3 ms·

I wonder if basing such a large telescope, or group of telescopes, makes sense on the Moon for the ease of construction and maintenance. At either pole a large

• dakr 11y ago
  Dust above the surface of the moon is a concern, but another point to consider is that it takes extra fuel to lower down into the gravity well of the moon. Fuel is mass and mass is money. It would be less expensive in terms of fuel to not go to the moon.
• sonar_un 11y ago
  Well, I think that the moon wouldn't be too feasible since it does rotate. If you land telescopes on the moon, you wouldn't be able to observe the sky for a long period of time, like the hubble did with the deep field (50 days of time). It also doesn't make sense to geosync the telescope behind the "dark side" of the earth for the same reason. Long exposures wouldn't be easy since the earth does move around the sun, so the sky moves with it. Eventually you will have to face the sun to get the same shot of the sky. So, the only way would to be to have the orbit around the sun so the telescope can always face away from the sun. that way you can at least create the long exposures they need.