The best location in the inner solar system for the grand observatories of the 21st century may be the moon. A multidisciplinary team including university students and faculty in engineering, astronomy, physics, and geology, and engineers from industry is investigating the moon as a site for astronomical observatories and is doing conceptual and preliminary designs for these future observatories. Studies encompass lunar facilities for radio astronomy and astronomy at optical, ultraviolet, and infrared wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. Although there are significant engineering challenges in design and construction on the moon, the rewards for astronomy can be great, such as detection and study of earth-like planets orbiting nearby stars, and the task for engineers promises to stimulate advances in analysis and design, materials and structures, automation and robotics, foundations, and controls. Fabricating structures in the reduced-gravity environment of the moon will be easier than in the zero-gravity environment of earth orbit, as Apollo and space-shuttle missions have revealed. Construction of observatories on the moon can be adapted from techniques developed on the earth, with the advantage that the moon's weaker gravitational pull makes it possible to build larger devices than are practical on earth.


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    Titel :

    Lunar astronomical observatories - Design studies


    Beteiligte:


    Erscheinungsdatum :

    1990-10-01



    Medientyp :

    Sonstige


    Format :

    Keine Angabe


    Sprache :

    Englisch


    Schlagwörter :


    Required technologies for lunar astronomical observatories

    Johnson, Stewart W. / Wetzel, John P. | NTRS | 1992


    Environmental effects on lunar astronomical observatories

    Johnson, Stewart W. / Taylor, G. Jeffrey / Wetzel, John P. | NTRS | 1992


    Architectural Considerations in Design of Lunar-Based Astronomical Observatories

    Johnson, S. W. / Koon Meng Chua / Schwartz, M. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1996


    Lunar observatories

    Burke, J. D. | NTRS | 1989


    Astronomical observatories on the moon

    Swanson, Paul N. / Cutts, James A. | Elsevier | 1994