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NASA wants to build a gigantic, liquid telescope on the moon

moontelescopeconcept.jpgWhy are we spending all this money on telescopes on the surface of the earth when they have to be able to see up through our atmosphere to get to the good stuff: space? What we need to be doing is building gigantic telescopes on the surface of the moon, where they'll have room to spread out and won't be bothered by a pesky atmosphere.

That's exactly what NASA is planning on doing, and using liquid mirrors, no less. In order to create absolutely massive telescopes, they'll set a new form of ionic liquids spinning on the moon. The spinning will cause the liquids to naturally form a parabolic shape, perfect for telescopes. Due to the liquid nature of the mirror, the telescope wouldn't be able to be tilted, but due to the natural rotation of the moon, a telescope pointed straight up would still cover a good chunk of the sky. Cool, cool stuff.

Space Fellowship, via Slashdot

         
Comments

What could happen if we change the weight of the moon by installing heavy equipment? Scientists!!

This really is fascinating. I wonder what we'd be able to discover with t his telescope. Any specs on if it would be more powerful than the hubble?

There is absolutely no danger of changing the weight of the moon signifigantly enough to cause any problems. The moon itself is simply too massive and the equipment we would transport there to light in comparison.
I would definitely think that it would be more powerful than the hubble if the scale in the picture is any indication. I would love to see the pictures that could be taken by this scope!!! :D

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