Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Even if no one visited to stir up dust there would be a dust problem...

My dustup with Nick/R.L. : comprehensive
et — (archived)

I don't think the dust issue is that serious fellas. Clearly the observatory would have to be designed around this issue, and a few others. Once the challenges of the environment is well characterized it's an engineering problem. Electrostatic precipitators could work well at collecting suspended dust particles in a clean room type environment for the scope.

Look how much time and money is being spent to service the Hubble- its just a few hundred miles away! Orbital observatories make FAR more sense than lunar ones...

Service costs for the Hubble are mostly dependent on the ride to orbit. In this case, a dedicated shuttle launch. In the context where a scope is run as a part of a more comprehensive lunar manned initiative, servicing costs come down to the cost of cycling the air locks and hardware.

And I've been assuming that the observatory would be a seperate facility from the putative lunar base, but it could also be a clean room like environment directly connected by a positive pressure lock.

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