One of the main reasons why the Hubble Space Telescope is one of the most important tools for scientists is that it allows you to better see the picture of what is happening in the galaxy that surrounds us. The more such high-tech devices are created, the faster we can find out what is happening in the dark corners of deep space. Two private companies decided to join the study - Moon Express and the International Lunar Observatory Association, which are going to install three space telescopes on the moon.
Moon Express is one of the contenders for a prize of $ 30 million in the framework of the Google Lunar Xprize contest, the essence of which is a link to an autonomous robot on the Earth’s natural satellite. So, together with the International Lunar Observatory Association in 2015, companies are going to plant a compact ILO-X device (in the picture below) the size of a shoe box on the surface of the South Pole of the Moon. If everything goes according to plan, then in 2016, companies will launch another telescope on the Moon - the International Lunar Observatory. It is more dimensional in size and has a two-meter antenna.
The final part of this program should be the installation on the edge of one of the lunar craters of the telescope ILO-1, which together with other telescopes will collect data on the lunar surface and send them back to Earth.
Interesting in this news is that the image received by telescopes will be available to any Internet user. Thus, Moon Express wants to create, as she calls it, a model of "social science", providing access to the latest information from the Moon without any restrictions.
Despite the democratic approach, the company immediately says that this mission is still commercial in nature. Telescopes will search for traces of various minerals and water at the South Pole of the Moon.
The total cost of the entire mission is estimated at about $ 100 million, so Moon Express and the International Lunar Observatory Association hope that the program will be interested in other space agencies and astronomy centers that will help with funding.
The article is based on materials .
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