Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin can place the FARSIDE radio telescope on the far side of the Moon. It plans to do this with the Blue Moon lander. This tool will be designed to study the early Universe.
Radio telescope from Blue Origin
The private space company Blue Origin can place the Farside Array for Radio Science Investigation of Dark Ages (FARSIDE) radio telescope on the far side of the Moon. At least, scientists hope so. However, to do this, the company needs to bring its Blue Moon lander to practical use.
The radio telescope will consist of 128 pairs of dipole antennas. They will be located on the territory with a radius of 10 kilometers. Together with them, four rovers will be sent to the Moon. This whole system will work as a single system with greater sensitivity than the largest telescope, the “dish” FAST on Earth.
The transmission of information from the telescope to the Earth will be carried out through a repeater satellite rotating in lunar orbit. The system is expected to be operational by 2030. But so far there is no system that could ensure the landing of antennas on the Moon in Jeff Bezos’ company.
Why the back side of the Moon
Placing the telescope on the far side of the Moon has its meaning. On Earth, radio astronomers suffer from the need to filter out a large number of man-made signals. The invisible part of our moon is a very quiet place in this regard.
The array of dipole antennas will operate on a wave of 21 centimeters. This corresponds to a frequency of 10-40 MHz. Specifically, neutral hydrogen emits energy on it. When our Universe was only 15-80 million years old, all matter consisted of it.
Then neutral hydrogen atoms began to decay into protons and electrons and the world began to turn into what we know and the first stars flashed. Scientists want to see the very beginning of this process. On Earth, the ether is too “clogged” for this. However, in the case of FARSIDE, everything can work out.
Chance for Blue Origin
The implementation of the FARSIDE project has another quite earthly aspect. Blue Origin is considered SpaceX’s main competitor in the field of personal rocket engineering. Moreover, Bezos started doing space two years earlier than Elon Musk.
Now the company has several flights with tourists in its assets. But the company does not have any commercial success that could be compared with their main competitors. So the FARSIDE project may be what finally brings them forward. Although who knows what Musk will manage to do by 2030.
According to interestingengineering.com
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