Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT) on the Far-Side of the Moon

[sl8]

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2020_Phase_I_Phase_II/lunar_crater_radio_telescope/

Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT) on the Far-Side of the Moon

April 7, 2020

Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory


Notional view of LCRT on the far-side of the Moon.
Credits: Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay

An ultra-long-wavelength radio telescope on the far-side of the Moon has tremendous advantages compared to Earth-based and Earth-orbiting telescopes, including: (i) Such a telescope can observe the universe at wavelengths greater than 10m (i.e., frequencies below 30MHz), which are reflected by the Earth's ionosphere and are hitherto largely unexplored by humans, and (ii) the Moon acts as a physical shield that isolates the lunar-surface telescope from radio interferences/noises from Earth-based sources, ionosphere, Earth-orbiting satellites, and Sun’s radio-noise during the lunar night. We propose to deploy a 1km-diameter wire-mesh using wallclimbing DuAxel robots in a 3-5km-diameter lunar crater on the far-side, with suitable depth-to-diameter ratio, to form a sphericalcap reflector. This Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT), with 1km diameter, will be the largest filled-aperture radio telescope in the Solar System! LCRT could enable tremendous scientific discoveries in the field of cosmology by observing the early universe in the 10– 50m wavelength band (i.e., 6–30MHz frequency band), which has not been explored by humans till-date.


Concept of operations for building LCRT.
Credits: Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay

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[rampartc]

1. i hope americans do this

but far more likely to be accomplished by a more technically advanced cooperative group of europeans and asians.

[PJMcK]

2. What a fantastic idea!

The deployment looks quite complicated, however, especially given the large-scale size of the antenna.

Still, if it can be built, it could reveal much more information about the universe.

[Ghost Dog]

3. On the Design of the Axel and DuAxel Rovers for Extreme Terrain Exploration

https://trs.jpl.nasa.gov/bitstream/handle/2014/42763/12-0929_A1b.pdf

[eppur_se_muova]

4. A staple item in many SF models -- time to get working on it. nt

[Igel]

5. They'll need permanent satellites in lunar orbit

to relay the data.

Cool idea. But risky. Hard to maintain them or the satellites, hard to build and update.

[DavidDvorkin]

6. It's a great idea, but not a new one

I set a part of my novel, Central Heat, in such an observatory, and I doubt if I was the first to do that in fiction.

http://www.dvorkin.com/ch/