I have only one question... why? The moon itself IS a passive reflector. Hams have been bouncing RF off the moon long before we (supposedly ) landed a man on the moon. It's not so pristine at the point on Earth that's closest to the Moon (link).
Brilliant idea .. .. wonder how much it would cost and whether it could be counted as a charity project . Paul G0NDN
anyone trying E-A-E Asteroid bounce? Asteroid 2017 BS32 Flies By Earth starting at 3 PM EST 60% closer than the Moon For the third time in just four weeks, an asteroid will fly between the Earth and the Moon just days after its discovery. Asteroid 2017 BS32 was discovered on January 30th and will come more than twice as close to the Earth as the Moon during its closest approach on February 2nd. This marks the latest in a cluster of late-discovered, close approach asteroids. At the moment of the asteroid’s approach, starting at 3 PM EST, Slooh will point its telescopes at BS32 in an attempt to capture the fast moving space rock as it flies between Earth and the Moon. “It raises a few eyebrows when we see a number of close approaching NEAs over such a short period of time,” says Slooh Astronomer, Paul Cox. “We’ll investigate how this could be.” Slooh Astronomers will discuss the implications of this sharp increase in late-discovered asteroids coming so close to the planet, and whether this has happened in the past. They’ll also examine the asteroid in question, its size and speed, while exploring why smaller asteroids so often go undetected until just days before they reach their closest point to the planet. NEA 2017 BS32 was discovered on January 30th by observers at Pan-STARRS and will make its closest approach at 20:23 UTC (3:22 PM EST) on February 2nd. At the time of closest approach, BS 32 will be just 100,214 miles above the Earth, 60% closer than the Moon. Watch live - http://main.slooh.com/event/asteroid...ter-discovery/
If we had a permanent radio station of any kind on the moon, what would be it’s international call sign prefix? Tom WA4ILH
I wanna know who is going there put put up the tower and build the shack to house the repeater equipment, and who is gonna go and replace the controller when it eventually gives up the ghost or reset the power after a fail. Sounds kinda like an expensive trip.
I am surprised no one has mentioned Project Moonray yet.... http://www.nitehawk.com/rasmit/nick.html The good news was that it was approved and on schedule for launch. The bad news is that it was to launch as part of Apollo 18 - which was cancelled (Apollo 17 was the last manned lunar mission).
Project Moonray, very interesting. I wonder if anyone hase ever seriously considered placing a VLA Radio Telescope on the dark side of the moon shielded from all interference from the earth. Needless to say, it would require several Lunar orbiting satellites for comms. Tom WA4ILH
I'd volunteer to go. While there, I want to visit the new restaurant on the moon. I hear the food's OK but... there's no atmosphere.
They could just unroll miles of fiber across the surface to just this side to get a signal back. After all they would want complete RF quiet on that side.
That would be a lot of fiber. I think there are bands of frequencies which would not interfere with a radio telescope. The deep space network, for example, operaters in the 8.2 GHz range. Tom WA4ILH