Texas astronomers revive idea for 'Ultimately Large Telescope' on the moon

Re:Texas astronomers revive idea for 'Ultimately Large Teles... by kevin_thibedeau on Tuesday November 17, 2020 @10:51AM (#25125147)

Robotics in hard vacuum with abrasive soil, extreme temperature fluctuations, and bullets raining down. We don't deal with that on Earth.

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Re:Texas astronomers revive idea for 'Ultimately Large Teles... by inglor_cz on Tuesday November 17, 2020 @12:44PM (#25126810)

Except for abrasive soil, all the challenges exist on the orbit as well. And various satellites seem to cope.

If attrition of the robots turns out to be a factor, it could still be solved like this: expect that an average robot can survive 6 months on the lunar surface. So send twenty of them to the remote base, build a cave for the reserve robots and "burn" through the reserve slowly. Every 4-5 years, send a human crew to replace or repair the dead robots.

Can be done, the main question is the price tag.

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Re:Texas astronomers revive idea for 'Ultimately Large Teles... by m4rtink on Tuesday November 17, 2020 @12:37PM (#25126696)

Some of the deep sea robots used on oil and gas rigs come close IMHO.

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