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A Telescope Farm on the Moon? Maybe

Irene Klotz, Discovery News

After completing the International Space Station in two years, NASA plans to shift its space exploration program to the moon. While other lunar observatories have been proposed, the radio array is particularly suited to the moon's dusty environment, since it does not need visible light.

The Naval Research Laboratory's telescope is known as Dark Ages Lunar Interferometer, or DALI. It is intended to track signals from the first atoms of hydrogen, the most abundant raw material from which the universe was formed.

Other funded proposals include:

A study of the organic molecules in interstellar space and star-forming clouds

A survey of black holes in our galaxy and in distant galaxies and of the birth of stellar black holes in the early universe

A test of theories that predict a rapid inflationary expansion when the universe was less than a fraction of a second old

Observations of faint signatures of polarized light in the cosmic microwave background that will also reveal information about inflationary expansion

An exploration of the origins of cosmic rays

Several different methods to search for planets around other stars

Related Links:

Irene Klotz's blog: Free Space

Celebrate NASA's 50th Anniversary

Lunar Array for Radio Cosmology

How Stuff Works: The Moon

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