Hee proposes NASA finance scholarships

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer

NASA should set aside $20 million for education in Hawai'i as compensation for use of Mauna Kea as an astronomy center, Office of Hawaiian Affairs Chairman Clayton Hee said yesterday.

Hee, who said he was expressing his own position, and not speaking for OHA, spoke to a consultation meeting in Hilo on a proposal for four more telescopes to function as "outriggers" for the Keck I and Keck II telescopes already on the mountain. A draft environmental impact statement for the telescope plan suggests the project could mitigate some of its effect by meeting educational needs of Native Hawaiians.

Hee said his suggestion is that some of the vast sums spent on astronomy be redirected to provide "a local program for local people," so that, "at the end of the food chain, the community is the beneficiary."

Hee said $600 million has been spent on the cluster of observatories atop Mauna Kea, and $50 million is spent annually maintaining and using them.

The Mauna Kea observatory complex sits on ceded lands from which Native Hawaiians by law are entitled to derive revenue.

Hee's proposals has two basic parts:

• Two $5 million scholarship foundations for students who have graduated from high school in Hawai'i, one for undergraduates and one for post-graduate study, in Hawaiian language, Hawaiian culture, mathematics, science or astronomy.
• Five chairs endowed at $2 million apiece at the University of Hawai'i-Hilo to pay professors who teach those subjects.

"The effort is to give local students, regardless of race, the opportunity to study in any of the five disciplines, in undergraduate and postgraduate studies," Hee said.

Hee also proposed that NASA finance the creation of a public school curriculum in astronomy, science and navigation for students in grades K-12.

Hee said the Royal Order of Kamehameha supported the suggestion at the Hilo meeting. Former University of Hawai'i regent Stan Roehrig called it "long overdue."

The expansion of the Keck Observatory system would establish four, and later possibly a total of six, outrigger scopes that would be used simultaneously with the 10-meter Keck telescopes.

Keck Observatory Director Fred Chaffee said the NASA-funded project would produce images of the sky "a factor of 10 better than can be produced by any telescope in the world."

"This precision is unprecedented in the history of astronomy, and initially will be used to search for solar systems in formation and for already formed planets around nearby stars," Chaffee said.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808)245-3074.