2023-04-24 16:00:39
Prepared by: Mustafa Al-Zoubi
Lunar exploration is witnessing a major renaissance, as dozens of missions organized by multiple space agencies, governmental and private, are scheduled to visit the moon by the end of this decade, such as the country of India, which plans to launch the (Chandrian 3) mission to the moon in June 2023, using a landing module. and a robotic surface exploration vehicle. India reached the moon for the first time in 2008 with Chandrayaan 1, and Russia plans to launch the Luna 25 mission in July 2023, by placing a probe on the moon to collect samples from its Antarctic region.
The American company “SpaceX” also plans to transport the Japanese billionaire, Yusaku Maezawa, and eight other passengers, on a trip around the moon in late 2023. This will be the first mission of its “Starship” spacecraft, which is capable of carrying 100 people, in addition to the American and British space agencies. , to monitor radio signals on the moon.
Most of these spacecraft will include small robots, but NASA’s ambitious Artemis program aims to return humans to the lunar surface by the middle of the decade.
There are various reasons for all this activity, including geopolitical positions, the search for lunar resources, such as water ice at the lunar poles, which can be extracted and converted into hydrogen and oxygen fuel for rockets, space exploration, and also because the moon holds a lot regarding the origin and evolution of the solar system, as well. It has scientific value as a platform for observational astronomy according to scientists, including:
Benefits of radio astronomy
Various types of astronomy would benefit from placing telescopes on the Moon, particularly radio astronomy, which can be conducted from the far side of the Moon from Earth.
Radio waves are a form of electromagnetic energy, as are infrared, ultraviolet, and visible light waves. They are identified by the presence of different wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum that do not reach the Earth’s ionosphere, but reach the surface of the Moon without obstacles.
Observations of the universe at these wavelengths fall under the umbrella of “low-frequency radio astronomy,” and these wavelengths are uniquely able to recount the structure of the early universe, particularly the cosmic “dark ages,” an era before the first galaxies formed.
At that time, most of the matter in the universe, with the exception of the mysterious dark matter, was in the form of neutral hydrogen atoms.
signals
Another potential application of remote radio astronomy is trying to detect radio waves from charged particles trapped by magnetic fields, the magnetospheres of planets orbiting other stars.
This will help assess the potential of these exoplanets to host life.
The radio waves from the exoplanets’ magnetospheres probably have wavelengths greater than 100 metres, so they require a radio-quiet environment in space. So the far side of the moon would be the best place.
A similar argument can be made for attempts to detect signals from aliens, and by opening up an unexplored portion of the radio spectrum, there is also the potential for serendipitous discoveries of new phenomena.
drilling depths
There are craters at the poles of the moon that do not receive any light from the sun. Telescopes observing the universe at infrared wavelengths are very sensitive to heat, and therefore must operate at lower temperatures. JWST, for example, needs a huge sunblock to protect it from the sun. On the Moon, a natural crater rim might provide such protection for free.
The moon’s lower gravity may also allow the construction of much larger telescopes than would be possible for free-flying satellites.
These considerations led astronomer Jean-Pierre Maillard to suggest that the moon might be the future of infrared astronomy.
The cool, stable environment of permanently shadowed craters may have advantages for the next generation of instruments for detecting gravitational waves in space-time caused by processes such as exploding stars and colliding black holes.
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