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It looks like the Death Star laser cannon, but this proposed lunar telescope, built inside a natural crater on the far side of the Moon, could be used to look into the early days of the cosmos.
Earlier this monthPOT award of additional funds to a large number of projects in its Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, in which taxpayers are encouraged to submit innovative ideas aimed at “change as possible. ”
Some of the most interesting proposals included a solution for explorer the subsurface ocean of Jupiter’s moon Europa, instantaneous landing strips for Artemis’s next mission to the Moon, and a fascinating launch use antimatter as a way to slowing down the interstellar spacecraft way to exoplanet Proxima Centauri b (as I said: high-concept ideas).
One of the most intriguing proposals is from JPL roboticist Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay, who wants to build a telescope inside a natural crater on the other side of the Moon. He calls it Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT). NASA has granted this project the status of Phase 1 and dice the team $ 120,000 to advance the idea. If Bandyopadhyay and his colleagues come up with a compelling proposal, the idea would advance to the second of three phases, so this project is not an agreement.
“The objective of NIAC Phase 1 is to study the feasibility of the LCRT concept,” Bandyopadhyay told Gizmodo. “During Phase 1, we will focus primarily on the mechanical design of LCRT, looking for suitable craters on the Moon and comparing the performance of LCRT with other ideas that have been put forward in the literature.”
In terms of when such a structure could be built, he said his team would have a better idea once Phase 1 is completed. But wow, what an amazing thing it would be if it were. Actually built.
LCRT would be an ultra long wavelength radio telescope capable of capturing some of the weakest signals traveling in space.
“It is not possible to observe the universe at wavelengths greater than 10 meters [33 feet], or frequencies below 30 MHz, from ground stations, because these signals are reflected by Earth’s ionosphere, “Bandyopadhyay said.” Also, satellites in Earth’s orbit would pick up significant noise from Earth’s ionosphere. ” , reason why “such observations are very difficult”.
It is for this reason that scientists have not yet explored wavelengths greater than 10 meters. Consequently, this telescope would be a great help to astronomers and cosmologists, who would use it to study the early universe as it existed some 13.8 billion years ago, including the formation of the first stars.
yesBy placing the LCRT on the far side of the Moon, the observatory would be protected from radio interference and other nuisances from Earth, whether natural or artificial.
“The Moon acts as a physical shield that isolates the telescope from the lunar surface from radio interference / noise from Earth sources, the ionosphere, Earth-orbiting satellites, and the radio noise from the Sun during the lunar night,” Bandyopadhyay explained.
As described in the summary, the telescope would be built on a crater 3 to 5 kilometers (1.9 to 3.1 miles) in diameter. Several DuAxel robots would chain, suspend and anchor a mesh measuring 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) in diameter inside the crater, making it the “largest full-aperture radio telescope in the Solar System,” according to the summary.
DuAxel robots “are amazing and they’ve already been field tested in challenging scenarios, “Bandyopadhyay told Gizmodo. JPL robotist Issa Nesnas has led the design of these robots for the past decade, and he, along with JPL robotist Patrick Mcgarey, are also working in the LCRT project.
When asked how much technology still needs to be developed for this proposal to be possible, Bandyopadhyay said “quite a bit” as most of the technology needed for LCRT is currently at a low level technological readiness level, in NASA terms.
“I don’t want to go into details, but we have a long way to go,” he said. “Therefore, we are very grateful for this NIAC Phase 1 funding!”
