Professor Sergei Gulyaev, director of AUT's Institute of Radio Astronomy and Space Research, pictured with the Warkworth observatory's 30m radio telescope in 2008. Photo / Greg Bowker
Professor Sergei Gulyaev, director of AUT's Institute of Radio Astronomy and Space Research, pictured with the Warkworth observatory's 30m radio telescope in 2008. Photo / Greg Bowker
The future of New Zealand's only major radio observatory remains uncertain, amid proposed changes that have drawn worry from our official astronomy society.
This week it was revealed Auckland University of Technology (AUT) planned to cut 150 academics and 80 staff members in restructuring it put down to economic pressures and a drop-off in international students.
Among activities listed in an internal summary as being "no longer strategic priorities" - and proposed to be wound down by the year's end – was its Warkworth Radio Astronomical Observatory (WRAO) north of Auckland.
There, AUT proposed to disestablish three permanent and one hourly paid staff position, along with a proportion of two permanent staff positions, although consultation was still underway and no decision had been made, a spokesperson said.
"The proposal is a result of strategic alignment in a cost-constrained funding environment where difficult decisions need to be made."
Asked about the future of the observatory itself, which AUT has operated for more than a decade, the spokesperson said no call had been made and the university was "open to working with external parties".
"If the facility is closed the activities of the observatory would cease, over an appropriate period of time, and we would work with academics and support them through the closure."
As for the observatory's current contracts and partnerships with international agencies and companies, AUT would "work with partners on how best to deliver on or address any contractual obligations".
First developed for long-range telecommunications – and once used to broadcast the 1974 Christchurch-hosted Commonwealth Games – the Warkworth complex today hosts two major radio telescopes.
They are the towering, 30m Cassegrain antenna, originally repurposed from a Telecom telecommunication antenna, and a 12m, steerable fast-slewing antenna positioned about 200m away.
The observatory is also equipped with a Symmetricom Hydrogen maser clock, designed to provide extremely accurate timing as required for very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) used in radio astronomy.
Formally part of the Australian Long Baseline Array (LBA), the telescopes and observatory group have been used in a range of science projects, including the study of plate tectonic motion and the ongoing global project to build the world's largest radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
Over the past decade, AUT's Institute of Radio Astronomy and Space Research (IRASR) has also worked with Elon Musk's SpaceX, helping track the launch of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft in what was the first commercial unmanned flight to the International Space Station.
Only two years ago, the observatory became home to New Zealand's first practical course in space exploration.
IRASR director Professor Sergei Gulyaev has yet to respond to a request for comment.
Professor Sergei Gulyaev (centre), director of AUT's Institute of Radio Astronomy and Space Research, with colleagues Tim Natusch (left) and Stuart Weston at Warkworth in 2012. Photo / Greg Bowker
Prominent Kiwi astronomer John Hearnshaw, an emeritus professor at the University of Canterbury, said it would be a "catastrophe" for the observatory to close, after the expense and effort that went into establishing it some 15 years ago.
Hearnshaw said the observatory has built a reputation with radio astronomers around the world, and remained the country's sole radio astronomy research facility.
"If it closes, then this country has nothing by way of infrastructure in radio-science," he said.
"It would damage the AUT brand and reputation to close this high-profile facility and lose highly qualified staff scientists."
Given the rapid advance in space science in New Zealand – the Government only this week went to the public for input on an aerospace strategy and space policy – it was "vital" the country had such a facility to support its industry, he said.
While the Government backed out of the SKA project in 2019, Hearnshaw said the observatory still had an important place in global radio astronomy, particularly through VLBI collaborations with overseas partners.
Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand president Nalayini Brito said the closure of the observatory would mean "closing the country's radio astronomy segment of science altogether".
"AUT seems to be measuring the cost and benefit of astronomic science in very simple terms here," Brito said.
"AUT are not unique in taking such a narrow view when economic times are difficult.
