TMT International Observatory could seek another partner to finance its next-generation telescope once it knows where it’s going to be built, its executive director said Monday.
Ed Stone, while testifying in the Thirty Meter Telescope’s contested case hearing, said the six institutions funding the $1.4 billion project have so far committed to covering 75 to 80 percent of its construction cost.
Another partner, possibly two, might be sought to account for the rest depending on additional commitments from the existing partners, he said. That would be sorted out once it’s known where the telescope will be built, Stone said.
“Once we have a site, then we can begin the plan,” he told the Tribune-Herald, regarding seeking another contributor. “Without a site, it’s very hard to plan.”
The TMT Observatory Corp., the predecessor to TIO, selected Mauna Kea as the site for the 180-foot-tall observatory in 2009. Site clearing was put on hold in 2015 because of protests from Native Hawaiians objecting to construction on a mountain they consider sacred.
That was followed by a state Supreme Court ruling requiring a second contested case to be held for the telescope’s land use permit. The high court ruled the state Board of Land and Natural Resources violated project opponent’s due process rights by voting for the permit before starting the quasi-judicial hearing.
The uncertainty that created prompted TIO to select a site in the Canary Islands as a backup to Mauna Kea, though Stone said he is still hopeful the telescope, capable of seeing the first stars born after the Big Bang, will be built in Hawaii.
TIO’s board of governors set April 2018, the start of its new fiscal year, as a deadline for resuming construction at either of the two sites.
Stone said it’s up to the board to change that date. A decision on where TMT will be built could occur as early as October, the board’s last scheduled meeting of 2017.
“It all depends on what happens between now and then,” said Stone, a physics professor at Caltech, one of TIO’s partners. He also helped oversee development of the twin W.M. Keck telescopes atop Mauna Kea.
The project faces another potential delay after Hilo Circuit Court Judge Greg Nakamura ruled last week that a contested case also should have occurred for the project’s sublease with the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
Stone said he couldn’t comment about what impact that might have on the project without seeing a written ruling, which is pending.
He said the National Science Foundation could potentially be a future partner. The foundation has contributed grants for the project.
That prompted Kealoha Pisciotta, a Hawaiian cultural practitioner and former telescope technician, to ask during the hearing at the Grand Naniloa Hotel in Hilo whether those contributions would require a federal review of the project.
Stone said he doesn’t think it would since the science foundation hasn’t contributed money for construction.
It’s not clear if that would be an issue if the science foundation formally joins the project.
The observatory could face another pitfall even if it was again cleared to build on Mauna Kea.
If construction resumes as planned, the observatory wouldn’t achieve “first light” until 2027 — six years before UH’s master lease for the mountain expires, Stone said.
UH plans to seek a new lease, but if that fails, he said TIO could seek a direct lease with the Land Board.
Without either, the observatory would have to start plans for demolition almost immediately after the telescope is operational.
Stone said that’s another issue the TIO board will consider when deciding whether to stay with Mauna Kea.
He told the Tribune-Herald about $327 million has been invested in the project so far, with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation being the largest contributor.
Stone testified for the entire hearing Monday, and also was questioned about his knowledge of Hawaiian religious practices and Hawaiian sovereignty.
Hearings officer Riki May Amano reminded two individuals that claims of the continued existence of the Hawaiian Kingdom aren’t relevant to the conservation district use permit application.
The telescope organization’s partners are Caltech, University of California, Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy and national institutes in Japan, China and India.
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
