu.
Scientists believe they can complete a survey of the potential threats from near-Earth asteroids in 10 years if Pan-STARRS is built on Mauna Kea, which many scientists regard as the best location for astronomy in the world.
The project, funded by the U.S. Air Force, is expected to cost $80 million to $100 million and will be operated by the University of Hawaii, which also will process the data and images.
The project to search the skies is linked to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Near Earth Object Program, which is identifying and tracking potentially hazardous asteroids (PHA). PHA are objects larger than 500 feet in diameter whose orbits intersect within 4.6 million miles of the Earth’s orbit.
According to the Near Earth Object Program site (http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/neo/), there are currently 838 known PHA as well as a large number of smaller objects that will approach the Earth. In January alone, there are 22 known Earth-approaching objects including two that are at least 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) in diameter.
Environmentalists and Hawaiian activists have argued against additional development on Mauna Kea and Haleakala, and some scientists have expressed concern about additional construction as 13 telescope sites already have been built on Mauna Kea.
But the most outspoken critics of development on the mountain have said they are not against the advancement of science, Maberry said.
“We believe that we can coexist in a respectful manner at the summits of Mauna Kea and Haleakala,’’ he said.
Project Manager William Burgett said using the existing IfA observatory site could help quell criticism as well as the need for a $1 million environmental impact statement, which is a step not usually taken for other projects of similar scope.
The project includes four 71-inch mirrors that would gather light and the largest digital cameras ever built, scientists said. The system would be able to survey the entire sky once a week, and would be able to detect asteroids as small as 1,000 feet across.
The prototype on Haleakala still is waiting for a second mirror and a test camera while undergoing alignment and initial testing. The test camera, a 300-megapixel system, still will be the largest camera of its kind, Maberry said.
Kona resident Ed Stevens has questioned the idea of more telescopes on Mauna Kea, which already hosts several major international telescopes, but said he’s impressed with this technology.
“We still see Mauna Kea as our sacred mountain, and this is where our concerns lie,’’ he said. “Instead of continuing to proliferate with domes, take it easy, leave some for us, make better use of what you’ve got, and mitigate the need to add more.’’