Lift Wire Deployment and Anchoring System for the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope on the Far Side of the Moon

Wang, Rebecca; Gehlot, Vinod P.; Bandyopadhyay, Saptarshi; McGarey, Patrick; Byron, Ben; Pisanti, Dario; Wilson, Ron; Jenks, Kenneth

doi:10.2514/6.2023-1787

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…The design of the LCRT antenna comprises a 350 m diameter parabolic reflector deployed in a crater with suitable depth-to-diameter ratio, via high-TRL crater-wall-climbing robots or anchoring systems and lift wires [7]. A dual linearly polarized and resonance-optimized log periodic dipole array (LPDA) antenna is employed as the feed/receiver element suspended at the reflector focus [35].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The design of a Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT) on the far side of the Moon has been proposed with the objective to measure the spectrum of the sky-averaged Dark Ages signal in the 4.7-47 MHz frequency range, which has not been explored for cosmological observations to date [4][5][6]. Using deployment technologies being developed at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory [7], a 350 m diameter parabolic reflector mesh will be deployed in a 1.3 km diameter lunar crater on the farside of the Moon [8], with a receiver suspended at its focus. An illustration of LCRT is shown in figure 1.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modelling science return from the lunar crater radio telescope on the far side of the moon

Pisanti,

Goel,

Gupta

et al. 2024

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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The era following the separation of CMB photons from matter, until the emergence of the first stars and galaxies, is known as the Cosmic Dark Ages. Studying the electromagnetic radiation emitted by neutral hydrogen having the 21 cm rest wavelength is the only way to explore this significant phase in the Universe’s history, offering opportunities to investigate essential questions about dark matter physics, the standard cosmological model and inflation. Due to cosmological redshift, this signal is now only observable at frequencies inaccessible from the Earth’s surface due to ionospheric absorption and reflection. With the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT), we aim to conduct unprecedented measurements of the sky-averaged redshifted signal spectrum in the 4.7–47 MHz band, by deploying a 350 m diameter parabolic reflector mesh inside a lunar crater on the far side of the Moon and suspending a receiver at its focus. This work discusses the feasibility of the LCRT science goals through the development of a science model, with emphasis on post-processing techniques to extract the Dark Ages signal from the galactic foreground dominating the expected raw data. This model can be used to vary critical instrument and mission parameters to understand their effect on the quality of the retrieved signal. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Astronomy from the Moon: the next decades (part 2)’.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%