Hooked up to the National Broadband Network out in country New South Wales, researchers believed they would be able to have their telescope used remotely by people from their computers. The idea was that someone in the US who wanted to research the southern skies could operate the telescope themselves sitting at their PC in America.
However it's turned out Turnbull's NBN is just too slow. With everything working off the NBN satellite, it can take up to 2 minutes to get a response from the telescope from the US, making it unusable.
The only solution left is to pay mega bucks for the infrastructure build to get a fixed line fibre optic cable connection.
The head of Astronomical Consultants, the American company working to establish the remote control access said the NBN could not support the technology.
Peter Mac said remote research opportunities would not be possible if an alternative internet connection could not be found.
"It won't be possible to use the telescope without a good service," Dr Mac said.
"The new service just isn't all that it was made out to be and unfortunately it's so slow and has so many drop outs, of 30 minutes or more, that it is essentially not usable for us."
Dr Mac fears they were running out of options.
The NBN has suggested the Milroy Observatory could pay for additional infrastructure to boost its internet so it can take part in global research. The NBN's spokeswoman Kelly Stevens said upload speeds in Australia were not as fast as download speeds, which the observatory relies on for remote access.
Ms Stevens said the observatory could pay for a fibre optic option to boost its connection. ABC
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment