Future Lunar Based Observatory Site Protected

by Guy Cramer

194,068 square Kilometers have been secured on the far side of the lunar surface for a future Moon base for observatories, (Picture and coordinates at end of article). Located at the exact middle of the opposite side of the moon the base may one day become home to the most powerful telescopic, radio, gamma ray... observatories in human history. The name of the site is called the Icarus Lunar Observatory Base (ILOB) there is a crater within the protected region called Icarus. This is the farthest solid point away from Earth in our moon-planet combination. 

Jeffrey G. Taylor, a University of Hawaii geophysicist states "The moon is good place to do space-based astronomy, as it moves rather slowly compared to the whipping around like current space telescopes. The moon also has a more stable surface than the Earth and no atmospheric interference.

"That means you can spread out a baseline of optical telescopes for interferometry," Taylor says. "It would be really big. At Mauna Kea (Hawaii) they are hooking up the two Keck telescopes with a 100-meter baseline. On the moon, they could have a 10 kilometer (6 mile) baseline."

The moon also is big enough for huge steerable radio telescopes, bigger than the steerable dishes at the Very Large Array in New Mexico.

The reason the far side of the moon is often referred to as the dark side has nothing to do with lack of sunlight as the far side gets the same amount of sunlight that the nearside does within a lunar month, however as the nearside of the moon always faces earth, if a spacecraft goes behind the moon it goes into communications blackout as there is no capability for direct line of sight transmission, thus the far side of the moon is referred to as dark due to the lack of radio signals from earth. This is why the exact middle of the far side was selected for the observatory site as it is the quietist area for this type of listening device such as a radio telescope. There is also the benefit within the visual spectrum as when the moon is full from earth perspective the far side of the moon is in almost complete darkness as the shine from the earth and sun are on the opposite side, this lack of reflection and direct or indirect sunlight will make for favorable conditions unlike any on earth or in earths orbit. 

After setting aside 8.9 million acres around Apollo 11 Lunar landing site and designated as a "World Heritage Site". The ROC team announced that it was holding more than 75% of the Lunar Mineral rights to allow for the extraction of Helium-3 and other minerals for the advancement of Space Exploration, Earth and Space Sciences and safer more efficient energy production. See Moon can be mined for abundant Helium-3 to be used in Fusion Reactors on Earth and Space.

Moon - Protected Icarus Region (Dark Side Observatory Park)

170.0°E - 190.0°E
10.0°N - 10.0°S

Image Statistics:

Image size = 320 rows by 320 columns.

Resolution = 16.0000 pixels per degree (true at the equator).
Scale = 1.8952 kilometers per pixel (true at the equator).

Projection = sinusoidal.
Stretch = auto.

Top Latitude = 10.0 degrees north.
Bottom Latitude = 10.0 degrees south.

Right Longitude = 190.0 degrees east.
Left Longitude = 170.0 degrees east

References

http://www.cnn.com/TECH/specials/apollo/stories/lunar.science/index.html