How to Deploy a 10-km Interferometric Radio Telescope on the Moon with Just Four Tethered Robots
Patrick McGarey, Issa A. Nesnas, Adarsh Rajguru, Matthew Bezkrovny,, Vahraz Jamnejad, Jim Lux, Eric Sunada, Lawrence Teitelbaum, Alexander Miller,, Steve W. Squyres, Gregg Hallinan, Alex Hegedus, Jack O. Burns

TL;DR
This paper proposes a novel lunar far-side radio telescope deployment using four tethered robots, enabling unprecedented radio observations of the universe's early epochs and exoplanet magnetospheres.
Contribution
It introduces a deployment strategy utilizing tethered robots and tape antennas, leveraging existing technologies for lunar surface deployment of large-scale radio arrays.
Findings
Deployment feasibility with existing tethered robot technology.
Trade study results on antenna packaging and placement.
Potential for groundbreaking radio astronomy observations.
Abstract
The Far-side Array for Radio Science Investigations of the Dark ages and Exoplanets (FARSIDE) is a proposed mission concept to the lunar far side that seeks to deploy and operate an array of 128 dual-polarization, dipole antennas over a region of 100 square kilometers. The resulting interferometric radio telescope would provide unprecedented radio images of distant star systems, allowing for the investigation of faint radio signatures of coronal mass ejections and energetic particle events and could also lead to the detection of magnetospheres around exoplanets within their parent star's habitable zone. Simultaneously, FARSIDE would also measure the "Dark Ages" of the early Universe at a global 21-cm signal across a range of red shifts (z approximately 50-100). Each discrete antenna node in the array is connected to a central hub (located at the lander) via a communication and power…
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