May 19, 2021
The Lunar Crater Radio Telescope has a proposed 1-km diameter (.6 mile), much larger in the moon’s low gravity than any earthly radio telescope. If completed, this telescope will be the largest filled-aperture radio telescope in our solar system. Image via Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay/ NASA.
In late 2020, the beloved Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico collapsed and was decommissioned. It was a dish-type radio telescope, built into a natural depression in the landscape. Now, as the astronomy community mourns Arecibo’s loss, a team of scientists has just cleared another hurdle to building a much-larger radio telescope. In April 2021, NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts awarded the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope project $500,000 for further research and development. This telescope, too, is to be built into a natural depression in the landscape, in this case a bowl-shaped crater on the far side of the moon.
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