El Gran Telescopio Milimétrico, que construyen en el Cerro dela Negrael Inaoe y el Tecnológico de Massachussets, tiene aplicaciones militares y es financiado en gran parte por el Departamento dela Defensade Estados Unidos, revela un reportaje publicado en la edición México del periódico The Herald.
Firmado por el periodista Dane Schiller y publicado en asociación con El Universal, el material informativo expone que dicha dependencia estadounidense tiene como fin desarrollar tecnología para los sistemas de la defensa del espacio.
También presenta declaraciones de Philip Coyle, que como asistente dela Secretaríadela Defensade Estados Unidos en la administración de Clinton era director de prueba y de evaluación operacionales en el Pentágono. Este ex funcionario comenta que un proyecto de esta envergadura no se financiaría desde esa nación a menos que tuviera un valor militar potencial fuerte, en este caso en contra de los satélites o de los misiles hostiles.
La oficina de presidente Vicente Fox, que ha estado abogando por el telescopio, declinó emitir comentarios sobre el tema, se dice en el reportaje. Fox ha considerado al telescopio como el proyecto científico más importante de la historia mexicana. Su costo es de 100 millones de dólares y México ha contribuido con 60%.
El resto, se agrega, ha venido de los Estados Unidos, como un proyecto del departamento de investigación avanzada dela Defensa, un brazo del pentágono que aportó 33 millones de dólares. La agencia, conocida como DARPA, que inventó el establecimiento de una red de computadoras y construyó la primera versión del Internet, no tenía ningún comentario, aunque los documentos del congreso demuestran interés militar a largo plazo.
“El diseño podría mejorar grandemente las capacidades para la adquisición y el reconocimiento de blancos en espacio, también como demuestra la viabilidad de la energía de largo alcance dirigió los dispositivos”, indica un documento del Comité de las Fuerzas Armadas del Senado a partir de 1997, año en que la construcción comenzó.
A continuación se presenta el texto íntegro en inglés, idioma original en el que fue redactado y en el que se entrevista a académicos estadounidenses y mexicanos, además de la diputada federal poblana Rosa María Avilés Nájera:
Dane Schiller
Telescope has military uses
A joint Mexico-U.S. effort to build a monster telescope atop a dormant volcano southeast ofMexico Citylargely 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 ofPueblawon´t be some kind of Star Wars defense outpost.
Philip Coyle, who asU.S.assistant secretary of defense in theClintonadministration 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.
But it appears closer to completion after an antenna dish as big as a baseball infield was successfully hoisted and welded to the 17-story structure last month.
The telescope´s new profile can be seen for miles and likely will increase the chances the public will wonder about its purpose. Up to now, Mexican media attention has focused solely on the scientific capacity of the telescope.
Rosa María Aviléz Nájera, a federal congresswoman for the leftist Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) and a native ofPueblastate, said the Pentagon funding tie was news to her.
“There is a line, an imaginary line, and we have to be careful not to cross that line,” she said of the proximity of science to military purposes.
Aviléz said she planned to learn more about the funding and any obligations that come with it. She acknowledged that science is expensive, but said the telescope-funding source may itself be too high a price.
“Violating traditions”
“It seems to be violating the traditions we have in this country, that the research we produce is for the good of humanity, not to combat a few groups or sectors of the world population,” she said.
“If we know they are using this to benefit humanity, we have no worries,” Aviléz said. “But due to history, we know that for manyU.S.governments, democracy means doing exactly as they say.”
The office of President Vicente Fox, who has been advocating for the telescope, declined to comment.
Fox has called it the most important scientific project in Mexican history.
The cost so far has been US$100 million and is climbing, andMexicohas come up with about 60 percent of it.
The rest has come from theUnited States, with the bulk from the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, an arm of the Pentagon, which kicked in US$33 million.
The agency, known as DARPA, that invented computer networking and built the first version of the internet, had no comment, although congressional documents show long-term military interest.
“The design could greatly improve capabilities for acquisition and recognition of targets in space, as well as demonstrate the feasibility of long-range energy directed devices,” states a document from the Senate Armed Services Committee from 1997, the year construction began.
The telescope is a rare joint U.S.-Mexico scientific effort, spearheaded by theUniversityofMassachusettsand the National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics.
It would enable scientists to look about 13 billion years into the past to explore the universe´s birth.
Luis Felipe Rodríguez, director of the Center for Radio Astronomy and Astrophysics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, emphasizedMexicowas a pacifist nation but said he has no problem with the project.
“All of science and technology can be seen as part of a double-edged knife,” he said. “Even infrared is used for weapons.”
George Grayson, aMexicoexpert at theCollegeofWilliamand Mary inWilliamsburg,Va., said: “I suspect that revelation of the potential use of a telescope inMexicowill cause nationalist politicians to raise pluperfect hell. It will touch an extremely sensitive nationalistic nerve. If there is any link between the telescope andU.S.military power, then it will spark a nationalist outcry inMexico.”
Peter Schloerb, who oversees part of the project for theUniversityofMassachusettsatAmherst, said there could be defense applications for the radio-telescope research, but said the Pentagon has had a hand in many types of research.
“I am an astronomer. I am not a weapons scientist,” he said. “Nobody in their right mind would build some kind of a secret weapon in the country ofMexico. That is just not happening. There is a lot of basic research that has been funded by the Department of Defense. How (the research) is ultimately used is a bit out of my control.”
