Analyzing Video Footage Of Collapse of Massive Arecibo Telescope
2020 ж. 3 Жел.
2 861 826 Рет қаралды
The collapse was on Tuesday morning, but yesterday the NSF made video of the catastrophic collapse available, and so many viewers asked I continue my long tradition of 'coping by analyzing failure' and document what I see in this footage. It's hard to watch because this magnificent structure has always been part of the world of astronomy for me.
For those that feel moved into action a starting point may well be this petition ask the White House to consider rebuilding the facility.
petitions.whitehouse.gov/peti...
Juan R Costa's images of the structure after collapse are available on the NotiCel site, they're the best images of this:
www.noticel.com/galeria/20201...
That drone footage is the most impressive thing I've seen all month. Talk about being in the right place at the right time, engineering students will be forced to watch that footage for decades to come.
At least some good will come of it in that respect.
Bridge builders take notes.
All month. 😊 It's only the 4th. Did you see Scott's music video last month? Well worth a watch: *SpaceX Sentinel 6 Launch Remix - Tracking The Booster* kzhead.info/sun/pryuoJSjnp2Kdqs/bejne.html
I was thinking, this is going to become the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse study for freshman engineering students.
Or people watching the "Discovery" channel - Next time on DESTROYED IN SECONDS - the biggest radio telescope gets..... DESTROYED IN SECONDS DunDunDuuuuunn watch the footage repeat 10 times with action movie music in the background
That drone footage - when you consider the timing, the proximity, and the sheer unpredictability - is *maybe* the most incredible video footage I've ever seen.
Soon on the frontpage of our news outlets: Telescope brought down by rogue drone. Senate calls for regulation.
It was not that unpredicable if they monitored cable and saw wires breaking from one day to another. Still great luck I guess. Something like famous video of bridge collapse due to wind induced osciallation.
It’s absolutely up there. Pretty incredible footage.
All that and it also wasn't 480p flip phone quality video either!
@@pavelperina7629, writes _"Something like famous video of bridge collapse due to wind induced osciallation."_ Galloping Gertie, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
RIP that last cable, you tried so hard
It’s like when a group picks up a heavy piece of furniture and your effort didn’t help at all, but then you suddenly become the guy
He collatep All last August 1 a Cable 1 collatep November 6 a Second cable Collatep Dicember 1 a fall Completed donw a droped and crushed and top second and suvivor top people he Dissasped in Arecibo Telescope and He suvivor in 23 years hours 34 Minutes 48 second 59 as Timelaped Fast and Get Day morning for getting Pm To night and Understand fell and Effect I dont hears and I dont have wrong noise he Collatep solo😒
That is incredible. Both because arecibo was jammed in my brain by Carl Sagan, but the fidelity the video caught. I will happily up my tax bill for aracibo 2.0. It is just too amazing of a piece of engineering to go quietly into the night.
The trees know how lethal those cables are.
So do those former Concrete and rebar built cable support towers.....
I could see the fear in their leaves.
I don't know how long they were flying that drone for, but talking about good timing
I'm amazed at the sheer guts of who was flying it. He had to be somewhere nearby because drones don't have unlimited range, yet even in the middle of all that chaos and noise he was able to spin the drone round in time to catch the end of the collapse. Frankly, if it had been me I'd probably still be running...
Bet the operator hasn’t stopped thinking about that moment
@@d2factotum peons like us use drones with limited range. I doubt the operator was anywhere near danger.
If you look at the drone footage, when it pans around so that the helipad comes into view you can see what appears to be the drone operator off to one side in a red jacket.
As Scott points out - inspecting the cable mounts
Finally, for the first time, the camera is held in position for the event as opposed to looking down at the floor!
And thankfully no high-pitched screaming!
call 911
🤘😆🤘
This was taken by a scientist. There's no way he would ruin his data by looking down
Scott forgot to add the shaky camera effect for additional realism... Lol
I remember this setting from the movie 007 Golden Eye
Same
Sean Bean was the best actor in that movie.
And the Contact
This moive that its Moive 007 golden Eye?🤚😞🤚
@@mauryaponte4671 wtf... Lol... What's a moive?
Very sad to see this, I was there back in 2005 and it was an awesome experience. They had rare asteroids and relics from space in the museum/conference center. It was important for SETI and another should be built IMO. Great video and God Bless.
The fact that was a 900 ton platform suspended that high still blows me away.
For 60 years, no less!
@S D Keep living happy into your ignorance.
@Steve Owen He's clearly joking. Lol
@S D what a madlad!!
@@DasGutWaffles i don't think he was joking, but rather spewing ignorance.
Here's why I wanted you to cover this event, even if I only thought about it, not even verbalized it. I knew you'd be objective, stick to the facts, and interpret the images accordingly. No clickbait, no overhype, no demolition gore. Giving it the respect it deserved. Thank you for doing so.
That's why independent science channels such as SM are so much better than reading the news sometimes, who make it seem extremely worse than it actually is. Engineers knew Arecibo was going to collapse, they knew they had no time to decommission it, so when the collapse did happen no one was hurt as they were in safe zones. Most news channels makes it sound like the most un-expected event ever. A nice simple analysis like this is way better than anything a news network could push out.
@Minonian Mother nature takes its course whether we like it or not. It all really was set in motion by the hurricane that moved through the area.
I just wish he would also add what went wrong with maintenance which would prevent that. What are technicalities of mainteining this structure properly. That kinda stuff. But maybe that will come later?
@@matrixfull Mind you, i'm not a structural engineer. But here's my common sense approach on what went wrong, using the facts that we have available. This was a structure built in 1963. It is owned by US NSF, that is an independent agency, with a 8.3 billion dollar budget (2020). Might sound like a lot, but they do have a lot of areas they work with. And I do mean a lot. So that budget is peanuts considering. As it is, sadly, normal. Science and Culture usually get left behind in the pie of any countries budget, so this is no exception. Once again, sadly. I have no doubt that the engineering done was anything besides stellar (no pun intended). Proof of the matter is that the structure stood for almost 60 years. As we could see, four cables were required to hold the load. What we know as well is that loads like that are usually build with redundancies in mind, in case one fails. As one did. Scott mentioned how the cables were fixed to the structure. So it leads me to believe it couldnt be just a "let's just replace the missing cable". Leads me to believe it would not only be a very challenging engineering feat to do so, but prohibitive budget wize. That could also be the reason they decided to decommission the site. Because they couldnt just abandon the site and wait for it to break (that would be irresponsible), so they had to safely take it down. They were closely monitoring the cable snaps (as per photographic evidence) so they knew they had very little time. They just ran out of said time. All that said, I dont see it as a maintenance issue. I'm confident to say that everything that could be done, was done up to that point. Short of having the budget to get the appropriate gear up there (and it's very hard to get there), lowering the apparatus and replacing the cable, waiting for the metal to settle, and then raising it up. But I do understand the mindset. We learn from mistakes in order not to repeat them. That is quite important. It's not about finding who or what to blame. For me, I see it as a huge loss for the world, as everyone benefitted from the research. And maybe if everyone contributed to the behemoth of the task that was replacing that missing cable, we wouldnt have come to this. but that's "what if"sms. They dont add to the conversation. But that's my point of view. Sorry for the wall of text.
@@alphapt9370 Thank you for your very interesting reply. I am sorry but I do enjoy seeking what ifs because my mindset is: there is always the way and seeing things like prevention and last straw before point of no return that could be done. It fascinates me. In every disaster that's what I seek. We are all humans we all do mistakes; it's not point to blame anyone but to see action of no return. I don't seek names but practical executions that would in different version of our world lead to different result. It's mindblowing structure; very complex. So that adds to the interest to me. I understand you don't like what ifs, but thanks for your point of view still. Thank you.
Fantastic analysis and explanation! That was so much more satisfying to watch than the bare collapse footage, which of course was already dang impressive in itself.
Great structural analysis video and man, glad to hear no one was hurt. That collaspse, as most tend to do, happens so fast that you can't believe it until it's already over.
"Its enough to make a grown man cry"
I crunched some 20 CPU-years of SETI work units from there... yeah, my eyes watered.
@@rsteeb This actually brought a tear to my eye too! I also did 20 years of SETI work units! :(
@@rsteeb why couldn’t they just leave it ?
@@deborahchesser7375 it wasn't an intentional demolishment, it was a structural failure, and after one cable broke weeks ago, then a second cable, it became too dangerous to place any human on the gantry to repair it. It quickly became an inevitable death.
i am in fact, crying. The dish was an important part of my younger years.
"guys, we sadly need to demolish it" Arecibo: "fine, I'll do it myself"
what does that mean? FINE I'll do it live!
@@insertcognomen wrong f word.
You can't fire me, I quit!
@@DebiSunset lol. I did not know that. I've heard of F**ked up, Insecure. Neurotic and Emotional.
Outstanding achievement......55 years of service! Thank you for your service to everyone who worked on this project! You have all helped us know more about our universe! RIP! but very proud of the achievements from this team!
Did they? Still no open explanation on why this faction of aliens are still helping us.!?
Still no open answers !?
@@trogdordog04smith95 please explain yourself I'm fascinated
This dish was also a featured site at the beginning of the movie "Contact" with Jodie Foster, many years ago.
Also james bonds golden eye
And the movie "the arrival" with Charly sheen
I was trying to remember. Both 2010 and Contact started in a big telescope, but I think the movies and the novels had it differently. I’m sure the 2010 novel starts at Arecibo, but maybe they filmed it at the VLA. And I’m going to guess that the novel Contact starts off at the VLA, but the movie switched that to Arecibo
And Battlefield 4
Yeah I remember Contact. I think that movie was responsible for the dish falling apart to be honest, not cables.
Scott Manley, as a fellow engineer, I want to reiterate how fine your reporting is. One of my most favorite channels. Thank you!
I'm not actually an engineer, my education is in physics and astronomy. I just try to learn as much as I can. So, thank you.
@@scottmanley Well I'll take you at your word. Be that as it may, you have an engineering / problem solving brain and you use it. Brilliant stuff '-)
@@scottmanley P.S. I send your videos to my 11 year old grandson. I'm trying to get his head out of his video games! I get these one word responses from him "Cool".
@@markusrobinson3858 Try to get him playing Kerbal Space Program or something like the Bridge building simulations. I grew up with video games and they taught me a lot.
@@scottmanley I remember a coder, Roedy Green, who taught summer camp programming to young kids back in the 90's, and he said, "I don't care much for games myself, but they wanted to make realistic-looking water-waves for their animations." (this was 2d simple graphics stuff, mind) and he told them for that they would need a bit of trig. Suddenly trig became very cool around there. It isn't easy to make trig cool.
Technical analysis and commentary is a far cry from "Rubbernecking a disaster". Thanks for this video. I always look forward to your take on these kinds of events.
He belittles his work
We need to get AvE in on this one.
@@UltraGamma25 I thought MLP-addicted users had gone extinct for a long time
I literally cried when I saw this on the morning news. This was my go to place to visit as a child and an adult.
Me too.😢
You cried 🤣?
@@MoarteaLunii i mean , why? why not feel anger towards those responsible?
Not many videos make me sad, but this is truly one of them. Arecibo was an amazing instrument, and when I was growing up, I remember reading about it and thinking it was the coolest thing ever. When the two cables snapped, I had still hoped that this telescope would miraculously find a way to get repaired, but I see now that that is not going to be the case. I’m just as sad about seeing it go as I was about losing the Opportunity rover.
May i just say, as sad as the Arecibo collapse is, the footage is amazing.
I never thought I would see the day. Hell, I even have a model of it from 30 years ago. The sadness and nostalgia are palpable.
Cables break on close up camera: Arecibo - "Even in death I still provide SCIENCE!"
Just like Lavoisier. He was executed in the french revolution, for the terrible crime of not being an ignorant peasant apparently, and he wanted to go out at least providing information of value, so he said he would try to let everyone know if the head remained conscious and if so how long, and that he would blink his eyes for as long as he could after the guillotine cut his head off. He blinked his eyes for 15 seconds to everyone's horror. So much for it being instant and without cruelty.
@Travis Thacker probably a terrible headache, too.
@Travis Thacker Without the part of the spine that transmits said pain data would you feel it?
"For England, James?" "No. For me."
I was wondering if this was the same satellite from Goldeneye. Lol. Best Bond movie!!
@@JohnSmith-is4pt dont forget contact with jodie foster
I was hoping to see this comment.
Damn, this is so sad to watch. But at the same time incredible lucky to have so much footage, and the accident occured during daytime. Great video, good story.
Weirdly most I can think about is the nostalgia of countless hours as a kid of chasing Trevalyan around in N64 Goldeneye. RIP Arecibo
I wondered if that was the location for Goldeneye...
well this gave me nostalgia of battlefield 4 where i would blow up arecibo over and over lol
N64 goldeneye. Them were the days
@@BadWebDiver 100% is.. plus it was on the movie Contact with Jodi Foster and Matthew McConaughey.
Yes. I will have to watch Goldeneye again now.
The thought of those cables whipping around is pretty scary
Yeah!
My dad worked aboard Great Lakes iron ore freighters before WWII and was narrowly missed by a snapped cable that killed another crewman. With that cautionary tale I've always been careful around lines under tension.
@@r0cketplumber An inch thick cable can cut you in two. These chunky cables would make you explode. A merciful death when you think about it but horrific for anyone who witnesses it.
@@r0cketplumber Lines under tension: One moment you’re moored, the next moment your head is pulp. Also: Getting pinched between a line and a bollard. Yikes.
My dad served aboard an aircraft carrier in the 60s. He saw an arresting cable snap and when it whipped around it took out the landing gear from under some A-4 jets, leaving them pancaked on their bellies on the flight deck. The landing signal officer who guides the jets in to land is in a pit off to one side of the deck and he ducked down below deck level, saving his own life.
Thank you for the in-depth explanation in plain speak. I learned a lot, thank you.
Wow... That's insane. Im glad no one was hurt. This is crazy to watch, but I honestly wish we had really good audio/I could've been there in person to hear the sound of this happening. Its unreal to think about. Sad to see something so important fail like this... but science is about overcoming adversity and dealing with disaster to push ever forward into discovery and improvement, right?
At the end of the movie Goldeneye from James Bond you get to hear what it would sound like if you were standing right in front of it as it hit the deck at terminal velocity.
I feel like I’ve been to a funeral. I feel a sense of loss and respect for what was once great. Thanks for the explanation.
I first knew about arecibo from James gunn novel the listeners in the early 70s.
Spot on. This may have been a technical analysis but it certainly felt like a eulogy.
I was part of the SETI project and I can confirm the feeling of a funeral. Sad day.
Same here. I am 81 yrs old and have loved astronomy since I was 5-6 yrs of age. The lost of Arecibo is major with me. I have been there many times. I was born a few miles to the west and would travel through Arecibo on my way to San Juan. Yes, I do feel I have lost part of my family.
Thank you. I don't feel so alone. Damn, this hit me hard.
Hi Scott, checking in from Puerto Rico here. It's very sad what has happened to the telescope. We were so proud to have an important piece of scientific discovery on our little island. In middle school I got to visit the telescope and also walk around the perimeter since my friend's parents worked there. Amazing piece of machinery and awful the way it ended up
It was still a pretty impressive feat of engineering, regardless. And heartbreaking to watch it fail. So glad nobody was injured or killed. Those cables would rip a person in half.
Stunning footage and great narration.
I think you got pretty close in your MS Paint assessment, Scott.
Looked almost spot on to me!
Indeed
That was my first thought when I saw this video. He nailed it.
What do you mean?
@@vipon9491 look at Scott’s earlier analysis before the video came out. He was working from stills and predicted what we see in the video.
2020: Just when you thought you were out, it brings you back in.
The remaining 25 days worry me.
@@JoseyWales44s Same here
Just keeps on giv(ahem) taking
Really, its in the never seen this before category.
The Brazilian fires seem like a decade ago.
I'm impressed with how carm and stressless voice Scott maintains throughout the video. 👏😀 Almost everybody else would have had their sensational disaster voice on high.😳
Rubber necking at disaster images is incredibly valid and interesting, it is a strong learning experience as well as something that helps you value your everyday safety and continuance of life. I mean gorehounds get the gas, but watching engineering failures up close is incredibly interesting!
7:15 "As the drone backs away" - Look at the background, that's not the drone backing away, it's the tower backing away.
holy shit it's true
God damn someone like this comment so people can see
Drone backs away 1 second later...
Good observation
It's both..
I'm impressed that this thing had survived over 50 years of hurricanes, though.
God cut the string. He said enough foolishness.
Oh 50 years, dang that's an amazing run.
I think they go underground. Some have lived for over 100 years.
I think they go underground. Some have lived for over 100 years.
Bro hurricane Maria really hurried its death
I visited this facility around 1999. Pretty incredible! I have a poster of it in my office! However, technology has moved forward so fast it would seem other newer existing facilities on earth, or orbiting earth, would be more practical. It was an incredible project, in my view, with my limited knowledge. All the best!
Thanks for the video great commentary, great footage 👍
Such a sad moment for astronomy.
The planned demolition was weeks away . The telescope has served 56 years and was weathered several storms and earthquakes and its demise was due ..
And astrology!
Wasn’t it kind of obsolete anyway?
And a very dramatic ending. This wasn't a simple decommission and disassemble.
Watching the great things about America collapse in real time.
I will always remember this telescope from the movies Goldeneye and Contact, sad to see it go!
Search for: Carl Sagan Aricebo James Burke Aricebo
All things end, but it hurt to see this one go.
This was the one in contact? Damn that sucks, I loved that movie
@None None "What? People have different experiences and priorities than me?! You must be an idiot!" The arrogant idiocracy is real.
Hey, I feel ya!... but, give it a few years and will become a popular spot for urban (or not so) exploration! 👍🏻😆
That was a sad day for my Island, I was born and raised in PR and used to love going to that place every time. :(
Lots of us on the Island have fond memories of school trips to see the Observatory. I hope this wonderful site doesn't go to waste.
"When did this happen?" "2020." "Of course."
@@BrainScramblies Nope. It doubles in January.
Indeed🇵🇷
🤣😂
@@kimmer6 know something?
@@kimmer6 2021 is the sequel where everything ramps up double crazy.
In my first engineering job my boss, a great engineer from PR, told me about his experience building this radio dish. He was injured in a construction accident when a large boulder hit him on the side of the head, and he lost his hearing in that side. He had some great stories of the construction of the support columns and the overhead cables. We must rebuild this wonderful scientific instrument.
Well done! Thanks for posting.
I love these investigative breakdowns.
Still tearing up every time I see this footage. Arecibo was one of the wonders of the world.
i came to gawk . . . i stayed to mourn :-/
No it wasn’t
Thank you
my wife and i spent our 5th wedding anniversary in PR doing lots of diving, biking, etc., but the height of the trip was visiting the observatory. that old t-shirt is going in a frame on my wall. and don't even get me started on sagan's book contact - this was a place for the imagination to reach the stars, very literally. seems like a titanic moment, really. words cannot express just how moving this was, and what its loss means.
Someone: What year did it fall? Me: I'll give you one guess
It fell because of the acoustic waves coming from all the coughing covid infected brasilians.
@@u.v.s.5583 forest=brazil I guess. Its not brazil ya dum dum.
@@u.v.s.5583 Costa Rica...
@@ChristophersMum Both of you are wrong! It is located in the island of Puerto Rico, a US territory in the Caribbean.
There's gonna be a trend in signs and end-dates. Anything 2020 is gonna be "You know when." EX: "Chadwick Boseman: 1976 - You Know What Year" "Arecibo Observatory: 1960 - You Know When"
Wow, 3 inch steel cables! Nice job by the drone operator capturing that. Great video and explanation.
Good description and narration on this collapse.
Arecibo is the scientific equivalent of “The Giving Tree” - it gave us great physics all the way until the end!
Even it's ending was a physics demonstration.
I bet that structural engineers can learn from the close up drone video of the cable snapping. Perhaps help prevent this kind of thing in the future.
Scott, I don't think I have ever heard your voice so heavy with emotion. Truly, this was a horrific incident, and a tremendously tragic day for science. I share your hopes that Arecibo will become a Phoenix.
We will see this video over and over in class. Incredible structure, almost unbelievable that it ever existed. Maintenance on something like this is almost impossible. We see many super structures like this having the same problem, we cant figure out how to maintain them properly. I'm glad we had a drone in the sky to watch these cables let go. That is an extremely rare thing to witness in the real world
Excellent reporting Scott... a job well done. I am so disheartened after hearing about this. I had no clue this happened. Shame.
Meanwhile: Battlefield devs taking notes
Taking notes? Naw, Dice knew it was gonna happen. Dice did Arecibo, mark my words!
*cough* I think they were spot on...
@@SamwiseAjax Also bf4 was set in 2020. Im now waiting for South China Sea and Suez Canal
@@xsupremeyx9923 plz no
More like patting themselves on the back.. spot on I would say.
The drone was very lucky that a cable did not slice it into a million pieces. Nice video Scott.
We lost one of the advance Telescope who search for new planetary positions and life on other planet's 🥺
My drone went on strike after this happened and I got a call from the drone union.
How can a cable cause any damage? It's just a wire
@@esecallum There is a lot of tension on the cables. Think of a rubber band, but it’s made out of metal.
@@PorucznikBorewicz And three inches across. And moving 120 mph
Everybody is talking about the perfect timing of the drone operator, but there's some next-level camera work going on too. Zooming out when the action starts happening... Panning left and right to get the full breadth of the action without oversteering... Most drone operators don't have the skill to handle live, unexpected action shots like this. I'm glad this pilot was there for this shot.
My father was responsible for the maintenance of structure- including those cables in the 60s and 70s. Cornell University ran the telescope during that time.Cornell lost the contract to lower bids; they knew and told the NSF that they just couldn’t maintain it for what the other bids were offering.
BF4 players are like: Just like the simulation.
yeah
Good sniper times.
Literally going to post this😁, good times indeed
I remember it from Goldeneye (both movie and game).
Rogue Transmission
It is depressing and sad, i was at the brink of crying as it started to go down! Something broke in me, like the end of the space shuttle. Makes me sad and angry. Greetings from Munich, Tom.
I read a lot of news every day, but didn't know about this until I saw it in a "well that sucks" Reddit post.. Why isn't this more covered? Great video btw! Only wish I didn't have to specifically search for it to find it.
Great commentary Scott! 👍🏻👍🏻
006:For England James? 007: No for me. 006: AAAAAAAAAAAAA!
You have earned a sub
This was my thought exactly
my first thought
I'm still waiting for the news that after realizing they were unhurt, one of the staff on site yelled out "Yes! I am invincible!" in a Russian accent.
@@scribejay and gets covered by liquid hydrogen? Hahahahaha
They had a drone flying around for days and it was all over in a matter of seconds. And wow, the drone was in the exact place at exactly the right moment. And it happened during daylight on a clear day! Interesting commentary, thank you.
You hit the details dead on. FYI: The area was closed to house building when the observatory was being built, more for safety reasons than the signals causing problem with the machines in the satalite. However, a lot of people heard everything from beyond the area that morning.....and cried when the news of what happen was being reported on all the news programs.
Makes you wonder when the last inspection was completed? Reminds me of some steel (ACSR) transmission lines i replaced on power lines in my younger engineering days. We found the steel reinforcing strands had been losing their galvanizing on the center of the cable after 50 years. We suspected internal moisture coming and going over the life of the cable may have contributed. Fortunately, after we took some samples (replaced the sections) we were able to perform the inspection and analysis at the cable manufacturer. The results gave us the support to begin replacing the high voltage lines before they failed.
Missed opportunity: "I'm Scott Manley, fall safe"
Too soon
@@CrazyChemistPL way to soon
That could work for Starship.
Flying is just falling with style.
I‘d rather have „fail-safe“ please...
So sad that this 57-year-old radio telescope has come to an end. It was my favourite out of all the radio telescopes, a one-time record holder for being the biggest, and it simply looked really cool too. I hope it will be re-built, at some point.
I can’t believe this happened so long ago. Nobody told me. It’s like a part of history crumbling right before me. This is what if feels like to lose a wonder of the world.
I can't believe it collapsed like this. I remember being amazed by it from school text books and science books in the early '80s elementary school. It is a catastrophic loss.
I will never forget that morning , turning on the tv to hear the local news on channel 4 WAPA TV and the first thing you hear is the weather woman while crying that the Arecibo Observatory has collapsed. My wife and i looked at each other in shock and immediately felt so sad and almost felt like crying. My wife and i live in Puerto Rico and we have visited the Arecibo Observatory 4 times , last time was 3 years ago with the kids. We love taking the Tour , it was simply an honor to be in the presence of such important piece of technology and hear all the discoveries that were founded by this Giant. Now the giant has fallen and a immense sorrow falls over our island , we havent got a positive month since the year 2020 started. Hopefully someday the Arecibo Observatory will rise again. Hopefully.
I feel you, I woke up for class then I saw a message in fb that said ARECIBO SE CAYO and I was like oh no. I quickly searched up and my mom saw it, she was crying and I was like oh SHIT. I live in Hatillo btw and Ada Monzon made me cry seeing her cry.
@@bruvillo cryception
Why were you crying tho?
@@acxgr6457 it's called cryception
@@SobboMonkeVR that’s not a word lol
Iv'e been there a few times, it was in dire straights last time I was there about 7 yrs ago but it was massive.
You are really lucky to have seen it !
straits
@@richard4short5 str8s
streits*
I live on the island and only saw it once.
Thanks for you video Scott. I was a high school student at Inter American University Campus School in San German, Puerto Rico from 1964 through May 1968, and one of our field trips was to the Arecibo Radio telescope. Thus I have an interest in the subject matter. When we toured there in 1966/1967 we were told that Cornell was operating/managing the facility and I’m curious what changes might have transpired or been Implemented as the management changed between management “shifts” at the telescope, and how or what if any, impacts thereby ensued that could have contributed to is failure. Thanks, 73s Tom KC3QAC
DAMN! I had time scheduled next Monday! Been waiting 22 years!
“For England James?” “No, for me”
Best comment ever
Life imitating art. Except without a massive explosion.
dammit you beat me to it
Albeit in the absence of much competition this comment might just be the greatest thing this year. I salute you! 🏅
"Yes! I am invincible!" ⛄
If it weren't so sad, that would be the most beautiful collapse I've ever seen
I really hope they’ll build something new. Scott said it well with the end of the video
Oh wow! Just finding out this happened today (12/15) Simply incredible video. How did this not make the news?!?!?
The news doesn’t care about real science.
@@TommyT777 They did when I was a kid in the 1970's and 80's.
@@dexterricketts8490 I can remember the tail end of that as a toddler. What a glorious time. I’m disappointed with how much the big educational channels and news have gradually reduced their content to view-pandering. I remember staring at animations of molecular structures for hours on Knowledge (or something) as a kid.
I watched a deep analysis of the collapse last night, totally forgot about that amazing (and LUCKYYYYYYY) drone shot. It’s heartbreaking, but thank god no one was injured, and that they had the sense to not have people in the danger zone for the few months after the failure of the first cable.
It held on just long enough to let us record one more thing from it...
The condition the telescope was kept in.... I'm surprised it lasted this long.
It cost $71.3M in today's dollars. FAST cost $170 using much more modern engineering practices, lighter cables, etc. Arecibo was definitely a bit underbuilt.
Science is the plaything of politics. For most of it's early life it was well funded (probably because it was important for defense during the cold war) but in the last couple decades that hasn't exactly been the case. The cuts in science funding have been especially deep under the trump administration. Also much of the damage which led to the failure was a result of hurricane Maria in 2017 which was never properly addressed.
@@spiderpickle3255 attention has been diverted only. This was a very important dish. however, technologies have evolved. Now we use arrays of satellites above the Earth's atmosphere where clear imagery can be collected. Hubble Telescope was the first real step. There has actually been an escalation in DoD activity in partnership with NASA and SpaceX so I wouldn't say we don't need scientists as much anymore. Only the technology has changed.
@@spiderpickle3255 The dish was having trouble with funding long before the Trump administration. 20 years ago, when I was participating in the SETI@home project, there was frequent discussion about the lack of funding for the facility.
@@Crosshair84 As I stated "For most of it's early life it was well funded . . . but in the last couple decades that hasn't exactly been the case." But at the same time one can't ignore that trump proposed cutting funding to the NSF by something like 40% before backlash made him walk it back.
The varying rates of failure for the support cables indicates that the were not tensioned evenly to start with. There should have been a mechanism to monitor and adjust the tension of each cable so they are all identical.
It should have been a part of routine maintenance. Replacing a snapped cable should have been planned for too. I think the budget just got cut too small and doomed it. There were months after the first cable broke, so there was time to fix it if anyone considered it important... Science wasn't really a priority for the political party in power at the time though...
Not only do I hope they will get the funding needed to rebuild this site but I look forward to the time lapse video of the cleanup and rebirth of this once amazing piece of technology. So happy no one was injured or lost their life in this tragic accident.
It's a shame they could not afford to replace these cables which appeared to be already stressed to a dangerous point of failure. Unfortunately, older projects like these fall to the wayside as newer technologies and projects are awarded funding... often leaving the maintenance of these great expenditures from decades past with little money to maintain them properly. Hopefully in the future people will understand the importance of ongoing maintenance and repairs so they can factor that into the initial costs to be used later when important infrastructure begins to decay and fail. I also wonder if a better coating, teflon perhaps, might have slowed down the decay of these monstrous support cables. I think all involved would agree in hindsight that they should have stopped all future plans for this antenna/dish/radio until the remaining cables could be evaluated and replaced where necessary. I'm sure just 1 or those cables is extremely expensive but would the cost outweigh the loss... I think it would. This could have been much worse if people were working near the site. No one would have had time to get to cover before those cables came racing by destroying everything in their path
I breaks my heart, really. It was iconic and amazing piece of technology...
Yup, was. Lol
It's all about how you vote.
The pride of Puerto Rico
You: "I have never seen a cable snap so close" Battlefield4 players: First time?
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL. I had the exact same thought :)
@@AcuraAddicted your a savage for this one bro hahahaha hell yeah!!!!
Soooo many c4
If I hadn't seen the news story and just saw the photo I probably would think its battlefield at a quick glance.
Haha snipers walking in the cable go brrrrrr
When I was in the Navy stationed at Roosevelt Roads we would fly by it occasionally. It’s very impressive to slow fly by it with your feet hanging out of a helo 👍👍👍👍
The flipping Arecibo telescope destroyed, and am I only hearing about this through KZhead?!
If you still watch corporate news you know it's all just covid hysteria propaganda. It's lucky we're hearing about this at all.
Seriously wtf. I only found this by accident.
That is life now. No actual news, just mainstream media narratives
I'm only hearing this now cmon
Genuinely upset I'm only hearing about this from f**king KZhead recommendations..
Maybe you should start looking at news and you'd have found out about it straight after it happened
@@mark7574 Would be a good point if the news wasn't literally just reporting on each new Covid case and how Trump and Biden are fighting for the White House (Despite the fact I'm not in America)
It was reported extensively here in PR.
It was all over Latino news
@@KantFromEC the news isn't any one single organization.. it all depends on what type of news topics you are regularly reading. I knew about the issues at Arecibo for a long while, this was somewhat expected. You can get lost in politics news or read things you're actually interested in.
I'm so grateful to see these angles. You almost never get such great views of stuff like this. Extremely glad no one lost their life or was injured.
"They had been very actively inspecting the cables. Because they knew the cables were going to break soon." XD
Yea, as a general space industry guy it was probably also tied to a lack of general funding for updates to old equipment. I can only imagine what the inspectors said every time they looked over that thing.
How odd that it would break in a near perfect straight line? Unless ofc it had previously been cut, so that the failure of a few wires would certainly lead to total catastrophe. Thanks for sharing your interesting view of this very unfortunate setback to science and humankind in general.
So heartbreaking being a physics student from Puerto Rico.
But there were a lot physics involved in its final demise :) It was a parting gift.
Ik
I feel your pain. 😢 It hurt watching that collapse.
Same, this is the telescope which picked up the wow! Signal :c
Prepare to calculate all this on your next test
This actually happened at the end of the Goldeneye 007 movie with James Bond. The structure fell on 006 at the end of the movie.
Six months later and I'm still incredibly sad about this.
Understand even with the delay of cables breaking this fell at 32 feet a second with about only 16 ft due to the acceleration curve in the first second. So the fact it took a few seconds for the main fall , not counting all the action & reaction movement and continued catastrophic explosive failures afterwards. The sheer amount of energy released that was under load massive and went from stored static to dynamic is amazing.
A lot of us were emotionally invested in this place, Scott. Personally, I recall seeing Arecebo listed as the source of data my computers were processing for SETI at Home. Our sentimental connections to the place were deep. It's good you covered it, man.
Ditto! I was in starting on May 31 of 1999. Over a half million hours of CPU time on the Classic version and 15million credits on the last version. " has participated in the SETI@home project since 1 June 1999, and has contributed 15,088,464 Cobblestones of computation (13.04 quintillion floating-point operations) and 90407 Classic workunits to SETI@home's search for extraterrestrial life. Dr. Eric J. Korpela Director, SETI@home 7 December 2020 "
Atleast noone will camp up there for the rest of this round
Campers amirite
I really like your closing remarks, very classy
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