The race to build a super-large ground telescope is likely down to two competitors

So I think it covers both this kind of aspiration that we have to enrich humanity in some way, to help foster the future economy by bringing more people into these technical fields, and also by driving technology in some areas. The kinds of work we’re doing on adaptive optics, for example, in building sensitive detector systems and spectrometers, drive the frontier of what you can do with these systems.

Ars: Why has this taken so long?

Jaffe: Well, it’s large, it’s complicated, and it’s unique. Those are the three things together that drive that. It involves a large amount of technology that’s needed to make something like this go in terms of size and precision and speed. And those things together make it take a long time, and also cost a fairly large amount of money. We’ve raised about half of the money. And many of the most difficult parts of the project are well underway in terms of construction or prototyping. All seven mirrors that are needed for the telescope are cast, and a number of them are already finished.

Ars: How is the telescope’s site in the Atacama Desert in Chile coming along?

Jaffe: We’ve broken ground on the site, and it’s been leveled in the foundation. Areas have been dug out, and the utilities have all been installed. It’s now kind of in a free state, waiting for some of the other parts of the project to catch up to it.

Ars: Since the European telescope is now likely to be completed first, does that mean GMT will miss out on a lot of science discoveries?

Jaffe: These telescopes are complementary in many ways. It depends not just on the glass itself, but on the instruments you put behind them, and what they’re capable of. And I expect that at this size scale there’ll be plenty of discoveries for all of us to make. And also with other things coming online, like the (Vera) Rubin telescope that will provide new types of phenomena to investigate, there won’t be a list of things we’ve got to do, and the first person to get to the finish line will do them.