The far side of the Moon may soon host the world's most sensitive telescope

telcodad

NASA is planning to construct a large, autonomous radio telescope on the far side of the Moon:

The far side of the Moon may soon host the world’s most sensitive telescope, shielded from earthly interference
NASA’s $2.6 billion lunar telescope aims to study the universe’s dark ages
By Skye Jacobs, TechSpot - June 2, 2025
https://www.techspot.com/news/108147-far-side-moon-may-soon-host-world-most.html

NASA is advancing plans to construct a radio telescope on the Moon’s far side – a location uniquely shielded from the ever-increasing interference caused by Earth’s expanding satellite networks. This ambitious endeavor, known as the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope, envisions deploying a massive wire mesh reflector within a lunar crater.

The project’s innovative design relies on advanced robotics to suspend the reflector using cables, and if development proceeds as planned, the observatory could be operational sometime in the 2030s. Current projections estimate the cost at over $2 billion. ….

MacLeech

telcodad

A lot of the articles about this say that the radio telescope will be on “dark side of the Moon.”

While the far side of the Moon is shielded from radio interference from Earth’s expanding satellite networks, maybe it can be seen as “dark” as far as those radio emissions go. But otherwise each side gets to see the Sun.

But, as Pink Floyd says on their 1973 album, The Dark Side of the Moon: - “There is no dark side in the moon, really. Matter of fact, it’s all dark.” 😉

HooRU

Cool. I understand talk of a space station around the moon is another possibility.

Rook

Getting some Death Star vibes from this picture accompanying the article:

It’s going to take longer to build than projected and cost more too, but I still want them to do it, for science.

telcodad

Rook Getting some Death Star vibes from this picture accompanying the article:

Actually it reminds me of the old Arecibo Telescope in Puerto Rico:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_Telescope

Too bad that it collapsed back in 2020: 🙁
https://apnews.com/article/technology-arecibo-observatory-puerto-rico-science--0da6abb251f455977bf0c752348e712e

Rook

telcodad Agent Mulder went there in season 2, episode 1: Little Green Men

It was probably the first time I’d heard about it. Also the “Wow” signal.

telcodad

Rook Agent Mulder went there in season 2, episode 1: ![](https://en.wikipedia.org/static/favicon/wikipedia.ico) Little Green Men

I most remember it as being featured in the James Bond/007 movie GoldenEye 😉

px_eliezer_

telcodad Actually it reminds me of the old Arecibo Telescope in Puerto Rico:

Cornell University had a major role in managing Arecibo which is why the late Carl Sagan had big ties as well.

HELLFIRE

Rook It’s going to take longer to build than projected and cost more too, but I still want them to do it, for science.

+9000 to that.

Regards

Sparkchaser

telcodad
And Contact with Jodie Foster. I have the DVD. One of my favorites

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_(1997_American_film)

telcodad

telcodad Actually it reminds me of the old Arecibo Telescope in Puerto Rico:

Too bad that it collapsed back in 2020: 🙁

Actually an episode of the Science Channel series “Engineering Catastrophes” about this is on tonight at 9PM EDT:

https://www.sciencechannel.com/show/engineering-catastrophes-science

WalterDnes

Rook It’s going to take longer to build than projected and cost more too

A couple of problems.

1) Communications with earth. There are a couple of options for stable lunar satellite orbits that don’t require massive fuel burn for station-keeping.

Plan A is a Halo Orbit around the earth-moon L2 lagrange Point. Orbiting at exactly the L2 point won’t work becase it’s hidden directly behind the moon, invisible from earth. But if shifted “sideways” enough, it orbits around the L2 point but is always visible from earth and the moon’s far hemisphere. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-rectilinear_halo_orbit
Plan B is LLO (Low Lunar Orbit), below 100 km above the surface. There are a couple of known problems, but they do have known solutions…
a) The satellite is visible from any one point on the surface for only part of the time. The solution is to put up multiple satellites in a train, e.g. 6 satellites 60 degrees apart in orbit or 8 satellites 45 degrees apart in orbit. Starlink sateliites are already capable of talking to each other. This would allow a satellite behind the moon to talk to satellites that are visible from earth for relay, and visa versa. This would allow 24×7 communication.
b) The moon has multiple “mascons” (mass concentrations) just below its surface. This is due to dense asteroids colliding into the moon at various points. The resulting uneven gravity field perturbs MOST orbits and stretches them out into extreme ellipses. The far point of the orbit ends up farther away from the moon’s centre, and the nearest point gets closer to the moon’s centre… until it hits the moon’s surface… oops.
Fortunately, there are 4 orbital inclinations where mascon perturbations happen to cancel out, and orbits are stable. These are 27, 50, 76, and 86 degrees relative to the moon’s equator.

2) Heat and power. A dinky automated rover can get by with solar panels. Throw in a piece of radioactive waste, and you get enough heat to keep the instruments alive over the 2-week lunar night and wake up for the next lunar day. That does not scale up to a large operation running 24×7, even an unmanned site operated by Elon’s robots. You need a fission nuclear power plant. A pre-emptive answer to the obvious suggestion… fusion reactor is the power source of the future… always has been… always will be.

Temperature ranges are extreme https://science.nasa.gov/moon/weather-on-the-moon/#:~:text=Temperatures%20near%20the%20Moon%27s%20equator,F%20(%2D246%C2%B0C).

Temperatures near the Moon’s equator can spike to over 250°F (121°C) in daylight, then plummet after nightfall to -208°F (-133°C).

A permanent site (manned or robotic) would have to land at lunar sunrise, and set up an interim insulated abode in the two weeks between lunar sunrise and sunset. The logistics would be difficult, to say the least.