"R" == Rich  <someone@somewhere.com> writes:

The total cost, spread over about 5 years, is in the range of
$25M. The next big public radio telescope (ALMA) is costing
taxpayers about $50 million this year alone, and will take many
years to complete, and will end up at least on order of magnitude
more expensive.

And don't think I don't question these costs as well. But Alma is
partly funded by the the ESO and partly by the NSF. I've not found
what the split is.

The USA contribution for 2004 alone is 50.8 million dollars.

R> That's around 10% right off.

For the record, total ALMA construction costs will be split, 50% from
the US (NSF) and 50% from ESO.

(This assumes that the Japanese don't join.  I'm not up to date on the
latest word on that.)

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