Tech, MRO get millions in funding

By Pepita Ridgeway

El Defensor Chieftain

pridgeway@dchieftain.com

   The Magdalena Ridge Observatory has been awarded $15 million to complete construction in the fiscal year 2004 Defense Appropriations Bill.

   The Defense Bill is separate from the Homeland Security Bill, in which a Senate committee has approved $140 million specific to New Mexico Tech for first responder training -- $15 million over last year's funding. Another $20 million was allocated to New Mexico Tech for national domestic preparedness training.

   The Homeland Security Bill is currently on the Senate floor for approval.

   The Defense Bill, recently approved by the Senate, provides $369 billion to fund national defense work next year.

   "First of all, we don't know if we'll get all the money," said Dave Westpfahl, project scientist at MRO, "The bill will go to the House next. They are supposed to pass it before Sept. 30. It is my understanding that the House bill does not have the same dollar amount (as the Senate amount) at this point," he said.

   The MRO complex will be used by Defense Department agencies studying missile flights and tests at White Sands Missile Range. From the site, the observatory will be able to track missiles launched from Fort Wingate, the North Range Extension to WSMR, and from WSMR itself. The Office of Naval Research, Naval Research Laboratory project will consist of a single stand-alone telescope and a multi-telescope interferometer.

   A university research consortium composed of New Mexico Tech, New Mexico State University, New Mexico Highlands University, the University of Puerto Rico and Cambridge University supports the project. The MRO project received $21 million in 2003.

   Westpfahl said the MRO is now in the design process and an environmental impact study is currently being put together for the site. "We expect everything to be online by 2008, but all these things entail uncertainty."

   In the same bill, New Mexico Tech received approval for $10 million for blast mitigation research. The funds are provided to continue blast mitigation research conducted through the New Mexico Tech Energetic Material Research and Testing Center. The research is giving the Defense Department a better understanding of how buildings, structures, and housing respond to explosives and other weapons of mass destruction.

   EMRTC Director John Mason said, "This is good news. We have been following the news from Washington very closely. Funding for the project was proposed early this spring. Now we just have to wait for the bill to be signed."

   Mason said that the Blast Mitigation Program's ultimate goal is to develop simple, straightforward guidelines for military personnel to use to help them defend positions, themselves and assets quickly and easily.

   "This is a program where we'll look at different types of novel-type explosives that terrorists can get their hands on. Also survivability and vulnerability of structures including doors, windows, offices, pipelines, anything susceptible," said Mason.

   Mason said the Blast Mitigation Research program has about eight to 10 people involved. "We have engineers, scientists carrying out design experiments. We have technicians, explosive ordinance personnel and field crews building structures," he said.

   The 2004 Defense Bill also includes $866 million, an increase of $62 million above the president's request. Within the research amount, $55 million is approved for homeland security programs through universities.