Pedro Duque sees the TMT in “dead time” and trusts he can still reach La Palma if the project is reformulated

The astronaut and former Minister of Science, Pedro Duque, stated on Wednesday that the project of the Thirty Metros Telescope (TMT) has been left in “dead time” in the face of the international consortium’s refusal to install it in La Palma but believes that there are still options if there is a reformulation of the project.

In statements to journalists before intervening in a colloquium organized by APD Canarias he has said that we have to be “attentive to see that it comes out” because perhaps it has been thinking of doing a 30-meter telescope with this design “and now it turns out that we have to do something else.”

He has indicated that “the party is not over and it is not known how it will end” although it is clear that the United States, the main financier of the project, now has another vision, other than that in Hawaii they continue to oppose with more “emotional than rational” arguments.