The goal is to build a radio observatory that makes continuous measurements of the spectrum between 1.000-4.000 GHz. This data must be relayed back to earth without loss through one or more satellites in a communication network. The moon-based dish will have a diameter of 300m, an aperture efficiency of 0.90, and a receiver with T_SYS = 20 K. It will be constructed in the crater Daedalus and will operate in a manner similar to the earth-based radio astronomical observatory at Arecibo in Puerto Rico.

Division into subtasks

Due to the size of the design project it is advisable to divide it into several subtasks. When we analyze the complete project goal we can determine the following subsystems:

• radio telescope on the far side of the moon
• system to send data back to earth
• system to receive data on earth

These three subsystems are studied in more detail on the following webpages.