Lunar astronomy.

[Rhyshaelkan]

A service that could be sold to universities across Luna and Terra would be renting time at the clusters of radio and ultra large mirror, which the light lunar gravity could help support, telescopes built out of lunar materials.

This could help further the groundwork of the Hubble Space Telescope. As well as form a Skynet™ of telescopes searching for objects that could impact with Terra.

[Boxy]

We could build telescopes anywhere within the Near Earth sphere. I suppose that telescopes on the Moon would make sense in light of already-present manufacturing resources, but you have questions of whether the Moon is a suitable site to exploit in the first place.

I vote we keep building things in LEO, a very important sector of which would include telescopes. The problem right now is that we're rocketing all that junk up rather than building it in orbit using Near Earth resources like asteroids.

A sizable engineering problem to overcome with lunar telescopes is that the regolith gets everywhere. Getting any in the machinery necessary to re-aim the telescope could gunk up the gearworks. Orbital telescopes such as Hubble is right now seem to be the more readily available and economical choice.

And yes, we need to chart all the Near Earth asteroids for both economic and safety purposes. And please, don't refer to anything as "Skynet" unless you plan on having human survivors from the future blow up your research labs.

[Rhyshaelkan]

Haha. Glad you got the pun on the name.

The thing that I like about Luna in it's position. It rotates very slowly. Allowing for long duration tracking of a particular portion of space. If you could envision a cluster of telescopes of every size and style every 20º longitude and latitude. Luna could truly be the eyes on the heavens. More visual research than any amount of researchers could keep up with.

As to regolith getting into everything. With no atmosphere. Once you build the platform for the telescope. Construct, mount and clean the area. It will stay that way indefinitely. Vacuum is inherently clean. Unless a part breaks there would be no need for a person to go there and "contaminate" the area. Electrostatic washers+ a nice puff of abundant Lunar oxygen= clean as can be, forever.

[Boxy]

Haha. Glad you got the pun on the name.Hey, us humans have to stick together. We'll all part of the Resistance now, neh?

The thing that I like about Luna in it's position. It rotates very slowly. Allowing for long duration tracking of a particular portion of space. If you could envision a cluster of telescopes of every size and style every 20º longitude and latitude. Luna could truly be the eyes on the heavens. More visual research than any amount of researchers could keep up with.If you put telescopes in orbit around the sun, they don't rotate at all. You can keep track of an asteroid or galactic formation indefinitely with only minor station-keeping adjustments. The stars still rise and set on the Moon, what with solar days and what not.

Another question in my mind is the affordability of construction. Telescopes on the Moon would make sense logistically only if there's an established manufacturing base there already, and if we develop from lower delta-V's up, then it looks like we're going with solar-orbit infrastructure first, Moon later, then Mars when we get around to it.

As to regolith getting into everything. With no atmosphere. Once you build the platform for the telescope. Construct, mount and clean the area. It will stay that way indefinitely. Vacuum is inherently clean. Unless a part breaks there would be no need for a person to go there and "contaminate" the area. Electrostatic washers+ a nice puff of abundant Lunar oxygen= clean as can be, forever. Assuming, of course, that mining operations don't shoot regolith all over the place.

All things considered, I'll keep my orbital, 24-hour surveilling telescopes in solar orbit. Having half the surface area of observable space filled up with dusty rock doesn't sound like very efficient observation capabilities. Better than Earth, yes, but there are yet better options available.

[Rhyshaelkan]

http://www.patrawlings.com/detail.cfm?id=965
Rather what I had in mind. Good ol Pat Rawlings and his artistic depictions.

[Boxy]

... Damn. That's impressive.

Although I'm sure a Dyson Sphere-esque ring of telescopes would be the next step :D