'Game-Changing': NASA Funds CU Project To Build An Observatory On The Moon

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BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) - The University of Colorado is partnering up a lab in Houston to build a radio astronomy observatory to land on the surface of the moon. The project's study was recently funded by NASA.

(credit: Lunar Resources)

CU Boulder and Lunar Resources, Inc. in Houston will team up to build the observatory. The goal is to land an observatory and hundreds of miles of antennas on the dark side of the moon. using materials harvested from the lunar surface itself.

NASA recently pledged $125,000 to fund the nine-month study of the project and its viability as part of the 2021 Institute for Advanced Concepts program. Less than 5% of the entries are selected for funding each year.

(credit: CBS)

"FarView will be the most sensitive astronomical observatory in history," Ronald Polidan, principal investigator of FarView and director of programs at Lunar Resources, said in a release.

The observatory would be 20 kilometers by 20 kilometers in total. Due to the scale of the project, the lab would be fabricated on the lunar surface. Materials would be extracted from the moon and constructed robotically.

"Through utilization of the resources on the Moon, we could build FarView at about 10% of the James Webb Telescope cost and operate for more than 50 years. That's game changing," Dr. Alex Ignatiev, chief technology officer of Lunar Resources, said.