Far side of the Moon

Moon’s Far Side: New Observatories Proposed

Anonymous — Fri, 24 Sep 2021 17:31:48 +0000

Moon’s Far Side: New Observatories Proposed Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 09/24/2021 - 11:31

Leonard David

From Leonard David’s Inside Outer Space: Earth’s Moon is being eyed as an on-location locale for operating unique and novel observatories. The just-concluded NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) symposium was the setting for reviewing several NIAC-backed studies.

One concept outlined at NIAC is the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT) on the Far-Side of the Moon, explained by Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

This proposal centered on deploying a wire mesh using wall-climbing robots in a 3 to 5 kilometer diameter crater, with a suitable depth-to-diameter ratio, to form a parabolic reflector with a one kilometer diameter.

A selected crater must have several attributes: No boulders or outcrops; a complete crater rim; and a level surface outside the crater. Read more...

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Rovers Will Unroll a Telescope on the Moon’s Far Side

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Jul 2019 03:41:19 +0000

Rovers Will Unroll a Telescope on the Moon’s Far Side Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 07/10/2019 - 21:41

Stephen Cass

From IEEE Spectrum: For decades, astronomers have gazed up at the moon and dreamed about what they would do with its most unusual real estate. Because the moon is gravitationally locked to our planet, the same side of the moon always faces us. That means the lunar far side is the one place in the solar system where you can never see Earth—or, from a radio astronomer’s point of view, the one place where you can’t hear Earth. It may therefore be the ideal location for a radio telescope, as the receiver would be shielded by the bulk of the moon from both human-made electromagnetic noise and emissions from natural occurrences like Earth’s auroras.

Early plans for far-side radio observatories included telescopes that would use a wide range of frequencies and study many different phenomena. But as the years rolled by, ground- and satellite-based telescopes improved, and the scientific rationale for such lunar observatories weakened. With one exception: A far-side telescope would still be best for observing phenomena that can be detected only at low frequencies, which in the radio astronomy game means below 100 megahertz. Existing telescopes run into trouble below that threshold, when Earth’s ionosphere, radio interference, and ground effects begin to play havoc with observations; by 30 MHz, ground-based observations are precluded.

In recent years, scientific interest in those low frequencies has exploded. Understanding the very early universe could be the “killer app” for a far-side radio observatory, says Jack Burns, an astrophysics professor at the University of Colorado and the director of the NASA-funded Network for Exploration and Space Science. After the initial glow of the big bang faded, no new light came into the universe until the first stars formed. Studying this “cosmic dawn [PDF],” when the first stars, galaxies, and black holes formed, means looking at frequencies between 10 and 50 MHz, Burns says; this is where signature emissions from hydrogen are to be found, redshifted to low frequencies by the expansion of the universe. Read more...

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The Race to Develop the Moon - For science, profit, and pride, China, the U.S., and private companies are hunting for resources on the lunar surface.

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 17:55:33 +0000

The Race to Develop the Moon - For science, profit, and pride, China, the U.S., and private companies are hunting for resources on the lunar surface. Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/29/2019 - 11:55

Rivka Galchen

From The New Yorker: In January, the China National Space Administration landed a spacecraft on the far side of the moon, the side we can’t see from Earth. Chang’e-4 was named for a goddess in Chinese mythology, who lives on the moon for reasons connected to her husband’s problematic immortality drink. The story has many versions. In one, Chang’e has been banished to the moon for elixir theft and turned into an ugly toad. In another, she has saved humanity from a tyrannical emperor by stealing the drink. In many versions, she is a luminous beauty and has as a companion a pure-white rabbit.

Chang’e-4 is the first vehicle to alight on the far side of the moon. From that side, the moon blocks radio communication with Earth, which makes landing difficult, and the surface there is craggy and rough, with a mountain taller than anything on Earth. Older geologies are exposed, from which billions of years of history can be deduced. Chang’e-4 landed in a nearly four-mile-deep hole that was formed when an ancient meteor crashed into the moon—one of the largest known impact craters in our solar system. Read more...

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Seeking our Cosmic Origins on the Far Side of the Moon

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jul 2018 20:47:01 +0000

Seeking our Cosmic Origins on the Far Side of the Moon Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/10/2018 - 14:47

Joseph Silk and Jack Burns

From the Denver Post: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos shared his vision in late May of creating permanent colonies on the Moon. He isn’t alone: a new space race is taking shape as diverse companies and governments, including our own, have set their sights on putting boots on the Moon for the first time in 40 years.

What has been missing in these discussions is how the Moon may serve as a jumping off point to explore one of the most profound questions ever posed by humanity: how did the universe begin?

We have proposed a lunar radio array that would do just that. It would be made up of thousands of simple radio antennas deployed over tens of kilometers of lunar terrain. This sprawling observatory on the far side of the Moon, built and operated by humans in tandem with robots, would transmit data to orbiting satellites to correlate and send back to Earth. Read more…

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Is China beating the US to the far side of the Moon?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 May 2018 15:27:19 +0000

Is China beating the US to the far side of the Moon? Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/21/2018 - 09:27

Xinyan Yu

From Science: China says it has launched a key satellite that will be crucial to the success of an unprecedented mission to the far side of the Moon later this year.

The relay satellite, called the Queqiao, was launched at 5:28 am local time on Monday, atop a Long March-4C rocket from a launch center in China’s southwest, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Queqiao means “Magpie Bridge,” and is named for a Chinese fable about how magpies form a bridge with their wings between the heavens and the Earth, allowing two ill-fated lovers to meet once a year. Read more...

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