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ILOA / Moon Express
An artist's conception shows the ILO-X telescope demonstrator, mounted on the Moon Express lander and receiving beamed commands from its operators on Earth.
After a wild night on top of Hawaii's Mauna Kea volcano, researchers report that they've successfully tested the remote-control system for a prototype telescope that could someday be looking at the cosmos from the surface of the moon.
The demonstration for the International Lunar Observatory precursor instrument, or ILO-X, came a day earlier than originally plannned, due to a wave of chilly, stormy weather that was sweeping over Hawaii. Temperatures on Mauna Kea reportedly dipped to 16 below zero Fahrenheit overnight.
"It was certainly challenging," Steve Durst, founder and director of the International Lunar Observatory Association, told me today. "We succeeded after some time in imaging celestial objects — not as many as we wanted, because of the extreme conditions."
ILO science team members were able to control the shoebox-sized, camera-equipped telescope from stations in Switzerland, California and China, with signals routed via the Internet through a mission control center at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea. Other researchers from India, Japan, Canada and Africa had been planning to participate, but they couldn't scramble quickly enough to tap into the system, Durst said.
Durst said the telescope was aimed at celestial targets including the planet Jupiter and the Pleiades star cluster, using remote-control software developed by Moon Express. The imagery was returned for processing, just as it would be during a moon mission. "That was very rewarding to see happen," said Bob Richards, the co-founder and CEO of Moon Express.
The flight version of ILO-X is destined to travel to the lunar surface aboard the Moon Express lander, which Richards and his colleagues intend to launch in 2014 to win a share of the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize. Moon Express has designed and is building the ILO-X instrument with financial support from Durst's organization.
Changing minds about the moon
ILO-X's backers say it would be the first visible-light telescope permanently placed on the moon to make celestial observations. Richards said the instrument "will do what an extremely good amateur telescope could do," but he and Durst stressed that the success of the mission wouldn't be judged by the quality of the imagery alone.
"It's no Hubble," Richards said. "We're not trying to change the astronomy textbooks. We're trying to change people's minds about their place on the moon."
Moon Express
Moon Express software engineer Jake Forsberg readies the International Lunar Observatory precursor (ILO-X) for a global demonstration from the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
Durst sees ILO-X as merely the precursor for bigger, more capable telescopes that could eventually be sent to the moon. For example, radio telescopes placed on the far side of the moon would be shielded from earthly interference — and even on the moon's Earth-facing side, telescopes could have a much clearer view of the cosmos than telescopes on Earth.
"There's no atmosphere to distort the images," Durst explained.
Making money on the moon?
Durst is also experimenting with the idea of using the moon as a broadcasting platform, starting with ILO-X and continuing with a follow-on lunar mission known as ILO-1. "It's a catalyst for a money-making broadcast operation that we want to conduct," he told me.
Richards said flying ILO-X on the Moon Express would help "buy down the risk" for future lunar telescopes. But that's not Moon Express' only aim. The venture, co-founded by dot-com millionaire Naveen Jain, is targeting the X Prize purse as well as other lunar business opportunities. "No one has ever captured people’s fascination with the moon," Jain has been quoted as saying. "What if, say, we take a picture of your family on the moon and project it back to you? Or take DNA up there?"
Moon Express is one of several Google Lunar X Prize entrants that have made multimillion-dollar deals with NASA for access to their lunar mission development data. But the highest-profile payoff is the X Prize itself. To win the prize, the venture will have to put its lander on the moon, then send out a mini-rover to gather data and images and send it back to Earth.
With the ILO-X demonstration completed, Richards said attention will turn to preparing the ruggedized version of the telescope and other components of the lunar probe for the big flight ahead. The clock is ticking, not only for Moon Express but for more than two dozen other X Prize teams. If no one pulls off a successful lunar mission by the end of 2015, the prize expires, and the purse goes back to the sponsors at Google.
Update for 10:40 a.m. ET Dec. 20: I originally wrote that ILO-X would be the first telescope on the moon, but it's been pointed out that the Apollo 16 mission carried an instrument known as the Far Ultraviolet Camera / Spectrograph, which used a 3-inch telescope to make astronomical observations in ultraviolet wavelengths in 1972. Goes to show that there's nothing new under the sun, especially if you go beyond the visible-light spectrum. This MIT webpage tells you more about George Carruthers, who led the team that invented the Far Ultraviolet Camera / Spectrograph.
More about the Google Lunar X Prize:
- Gallery: The teams that are shooting for the moon
- NASA backs commercial moonshots
- Will a flower bloom on the moon?
- How to make moon trips profitable
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
The only reason for a lunar scope is if you're trying to use a liquid mirror. Otherwise just put the telescope in earth orbit.
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It seems like the best use of the moon as an observation platform would be for a radio telescope. It could be constructed on the darkside, shielded from the radio chatter of Earthlings. Data could be exchanged through a satellite orbiting the moon. The low gravity and zero atmosphere would make it possible to build a very large antenna and reflector (expensive, but possible.)
the grey's won't let us develop the "dark side of the moon". it would interfere with their helium-3 mining operations...
By the way, folks, there is no such thing as the "dark" side of the Moon. All of the Moon experiences night and day, just as Earth does. There is, however, one side of the Moon that is always pointing away from the Earth. And yes, it would be a great place for radio astronomy!
There is a dark side. Join me on the dark side. Together, we shall rule the galaxy.
Well, there is the added benefit of not having to maintain orbit. We could clutter Earth orbit with awesome telescopes or we could spread out our telescopic resources, put some on the Moon, and we wouldn't have to worry about maintaining orbit or de-orbiting them at some later date.
But, until we have better manufacturing capabilities (in space and/or on the Moon) our large telescopes will continue to be put into orbit or at legrange points.
..Rule the galaxy, you say? Do you offer benefits... Medical? Dental?...
TonyInDallas, your ideas are intriguing to me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
OK, maybe I'm missing something. Using the moon as a broadcasting platform? Broadcasting what? Not much happens up there that would make for riveting TV. Anyone have any idea what the writer means?
Pirate radio? Playing all the Lunar hits?
Well, I don't have the full story, but I'm betting it'll be a selling point for someone to say they're broadcasting from the moon. Durst says he'll start by broadcasting the "Space Calendar" ... with enhanced content. I suppose eventually there might be some folks who'd pay to have their ad broadcast from the moon. Here's the Space Calendar, by the way:
http://www.spacecalendar.com/
I hope you'll forgive my cranial vapor lock, but won't they actually be on Earth, and merely bouncing a signal off some piece of lunar apparatus? I'm afraid I still am falling short of seeing the excitement in that. Perhaps it might amuse the young'uns who missed the actual real-reality show known as Apollo 11-17, but for us old farts I'm not sure it will be much of a wow.
Using the Moon as a communications relay is just plain dumb. The round-trip lag is 2.6 seconds, which would make voice communications very annoying, and multiple-player video gaming impossible. Plus, the Moon is not always where you want it to be, unlike geosynchronous communications satellites. And simply getting the equipment to the Moon in the first place would be hugely expensive. This is a solution looking for a problem, in my mind.
No FCC to worry about.
"I see the bad moon rising, I see trouble on the way..."
Yeah, I don't get it either. And I'm a major "lunatic". I love the Moon. But this would just be bouncing a signal off it, and that is just broadcasting from Earth. Any radio show that said something like "Live, FROM THE MOON" would be lying and not worth listening to.
But, if you built a Moon base, complete with radio station and full time DJ, then you'll have me glued to that station. Even if I had to get that station via the internet due to whatever line of sight issues there may be. Actual "Moon Raio" would be rad!
Say what you want, but it'll be one of the hottest QSL cards EVER!!
Amateur radio operator?
N3TWU
My stepfather was a ham. He died a couple of February's ago.
K5QWD.
Is it possible to build and send an armada of rovers equipped with radio dishes to assemble as an array? You could call it the Very Small Lunar Array. You then send humans to complete the assembly. I'm thinking 10 two meter dishes for starters then add more later.
Think gigantic satellite dish rebroadcasting to Earth
All very nice, but I'm not sure that a signal that you could access for only about 12 hours a day (very variable) would be very useful. Once the moon has set, relative to your location, you'll be getting nothing.
Not to mention the difficulty of tracking the signal as the moon moves across the sky - geosynchronous is the ideal comm link.
It's a guinea pig prototype that we need to test and perfect our ability to control . Someday, the goal is to have civilians visiting the moon and a functional radio telescope that the vacationers could access would be a good advertisement for family/friends and other fellow earthlings who couldn't quite afford the trip just yet.
Would be nice. There is enough radioactive trash floating around our planet. Would be nice if they could just use the moon to broadcast. Less stuff to fall back to earth and hurt or radiate us.
Rental virtual reality rovers. I suspect lots of people would pay (a reasonable fee) to be able to "walk" on the surface of the Moon. Some would do it for research. Some for the thrill of exploration. Some just because it would be the ultimate video game to control a rover on another solar system body from the comfort of your internet connected home or office. The lag would be too great, and the cost too great too, to do this on Mars or other distant bodies. But the Moon is just next door, a couple of seconds away.
Clever idea. There would be lots of tracks on the surface of the moon.
How about this - use the rovers to make tracks, writing messages (text or images) that are visible from Earth. Advertising on the Moon!! John 3:16, Kilroy was here, or Alfred E. Newman for President, etc.
Then someone else could pay to obliterate messages they don't like. Sounds like a moneymaker.
Read my posting above. Because of the distance, you would push the joystick, and almost 3 seconds later you would see your moon rover responding. The Russian Lunokhod controllers on Earth actually had to deal with this lag almost 40 years ago, as their two rovers explored the surface of the Moon.
Still closer than Mars.
How about Battlebots on the Moon?
What about the ultraviolet camera/telescope designed and built by
Dr. George Carruthers? It was placed on the surface of the Moon by
Apollo 16 astronauts John Young and Charles Duke in April of 1972.
This instrument produced UV images of the Earth and some other
celestial objects. A Wikipedia entry exists for Dr. Carruthers. You
may find more information there.
Thanks, Astropreneur, I'm revising the story to take this into account. Missed the reference to the Far Ultraviolet Camera / Spectrograph when I was searching for potential precedents. The revision makes clear that the team is claiming the "first," and I've added the term "optical" ... but if anyone knows of other telescopes that went to the moon and made optical-wavelength observations, I'll revise the text further.
Hmm...maybe Google should reinvest that 30 million into educational organizations and science programs in public school systems if no one is successful in completing an unmanned lunar landing with a viable purposeful payload, not that advertising or rebroadcasting background lunar imagery with robotic rovers for advertisers, or a typical walk in the lunar park as a new social medium could spark an entirely different economic landgrab for broadcasters on Terra Prima.
But i think Google could do better at defining a larger purpose for such X-prizes. NASA did well at standardizing the training of astornauts to pilot and crew the shuttle fleet, and if a civilian and both private or commercial industry is going to develop future advances is space flight and space technologies, then it is an industry that will have to standardize its approaches to launching equally challenging projects into the solar system as NASA has achieved, including manned flight. Only with a similar standardization of the integration of the many NASA Space Flight Centers, the commercial sector needs not neccessarily standardize its projects as all launch vehicles, orbiters, landers, or science projects may be different, a core set of standards must exist that also allows a burgeoning commercial sector to have the neccessary inter-dependent relationships, such as Branson's Space Port would represent as a galvanizing force for the free development of commercial space industries in the same way governmental launch facilities have supported the communications satellite industry. Investment and Capital could be as competitive as the race to win an X-prize, I find it fascinating that Google and even other internet companies could endeavor to forge such a bridge across such disparately different industries.
Eric -
Impressive to say the least! 277 words to comprise 5 sentences! Reminds me of the great Victorian epic novels. I remember reading one of Hugo’s books where one sentence took the entire page. It was great fun to discover after awhile that there was a serious lack of a period, but all perfectly written. Keep up the tradition.
I like to see a mile wide lunar telescope,labs,housing for scientist's,hotel for visitors etc right on the surface of the moon.In the long run,it would be much more cost effective then a space based telescope.
I think its cool
So fantastic, like all of our space play. NOW:PLANT A TIME BOMB ON APOPHIS WHEN IT FLIES BY NEXT DECEMBER 21st SO IT GOES OFF WHEN IT'S ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SUN. Plant a telescope on a non - threatening asteroid and see how things look from it as it penetrates the beyond. Plant a message on one of these hurling things to send into the blue. So much fun we're having!!!! We're so lucky to live now when all this is possible.
'Plant a time bomb' on it when it's going by at umpteen thousand miles per hour?
If you can rendezvous with it to place a nuclear charge for deflection (not to blow it into a thousand pieces, some of which would then be almost certain to intercept Earth later), who says it has to be detonated 'on the other side of the Sun?'
The Moon has advantages as a stable platform for a telescope, but putting one on an asteroid gains you nothing. Nor would 'planting a message' on something that's never going to leave the solar system on its own...
How about this: Instead of finding ways to create more space junk and trash we put some time and effort towards cleaning it up? We are destroying planet earth with trash and debris, and space is next (really its already there). We are always trying to 'make money' at the expense of our planet and moon rather than solving the real problems.
I agree that we should be cleaning the planet and finding ways to keep it clean WHILE we explore space.
We go to work, but we still come home and have to do the dishes.
"WHILE"....good call. That junk is a veritable goldmine of already engineered technology....small solar powered space tugs should be taking it to the moon NOW for future reclamation where it will be most needed.
Kudus....I do hope the team keeps on with it!!...naysayers need not apply!!!....I like the concept, and their brevity, they apparently hope to sweep the competition (x-prize)....I wanted to get a team in, but all the yappers around here shut up or became busy when I asked them...typical...meanwhile the rules changed, no individuals in the competition....still, I am certain that at least one team will at least place (land on the moon), if not actually meet or exceed one or more of the other requirements......nice story allan....the moon is a great place for a telescope, some talk has even been given to turning the ragge-olith into a mirror using solar reactors...there are lotsa good ideas, but one thing is for sure, one day a large telescope on the moon WILL rewrite the history books......robotic mining robots WILL garner resources from the moon....the moon WILL serve as a refueling point for inbound and outbound sol system traffic....and yes, a hotel on the moon WILL turn a profit. In our lifetimes?...maybe, but certainly NOT, absolutely NOT if the naysayers have their way....the bottom line is if they can't or won't so something, absolutely no else should either....if it is jealousy or control freakiness, I am not sure, one thing is for sure, the google lunar x-prize is no skin off their back so why should they even care if some private (well, university is not private, I understand but the point remains the same) team lands a mock telescope on the moon and receives real and valuable astrometric data and then goes on to deploy arthur and robert robots that successfully "mine" the surface for a bit??....I hope the critters DO demonstrate he3 isotope collection or even better, gather up about 16 ounces (thats right, imperial probe droids) of ice...guess that would really tick off the naysayers....REASON ENOUGH TO DO IT!!!...GO, TEAM GO!!!