NASA Eyes Moon’s Far Side for 1-km Radio Telescope to Silence Earth Noise
NASA is evaluating the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT) on the Moon’s far side to escape Earth’s radio noise, building a ~350-meter-wide wire-mesh dish inside a natural crater with the goal of expanding to a 1-kilometer filled-aperture, robot-built telescope in the 2030s at a cost over $2 billion. Prototypes are under development at JPL, and Phase I–III funding is advancing toward a full mission. The far side’s radio-quiet environment would shield the instrument from Earth satellites (e.g., Starlink) and atmosphere, enabling observations of ultra-long wavelengths (>10 meters) that probe the universe’s dark ages and test cosmology—complementing, not replacing, Earth-based facilities.
