According the Hawaii Tribune Herald, the Air Force Pan-STARRS telescope proposed to be built on the sacred mountain Mauna Kea has been delayed, in part by cost overruns.  The article states:

When complete, Pan-STARRS will scan the heavens for “near-Earth objects,” comets and asteroids that pose an impact threat to Earth. The Air Force funding has sparked protests that the telescope is a secret military installation, but project leaders maintain that it is intended only for civilian purposes and that all data collected will be unclassified.

Who can believe that? What’s more this is one of a new wave of telescopes poised to invade the sacred mountaintop:

Pan-STARRS is one of three new telescopes coming to Mauna Kea. The smallest, Hoku Ke’a, the University of Hawaii at Hilo’s 0.9-meter telescope, will be installed in the former housing of the 0.6-meter telescope soon. The largest, the Thirty Meter Telescope, may have a final EIS released to the governor by the end of this month.

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www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/articles/2010/01/07/front/

Telescope EIS faces delays

by Peter Sur
Tribune-Herald Staff Writer

Published: Thursday, January 7, 2010 9:44 AM HST

The environmental study for an asteroid-hunting telescope proposed to be built atop Mauna Kea will be delayed.

The University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy had hoped to release a draft Environmental Impact Statement sometime early this year for the Panoramic Survey Telescope And Rapid Response System, better known as Pan-STARRS.

That will be delayed for between 12 and 18 months while astronomers focus on fine-tuning the telescope’s prototypes on Haleakala.

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