Wednesday, April 16, 2008
lunar telescope
Lunar telescopes have been proposed in the past. Naturally, the biggest obstacles are price, and how one could transport such a large device while requiring minimum setup time once at the moon. The Dark Ages Lunar Interferometer (DALI) would look far back into the universe using radio waves, to the cosmic dark ages, before the existence of stars. The only data that may be recorded from this time are the spin-flips of hydrogen atoms. Such measurements are not possible from Earth due to interference from man-made radio signals, but would be possible with this hypothetical interferometer on the far side of the moon.
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I should think an optical device would be exceedingly hard to build and transport to the moon. However if one could be done, say on the size of our large mirrors in Chile and placed on the darkside, our view would be outstanding. Easier would be radio. Spread out over the darkside and away from radio polution, it too would "see" in great detail. Radio would be easier to transport and assemble. Calibration and focus would be easier than an optical. Imagine several Arecibo-like antennas reasching out to capture the faint secrets of the univers, or maybe other civilizations sending cosmic emails full of jokes, viral-videos of beings doing stupid stunts, and on and on. Odd thought... what would constitute interstellar porn? How would you know it if you saw it? Hmmm...
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