I recently took a day trip to the Very Large Array, a radio astronomy telescope system located on the vast and uncrowded Plains of San Agustin, and featured in the movie Contact under the pseudonym Argus Array. The nearest town is Magdalena, twenty miles away.
It was wonderful to get out of the city. The moment I cleared the city limits and set the cruise control on I-25, I felt myself relax. I love driving through rural New Mexico. It always feels like I’m driving through a Wild West movie or novel. My car performed like a champ on the two-hour road trip. I was driving by myself, but I had companions: George Strait, Alison Krauss, and Natalie MacMaster, as well as others.
The rules at the Very Large Array are very clear: turn off all electronic devices and put them on airplane mode. However, the first thing I saw when I walked into the visitor center was a fool gabbling on her cellphone, right under a security camera. If the very sensitive radio receivers here would be affected by a cell phone signal, as numerous warning signs attested, then this woman should have been promptly removed by security. Astonishingly, there was no security – at least not that I saw.
The emphasis on no electronic devices is so strong that (tongue planted in cheek) the Very Large Array might be able to raise funds for maintenance or scientific research by hosting a “digital detox” center. Parents driven to exasperation by their social media-addicted offspring could bring their children there for a week or so. The inspiring, wide views of the surrounding countryside and the rigorous scientific work carried out at the Array might be able to break addiction to social media, which generally ranges from drivel to psychological warfare. Sedation might be required for the worst cases.
I enjoyed the self-guided tour. I walked underneath one of the big radio receivers, saw a parabolic system designed to show the propagation of sound, which is best done with a partner. This would be a good exercise for children. When I meet my wife and have a few rascally children of my own, I will take them to the Very Large Array. I also viewed the Barn, where the radio receivers were constructed, and where they are periodically taken for maintenance by the special transporter trucks.
On the way back, I stopped in Magdalena to refuel my car and myself. Then I stopped at Water Canyon to ramble around. There was a short trail which I followed by the unreliable method of following people’s footprints in the melting snow. Then I switched to hiking on a muddy dirt road. After that, I hit the road for home.
It’s nice to see a government big project that does something useful and awe-inspiring in these times when the word “government” is usually associated with incompetence, corruption, obscene expense, and abuse of power. Such a project is not likely to be undertaken today; there has been a turning inward instead of an expanding outward. There has been a national loss of confidence. People would find some excuse to litigate it to death. Dr. Carl Sagan, the great scientist and great American who wrote the book which was turned into the movie, would be delighted to see that the Very Large Array is still going strong, but he would be disappointed to see that some of the cultural trends he mentioned in his books, such as a preference for entertainment over knowledge, have gotten worse.
For further reading:
Carl Sagan, Contact
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot
Carl Sagan, The Demon Haunted World