'World class' observatory to close amid AUT cuts

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

New Zealand's only major radio observatory is to close by Christmas, in a move our astronomy society says will have a "detrimental impact" on our burgeoning role in the global space community.

Auckland University of Technology (AUT) has confirmed that its Warkworth Radio Astronomical Observatory will cease operating on December 16, with the loss of three permanent and one hourly paid positions.

AUT - which has proposed to cut 150 academics and 80 staff members amid a wider, cost-cutting restructure – last night told the Herald it had been decided the observatory's activities were "no longer aligned with the future direction of the university".

"It is therefore no longer possible to allocate funds to continue its operation in a cost-constrained funding environment where difficult decisions need to be made," a spokesperson said.

AUT, which has operated the facility for more than a decade, didn't say what would become of the observatory's current contracts and partnerships with international agencies and companies.

In an internal summary of its restructure, the observatory was among activities listed as being "no longer strategic priorities" for the university.

Over the past decade, AUT's Institute of Radio Astronomy and Space Research (IRASR) has worked with Elon Musk's SpaceX, helping track the launch of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft in the first commercial unmanned flight to the International Space Station.

Other high-profile international clients have included Nasa, the European Space Agency and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Only two years ago, the observatory became home to New Zealand's first practical course in space exploration.

Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand president Nalayini Brito said the country should make "every effort" to keep running what she called a "world-class operation".

"Clearly its closure would have a detrimental impact upon astronomy, upon science, upon education and upon our nation's growing reputation as being progressively engaged in the space business," she said, pointing to the country's new space agency and the homegrown success of Rocket Lab.

Brito argued the cost of maintaining the observatory would be only a fraction of the cost of setting up a similar facility – and that its value to science and the environment couldn't be measured by making the site a cost centre.

"Astronomy is a fast-growing field for productive activity and education, and Warkworth Observatory is and can continue to be a key player here."

She suggested AUT develop sustainable operating models for the observatory, "with other more progressive and enlightened parties in the mix".

This month, prominent Kiwi astronomer John Hearnshaw 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, an emeritus professor at the University of Canterbury, 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."

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 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), which New Zealand effectively pulled out of in 2019.