NASA seems to be working excessively towards making Moon a hub for its deep-space research. The space agency is currently mobilizing scientists who are developing a radio telescope intending to place this giant telescope on a lunar crater to collect radio waves coming from the cosmos. This will happen without interfering with signals coming from satellites and Earth.
The recruited team of researchers has also received 500,000 dollars to advance on the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT) project. The telescope’s parabolic antenna will be tasked to catch radio waves coming from the universe.
Studying dark ages of the cosmos
Since there will be no atmospheric interference, the radio telescope will enable scientists to study the universe better. The main mission will be to measure radio waves generated during the dark ages of the cosmos, which lasted for millions of years after the Big Bang, but before the stars were born.
There’s very little known about the dark ages to cosmologists. With the help of LCRT, they will be able to study the long-wavelength radio emissions generated by the gas that once filled the cosmos.
“Although there are no stars, there was enough hydrogen during the dark age of the universe – hydrogen that would eventually serve as raw material for the first stars,” said Joseph Lazio, NASA radio astronomer. “With a large enough radio telescope off Earth, we could follow the processes that would lead to the formation of the first stars. And maybe even find clues about the nature of dark matter,” he added.
Ready to follow Arecibo’s path
Currently, the telescope is still at a nascent stage and is not a part of any official mission from NASA. The telescope is said to be three times wider than Arecibo, another radio telescope that helped make important discoveries such as mapping Venus and confirming Einstein’s theory of relativity.
NASA is pushing hard to send astronauts to the Moon again. Recently, the space agency awarded Elon Musk’s SpaceX with a $2.9 billion contract to develop a Moon lander for its Artemis program. NASA said SpaceX Starship’s design is ideal for the mission. It has a spacious cabin and includes two airlocks for moonwalks.
