NASA Makes Two Important Announcements for Science

April 17, 2020 (EIRNS)—Yesterday NASA announced both the date for the first American crewed rocket to the International Space Station in nine years, and that it will build a kilometer-wide radio telescope on the dark side of the Moon.

Global Construction Review reported that in order to listen to the universe without interference from Earth, NASA plans to build a 1-kilometer diameter ultra-long-wave radio telescope in a crater on the Moon’s dark side. The Lunar Crater Radio Telescope will be built by a robot that will lay a web of wire mesh in a crater 3.5 kilometers across and suspend a receiver in its center. No human beings will need to land at the site.

NASA has funded planning work on the scheme as part of its Innovative Advanced Concepts program. The robot used will be the DuAxel, which NASA has been developing at its California Institute for Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory, specifically for climbing crater walls.

The crewed flight by a SpaceX rocket to the International Space Station is now scheduled for May 27.