Racing to Build a Radio Telescope on the Moon

A new paper proposes building a radio telescope on the far side of the Moon, aiming to detect signals like the "Wow!" signal from 1977. The mission, called LFT3, would deploy a sophisticated radio antenna by the end of the decade and cost $150 million, using NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. The telescope would operate across HF, VHF, and UHF bands, scanning the deep cosmos for around 20 weeks. It would monitor for technosignatures, auroras, and fast radio bursts, with support from the Breakthrough Listen initiative. The far side is considered safe from Earth’s radio interference, but by 2030, a growing fleet of orbiters and landers will introduce RFI, making the mission urgent. The telescope would need to withstand extreme temperature fluctuations, from 120°C during the day to -130°C at night. The mission plans to use an orbiting satellite to relay data back to Earth, but the current data transfer capacity is limited to about 100 GB per month, which is insufficient for high-resolution data. To address this, the telescope would perform preliminary processing and filtering at the site, sending back only highly relevant data. The mission remains un-funded, but its low cost and time-sensitive nature make it appealing. The article highlights the potential of the far side as a radio telescope, but also the technical and logistical challenges involved.

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