huangyhg

melted lunar crater basin telescope
i've an idea that many people tell me has already been discussed elsewhere, but i haven't been able to google any references to it.
the concept is to shine a mirror onto a lunar rover that is carrying a fresnel lens, or to utilize an arecibo type of apparatus; this is to heat and melt portions of the surface of a lunar impact crater basin so that it may be utilized as the dish for an infrared or radio telescope. not to form the foundation of a dish, but to actually form the substrate of it. no mirror materials would need to be transported from earth.
i've read a paper stating lunar impact basins form a parabolic geometry, but i don't know if this means irregular rough parabolic, or telescope quality parabolic. i would think there are enough impact sites that to find a few suitable sites, ideally near polar regions for long exposures. i don't know if melted regolith (or whatever a crater basin interior surface is called) reflects em wavelengths enough to act as mirrors. i think some crater basins have a large metallic component, but i don't know if this is large enough to be useful for some em wavelengths.
any thoughts anyone has on this would be most appreciated. there are many fields at play here and i've been told this isn't feasible. no one has said specifically why...
eng-tips forums is member supported.
not sure what your paper says, but the arizona meteor crater is hardly parabolic.
and what's the purpose? vlbi for radio astronomy already works on the scale of hundreds of miles.
ir telescopes require fairly precise surface figures to make decent images. and a telescope that constantly has the earth in the field of regard is sort of pointless, since the light pollution from the earth is probably enough to screw up the imagery.
ttfn

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