Telescopes are not unfamiliar inventions. They have been used at backyards, remote mountain tops, and even in space. Now, scientists are planning to take a step further by launching these devices on the Moon.
Telescope on the Moon
The idea of bringing telescopes to the Moon is not an entirely new idea. For one, NASA has already offered a fund grant for the LCRT, or Lunar Crater Radio Telescope.
There is also the proposal for the Life Finder Telescope at Lunar Poles (LFTALP), which is set to be a 6.5-meter telescope array that focuses on looking into the atmospheres of exoplanets during star transits.
Aside from this, during the famous Apollo missions, astronauts were able to place retroreflectors on the lunar surface in order to gauge the distance to the Moon in millimeters. There's also the LOUVE, or Lunar Optical UV Explorer, that focuses on bright UV objects.
There have also been proposals to put up a gravitational wave observatory that is similar to LIGO.
Now, in a recent paper, authors consolidate various known notions regarding placing telescopes on the Moon and introduce a novel concept that they have dubbed hypertelescope.
Moon Hypertelescope
The issue surrounding the aforementioned proposals is that they require technical construction that comes at a level that would be challenging for Earth. Simply stating, their construction goes beyond what humans are technically capable of accomplishing.
Hence, the study authors have proposed an idea that is less complex, which is a basic telescope that could maximize the terrains of the Moon. The optical telescope's power would depend on its primary mirror size and telescope's focal length.
In an Earth context, focal length could be boosted by adding several mirrors.
For the hypertelescope, it could maximize a mirror array for its primary mirror arranged along a crater's terrain. A cable could then suspend the telescope's detector cluster. This would be similar to how Arecibo Observatory detectors got suspended over the mesh dish.
Because the mirrors need not be huge, their construction would be much easier. The crater's general shape also entails that there would be a need for lesser "earthworks" for them to be put in place.
One variant of the concept would be to install mirrors on one of the crater's sides and the instrumentation on another side. This would enable extensive focal length.
However, each idea is still in its infant stage as there are still some difficulties beyond construction that need to be overcome. For one, the accumulation of dust on mirrors would entail the need for removal. This could also affect the alignment of detectors and mirrors on the lunar surface, though seismic activity on the Moon is significantly lesser compared to the Earth's.
Nevertheless, what is clear is that humans are set on stepping foot on the Moon once more. When the time comes, humans could build telescopes on the lunar surface. That being said, it is only a matter of time for a lunar observatory to be established.
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