• Forum
• SITREP
• Military
• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security

• Space

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Public Eye

LIFE: lunar radio telescope looks back in space and time to the Dark Ages of our Universe

Berlin, ILA 2006, 16 May 2006

For a long time now it has been acknowledged that the Moon is an unrivalled site for science and research in various areas, such as solar system science, space physics, space weather, biomedical research, search of life in the Universe, research of the origin of the Universe, search of exoplanets.

EADS SPACE Transportation is studying the feasibility of Lunar Infrastructures for Exploration (LIFE) within the framework of long-term scenarios. These infrastructures are intended to make the Moon a perfect platform for various scientific disciplines.

Particularly the far side of the Moon provides a large experimentation platform for radio astronomy and infrared astronomy. Features such as complete shielding from any polluting radiation from Earth, the lack of an ionosphere as well as periodical shielding from sun radiation are offering radio astronomers best research conditions.

Research in the last remaining unexplored radio frequency range below 10 MHz is a major goal in this context. Astronomical observations in this frequency domain are possible exclusively from facilities placed beyond the Earth's ionosphere.

In co-operation with leading research institutes in Germany and the Netherlands, EADS SPACE Transportation is carrying out a feasibility study on a lunar long-wavelength radio telescope. The study is intended to demonstrate the opportunities for a scientifically reasonable participation of Germany in a European exploration programme.

Expected scientific breakthrough

According to the currently most accepted theory, the beginning of our Universe is marked with the Big Bang, which occurred approximately 13.7 billion years before the present epoch. With the erection of a radio telescope on the Moon it is hoped to look back in space and in time to an epoch that existed 300,000 years after the Big Bang, well before the formation of any stars or planets. This era is called the "Dark Ages" and is the last period that can be studied with telescopes before one reaches the electromagnetically impenetrable surface of the Big Bang fire ball.

To uncover signals from this epoch large long-wavelength radio telescopes operating in a frequency range below 10 MHz outside the Earth's ionosphere are required.

The early phases of the Dark Ages contain the largest amount of cosmological information of all periods, information that is required to attack the fundamental questions of our origins. A lunar Low Frequency Array thus promises a scientific breakthrough.

Radio astronomy through the ages

During the last years a change of paradigm has been introduced in Radio Astronomy. In contrary to the huge antennas used until today, advanced electronic data processing has now opened the opportunity to enhance the efficiency of antennas by several factors by combining input signals from many small antennas. Huge steel receivers will be replaced by many small receivers and massive data processing (phased-array technology). This technology is already being used with the Dutch-German LOFAR project. From 2007 to 2010, the world's largest and most advanced terrestrial radio telescope, having its core in Westerbork (The Netherlands) and operating at the longest wavelengths available from Earth, will be built within the framework of this project.

The phased-array technology will allow the deployment of a first long-wavelength radio telescope on the surface of the Moon with a single Ariane 5 launch, thus creating the starting point for a wide area network of receivers similar to the terrestrial LOFAR project. Such a network could serve as the "core" of an expanding multidisciplinary lunar science base. Therefore a feasibility study is being carried out dealing with the establishment of the first scalable infrastructure for science and research on a celestial body outside the Earth.

German institutes and universities provide a significant contribution to the worldwide growth in knowledge about the origin, the development and the future of the earth and mankind.

In order to maintain this position it is also necessary to ensure that the spending within national and international space programmes also feeds German research and science institutions.

In this context, the proposed exploratory programme "LIFE" is to be seen as a project that shall give target-oriented impetus to excellent basic research in various fields such as

• astronomy and solar system research
• high-rate data communication
• robotics/automation/artificial intelligence
• information technology
• materials
• energy generation and storage
• space systems

This claim is based on the already existing leading capabilities and excellencies of the involved national and international institutions contributing to the LIFE feasibility study in the frame of various workshops and working groups. Among these institutions are the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (Katlenburg-Lindau), the CNRS Observatory (Paris), the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam, the JIVE (Dwingeloo, Netherlands), the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (Bonn), Astron - LOFAR (Westerbork, Netherlands), the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (Upsala), the German Aerospace Center DLR (Cologne), the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (Heidelberg), the Universities of Bremen, Leiden, Delft, Glasgow and Athens, as well as the LOIS SPACE Centre in Sweden and the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Science.

EADS SPACE is a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS and one of the world's leading specialists for civil and defence space systems. In 2005, EADS SPACE had a turnover of €2.7 billion and 11,000 employees in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain. The company has three main subsidiaries: EADS SPACE Transportation for launchers and manned space systems, EADS Astrium for satellites and associated ground infrastructures and EADS SPACE Services for the development and provision of satellite-based services.

EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2005, EADS generated revenues of €34.2 billion and employed a workforce of more than 113,000.

Your media contacts
Mathias Pikelj
EADS SPACE
(GER)
Tel.: +49 (0) 7545 8 9123

Hendrik Thielemann
EADS SPACE
(GER)
Tel.: +49 (0) 89 607 27 244

Kirsten Leung
EADS SPACE
(GER)
Tel.: +49 (0) 421 539 5326