Very interesting article (pdf).
http://astronauticsnow.com/mg_pubs/2005_Gruntman_et_al_p_29-34_IAA_Aosta.pdf
Also available as a "here" link on the 4th topic on
http://www.centauri-dreams.org/
Marcel:
Interesting - and the last paragraph speaks of a new DSN study of an 11m antenna 'Farm' concept for the downlink...
Bob Shaw
Yeah, but that's the part i did not understand quite well i'm afraid. 11 m farm ? Do they mean a "farm" with 11 meter dishes in an array (like a Y-configuration) ? There are a lot of arrays MUCH bigger than that already.......aren't there ?
Marcel.
Lots of small dishes adding up to the same size as one large dish ends up as a cheaper option I presume?
Doug
One of the "Purple Pigeons of Planetology" dream missions proposed post Viking, post-Voyager was "TAU"... Thousand Astronomical Units"... Hubble scale telescope and other instruments lobbed out of the solar system, maybe with a solar-electric propulsion system followed by Jupiter gravity assist <don't recall> on a 30 or 50 year mission.
Imagine the astrometry they could do in the galaxy with a 500 AU parallax baseline and hubble sized optics.
I think that telescope company is in Birkenhead - didnt they make the mirrors for the Faulkes scopes? I remember going "Ohh - Birkenhead" because that's where Helen and I both herald from in our youth
On the big radio telescope 'Railway Bridge' heavy engineering front, here are some pictures of Jodrell Bank which illustrate the scale of things. Some are in 3-D.
There *is* a reason for strong structures - as shown by the before and after shots of the 300' Green Bank dish (pics by Richard Porcas).
http://www.gb.nrao.edu/fgdocs/300ft/300foot.html
Man, I HATE it when that happens!
Paper: astro-ph/0601117
Date: Fri, 6 Jan 2006 00:20:29 GMT (57kb)
Title: The Local Interstellar Medium
Authors: Seth Redfield (University of Texas at Austin)
Comments: 15 pages, 2 figures; to appear in ASP conference proceedings of
"Frank N. Bash Symposium 2005: New Horizons in Astronomy"
\\
The Local Interstellar Medium (LISM) is a unique environment that presents
an opportunity to study general interstellar phenomena in great detail and in
three dimensions. In particular, high resolution optical and ultraviolet
spectroscopy have proven to be powerful tools for addressing fundamental
questions concerning the physical conditions and three-dimensional (3D)
morphology of this local material. After reviewing our current understanding
of the structure of gas in the solar neighborhood, I will discuss the influence
that the LISM can have on stellar and planetary systems, including LISM dust
deposition onto planetary atmospheres and the modulation of galactic cosmic
rays through the astrosphere - the balancing interface between the outward
pressure of the magnetized stellar wind and the inward pressure of the
surrounding interstellar medium. On Earth, galactic cosmic rays may play a
role as contributors to ozone layer chemistry, planetary electrical discharge
frequency, biological mutation rates, and climate. Since the LISM shares the
same volume as practically all known extrasolar planets, the prototypical
debris disks systems, and nearby low-mass star-formation sites, it will be
important to understand the structures of the LISM and how they may
influence planetary atmospheres.
\\ ( http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0601117 , 57kb)
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