| Description: | This is a snapshot from a movie that EADS Astrium Space Transportation (Bremen) produced, based on a study and a workshop that ASTRON conducted together with them. From ASTRON, Meijers, Bregman and Wijnholds contributed to the study. ASTRON has a long history of involvement in ESA projects for low-frequency radio astronomy from the Moon, starting with Noordam (early 90's) and Van Ardenne (mid 90's).
The result of this study was a 33 station, 3-armed, 32 km LOFAR on the far-side of the moon that can be errected with a single Ariane V launch. Observing frequencies would be below 10 MHz. These wavelengths are not accessible from telescopes on Earth. The LOFAR technology is ideally suited for such a space project. |
