Spaceflight

EADS Space Transportation and the Netherlands Foundation for Astronomy will launch in June the first phase of a study for a proposed €1.3 billion ($1.54 billion) radio telescope to be located on the polar region of the far side of the Moon. The study would lead to an industry proposal to the European Space Agency’s January 2008 ministerial council, which could approve lunar missions.

ESA director of human spaceflight, microgravity and exploration programmes Daniel Sacotte expects to put forward lunar proposals in 2008 (Flight International, 28 February–6 March).

“Launched between 2013 and 2015, the radio telescope could look for exo-planets and detect signals in the 1-10Mhz range, which were generated as far back as 300,000 years after the big bang,” says EADS Space Transportation lunar mission programme manager Hartmut Muller. Such signals cannot be detected on Earth because of ionosphere interference. The radio telescope would consist of a lander vehicle that would deploy dipoles across a 300-400m (980-1,300ft) area.

The dipoles, which receive the cosmic radio signals, would be deployed by either a dispenser or small mobile robots. Its south polar far side region would ensure permanent sunlight for power and enable direct communication with the Earth. The telescope lander could also carry geophones, which once deployed could listen for meteorite impacts on the Moon’s surface.