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Projecte llegit

Títol: A preliminary study of Lunar astronomical observatories

Estudiants que han llegit aquest projecte:

Director/a: MARZOA DOMÍNGUEZ, ANTONIO

Departament: FIS

Títol: A preliminary study of Lunar astronomical observatories

Data inici oferta: 12-02-2023     Data finalització oferta: 12-10-2023


Estudis d'assignació del projecte:
    GR ENG SIS TELECOMUN
    GR ENG SIST AEROESP
    GR ENG TELEMÀTICA
Tipus: Individual
 
Lloc de realització: EETAC
 
Segon director/a (UPC): GUTIÉRREZ CABELLO, JORDI
 
Paraules clau:
Astronomy, Ground-based observatories, Moon, Space, Telescopes, Optics
 
Descripció del contingut i pla d'activitats:
The atmosphere, light pollution, and, recently, the deployment of
megaconstellations call for an alternative to ground-based
astronomical observatories. Space telescopes are an attractive
alternative, but are limited by the performance of current and
foreseeable launchers. Furthermore, maintenance of a space
telescope is prohibitively expensive.

The Moon has several salient properties that can make it a very
advantageous site for astronomical observations. On the first
hand, there is no atmosphere, making available the whole
electromagnetic spectrum and avoiding the so-called atmospheric
turbulence, main cause of the resolution loss in ground-based
facilities. Secondly, the rotation rate is far slower than in the
case of the Earth, allowing uninterrupted observations for
periods of time measured in days. Furthermore, the reduced
gravity (only one sixth of that experienced on the surface of
Earth) would allow the erection of gigantic telescopes.

Nevertheless, other environmental conditions are not as
favourable, like ionising radiation and regolith levitation.

The goal of this project is to identify, and if possible
quantify, these advantages and drawbacks, make a study of
possible typologies of observatories, and analyse the procedures
for site selection.
 
Overview (resum en anglès):
The idea of Lunar-based observatories has been gaining popularity among the scientific
community during the last decades. Placing a telescope on the Moon¿s surface not only
would overcome all of the current shortcomings of Earth-based observatories, such as
atmospheric absorption, astronomical seeing, light pollution or Earth¿s day-night cycle
itself, but also would benefit from the exceptional observational conditions of natural
satellite offers, like the lack of atmosphere, the possibility of using increased-diffractionlimited instruments or Moon¿s slow sidereal rotation.
However, in order to safely operate Lunar astronomical observatories, all of the different
effects the telescope would suffer due to the fact of staying at the Moon¿s surface must
be considered in advance. Some of the most significant phenomena which may cause
severe impact on the observatory will be covered in this project, such as the effects
of being exposed to Lunar radiation and plasma environments and hazardous space
weather events.
This analysis will be carried out with the aim of studying the feasibility of manufacturing, launching, transporting, building, assembling, operating and maintaining an
astronomical observatory placed on the Moon¿s surface and also defining some of the
required upcoming future steps in the development of such an ambitious mission.

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