Telescope has military uses
A joint Mexico-U.S. effort to build a monster telescope atop a dormant volcano southeast of Mexico City largely is funded by a U.S. Defense Department project aimed at developing technology for space defense systems.
While the Large Millimeter Telescope‘s primary mission is to use radio waves to probe the origins of the universe, some Mexicans believe its military link teeters on the edge of unacceptable territory for a nation that prides itself on staying non-aggressive on the world stage.
Supporters said links between science and the military are nothing new and emphasized the telescope being assembled on the 15,000-foot Sierra Negra in the state of Puebla won´t be some kind of Star Wars defense outpost.
Philip Coyle, who as U.S. assistant secretary of defense in the Clinton administration was director of operational testing and evaluation at the Pentagon, said officials wouldn’t fund a project unless it had strong potential military value, in this case against hostile satellites or missiles.
“It is a very high-powered, focused radar beam that could be used to find an enemy object out in space and, having found it, zero in on it,” Coyle said.
The radio telescope, designed to be the largest of its kind in the world, has faced a host of construction challenges.
Source: El Universal.
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