NASA’s Mad Lunar-Based Telescope
From figuring out dark matter to finding the theory of everything, the LCRT could be revolutionary.
Over the years, NASA has pushed the boundaries of space exploration far more than anyone else. This dogged determination to take technological advancements and human tolerances to their limits gave us the Moon landings, the Voyager missions, the Hubble Space Telescope, and now the JWST. However, NASA is currently entering a new chapter with its Artemis programme, which aims to establish a near-permanent presence on our solar neighbour. This has allowed NASA to investigate a technologically feasible yet paradigm-shifting mission that could solve science’s most difficult mysteries. So, what exactly does this cutting-edge mission entail? Turning a crater on the dark side of the moon into a massive telescope!
This has more than just a whiff of sci-fi or even James Bond about it. Quite frankly, it reeks of it. But NASA is genuinely developing and considering this mission, currently known as the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT). This isn’t an optical telescope, as you might have guessed from the name. Instead, it resembles the famous and sadly destroyed Arecibo Telescope — only much larger!
The general idea behind the project is to use robots to line the parabolic-shaped floor…
