Supertelescópios lunar

The team of Dr. Peter Chen believes that the mirrors for lunar supertelescópios can be built with a bit of carbon, epoxy and a lot of lunar dust.

“We can build giant telescopes on the Moon made fairly easy, and avoid the costs of transporting large mirrors from Earth,” says Dr. Chen. “As most of the material is already there in the form of dust, you need not take much with it, saving a lot of money.”

Mirror of dust

A specialist in carbon-fiber composites, Dr. Chen decided to experiment with carbon nanotubes, mixing these nanostructures with epoxy - a kind of glue - and a rock ground that mimics the lunar dust. The result is a material highly resistant, with the same consistency of concrete. And that can be used for the construction of mirrors, replacing the glass.

Adding successive layers of epoxy on the original material, the team of Dr. Chen has already built the first prototype of mirror telescopes for moon, measuring 12 inches - just over 30 centimeters - in diameter. The technique, very simple, is not very different from the construction of structures of fiberglass.

“In the end, all we need do was cover the mirror with a small amount of aluminium and voilá, we had a mirror telescope for high-reflexivity,” he says.

Highest optical telescope of the Solar System

According to the researcher, the Moon will be possible to construct easily mirrors with 50 meters in diameter. The largest optical telescope on Earth today is the Gran Canary telescope with a mirror diameter of 10.4 meters.

And not only is the size that will cause a lunar telescope revolucione to astronomy. Without air to absorb or interfere with the light of the stars, this huge telescope can capture the spectrum of extra-solar planets and even detect molecules such as ozone and methane.

specialists

Although the designation of “scientist of NASA” sound almost like a title, the research of Dr. Chen said with the help of several amateur astronomers, who gave practical tips on the best formulation of epoxy, home of polishing techniques and even how to structure the coating of dust and carbon with aluminum.