A Moon telescope is set to launch in 2015 to view galaxies, planets and the Earth. Best of all, you will be able to look through the telescope, and control it, from the comfort of your own home.
The International Lunar Observatory precursor (ILO-X) will be directed from the ground, even by the general public. Its images will also be available for viewing on the World Wide Web. The new space telescope, a precursor to a larger observatory planned to land on the Moon's southern pole, is about the size of a shoebox and weighs around five pounds. It was recently unveiled to the public in Vancouver by the International Lunar Observatory Association.
Bob Richards is the CEO of Moon Express, a private organization in California's Silicon Valley that is funding the project. In December 2011, the telescope was successfully tested on Hawaii's Mauna Kea.
"We put it on top of the Mauna Kea, pretended it was on the moon and had scientists and individuals access it through internet software that we developed," Richards said.
The project is driven, at least in part, by the $520 million dollar Space-X prize which will be awarded to the first privately-funded organization to land a robot on the Moon. Winning that prize money requires that a rover travel at least 1640 feet along the lunar surface, a feat that will not be possible with ILO-X. Technologies developed during this project will assist Mon Express in their effort to win that prize.
"It's citizen science on the moon and it's really a new model of public participation. This will be a small, but very high-performance telescope on the Moon that the public and scientists or professionals and amateurs alike will have access to over the Internet," Richards said.
The primary goal of the non-profit ILOA organization is to increase public knowledge about the Universe through astronomical observations made from the Moon. Reaching this goal will include launching a human mission to the Moon within a decade.
Naveen Jain, the CEO of ILOA, grew up in poverty in India, looking up at the Moon in wonder, never imagining he would one day participate in a mission to the lunar surface.
Not only will you be able to view the lunar surface with ILO-X, but with the proper timing, you could point the telescope at Earth, getting a picture of where you are on Earth as seen from 238,900 miles away.
