Lunar Observatories: Grand Plans vs. Clear Problems

On Dec 05, 2006, at 21:56 UTC, Lucio_de_Souza_Coelho wrote:

> Well, Terrestrial Planet Finder goals are in fact detection and
> atmospheric caracterization of Earth-sized planets, and for this it
> will use a relativelly small baseline - separations in the range of 40
> to 100 meters between telescopes, perfectly achievable in space. That
> is far different from what could be achieved by telescopes based on
> Luna with baselines of hundreds or even thousands of *kilometers*.

Why do you feel that similar (or larger) baselines couldn't be achieved
with space-based telescopes?

Best,
- Joe

Joe Strout -- joe@...