sailorbarsoom@... [spacesettlers] wrote:

> The far side of the Moon is the very best place for radio astronomy...
> until we get some zero-G manufacturing capability going. Then, we can
> build much, much better radio telescopes in free space.

Well, bigger... but you still have to shield them from the Earth, which
(as I understand it) outshines the Sun in the radio spectrum.

Of course, I wouldn't want a farside observatory to put a chill on lunar
communications satellites, which we sorely need. But maybe we can just
build them smart enough to go silent when in view of the observatory.

> But the far side
> of the Moon will do for a start, and if building it helps us GET that
> infrastructure going, then that's good too.

Yep. I'm all for anything that helps build cislunar infrastructure.

Best,
- Joe