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New Method Discovered For Making Telescopes On the Moon
NASA scientists have discovered a way to craft very large mirrors using carbon nanotubes, some epoxy, a little bit of aluminum, and large quantities of lunar dust. They say the technique will allow the construction of massive telescopes on the moon without the expense and risk of transporting the mirrors from Earth. Douglas Rabin of the Goddard Space Flight Center is quoted saying, "Our method could be scaled-up on the moon, using the ubiquitous lunar dust, to create giant telescope mirrors up to 50 meters in diameter." While this breakthrough was relatively cheap, NASA is currently offering up to $10 million for other good lunar research projects.
Forget your stupid observatory! I'm gonna make my own! With hookers! And blackjack! In fact, forget the observatory!
Taking away good American mirror grinding jobs and sending them to the moon (probably to be made by illegal aliens) while depriving FedEx of the shipping revenue!
Somebody contact Lou Dobbs!
...cannot wait to see some mad scientist use this technology to turn the moon into one giant magnifying mirror and having a nice game of "ants on the sidewalk." (And of course, the obligatory welcome to our new super-reflective overlords. Sigh.)
Took this comment seriously, did you?
Heck, the first thing that came to my mind was "When did NASA hire MacGyver?" :-) Anyway, the process sounds quite reasonable. And Moon would make a wonderful observatory. I have been dreaming about lunar observatories since I was a kid quarter a century ago (at that time, I stumbled upon books written by a well-known local popular science writer).
No atmosphere, sixth the gravity, little need for compensating the structure deformations? Sounds good. The question is how heavy the manufacturing equipment would be. And there might more problems at least with optical telescopers - I recently stumbled upon a nice article on this topic.
Ezekiel 23:20
It takes forever to count out 6857 grains of salt as well. I suspect they'll just write down "one cup of nanotubes" and be done with it.
Took this comment seriously, did you?
How cool would it be to design and build huge projects in 1/6 gravity? There would have to be some incredible designs that would just be too fragile to stand up under Earth atmosphere and gravity, and the range of materials you could use would seem limitless. Maybe a nest of lasers to give a long-term boost to an interstellar probe?
There's got to be huge advantages to building in a lunar environment, with raw materials available right there, and the chance to create living space just by drilling and sealing instead of fabricating from scratch.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
We're whalers on the moon
We carry a harpoon
But their ain't no whales so we tell tall tales
And sing this whaling tune
Brett
"That's no space station. It's a moon!"
Aluminum is a form of Aluminium found only in North America.
We are all just people.
Not really.
More accurately, it would appear to be the first time that we (humans) have manufactured something off-planet with native resources. As noted, we've used extra-terrestrial materials before in the form of meteor/asteroid material. It *is* pretty exciting, if just for the proof-of-concept that we can "live off the land" (so to speak) off-world.
So, Ikea has an astronomy equipment division?
Yes, their biggest seller is called Skope, but you can also get the Refraktor or Kassegrain.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
I see your informative link, and raise you a pithy comment.