GMT and TMT Still in Limbo after External Review

Renderings of the Giant Magellan Telescope, left, and the Thirty Meter Telescope.
Left: GMTO Corporation / Right: M3 Engineering
The future of the proposed Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile and the Thirty Meter Telescope in Hawaii remains cloudy following the release of a report
Reacting to the report, NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan stated
The report does not express a clear preference for one project over the other. Emphasizing the gravity of advancing either telescope to the final design phase, the report observes, “Entering FDP is not a commitment by NSF to fund construction; however, the community expectation and the past precedent is that no project has entered FDP without ultimately being built.”
This news brief originally appeared in FYI’s newsletter for the week of Dec. 16.