Does the Lunar Surface Still Offer Value As a Site for Astronomical Observatories?

Astrophysics, abstract
astro-ph/0401274

From: Dan Lester [view email]

Date (v1): Wed, 14 Jan 2004 16:11:53 GMT   (115kb)

Date (revised v2): Thu, 5 Feb 2004 13:57:34 GMT   (111kb)

Authors:
Daniel F. Lester (1),
Harold W. Yorke (2),
John C. Mather (3) ((1) Department of Astronomy and McDonald Observatory, University of Texas, (2) Division of Earth and Space Science, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, (3) Lab for Astronomy and Solar Physics, Goddard Space Flight Center)

Comments: 14 pages, 1 figure; in press Space Policy

Current thinking about the Moon as a destination has revitalized interest in
lunar astronomical observatories. Once seen by a large scientific community as
a highly enabling site, the dramatic improvement in capabilities for free-space
observatories prompts reevaluation of this interest. Whereas the lunar surface
offers huge performance advantages for astronomy over terrestrial sites,
free-space locales such as Earth orbit or Lagrange points offer performance
that is superior to what could be achieved on the Moon. While astronomy from
the Moon may be cost effective once infrastructure is there, it is in many
respects no longer clearly enabling compared to free-space.

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