Why in the news? 

Astronomers are looking forward to opening a new window on the universe by posting high-resolution telescopes on the moon and in orbit around it.

Why Astronomers are looking forward to opening telescopes on the moon?

• Radio telescopes launched into orbit around Earth exacerbated the problem of receiving radio noise from the entire planet, along with signals from outer space.
• The moon’s far side offers pristine, airless conditions ideal for optical telescopes, providing crystal-clear seeing conditions during the two-week lunar night.

Global Initiatives to Install Telescope on the Moon:

• NASA’s LuSEE Night Project: LuSEE Night, a joint NASA-Berkeley Lab project scheduled for launch in December 2025, aims to study the Dark Ages period by landing on the far side of the moon, shielded from radio frequency noise from Earth.
• ESA’s Projects: ESA is preparing to launch a radio telescope to the moon’s far side aboard its lunar lander, ‘Argonaut’, by 2030, along with other projects focused on gravitational wave detection and infrared observations.
• China’s Initiatives: China is also actively involved in lunar exploration, with plans to launch a moon-orbiting radio telescope in 2026 and deploy the Queqiao-2 satellite, which includes a radio telescope payload, to serve as a communications relay between Earth and future missions.

Indian Initiative 

• PRATUSH: Indian scientists plan to deploy the radio telescope PRATUSH on the moon’s far side, built by the Raman Research Institute (RRI) in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
• Deployment Process: Initially, ISRO will place PRATUSH into orbit around the Earth, then fine-tune it before launching it towards the moon. Operating in Earth orbit will offer advantages such as free space operation and reduced ionosphere impact compared to ground-based experiments.
• Observational Advantages: PRATUSH in lunar orbit will have ideal observing conditions, operating in free space with minimal radio frequency interference (RFI) and no ionosphere, essential for studying the signal from the Dark Ages.
• Instrument Features: PRATUSH will carry a wideband frequency-independent antenna, a self-calibrating analog receiver, and a digital correlator to capture radio noise in the signal from the Dark Ages.

Conclusion: The global initiative to deploy telescopes on and around the moon aims to overcome Earth’s radio noise and capitalize on the lunar far side’s pristine conditions for groundbreaking astronomical observations, including studying the universe’s early Dark Ages.

Mains question for practice 

Q Discuss the global initiatives to deploy telescopes on the moon.

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