VLF Lunar

Radio
Antenna
Project
Team:

• Francisco Abarzua Villegas.

• Juan Almonacid Uribe.
• Mario Esquivel Lizondo.

• Support
• Yuki Takahashi (Japan)
• Yuri de la Barra (Radio
Amateur)
Objetive:
• Is to install Radio Antennas in far side of the moon
on the bottom of a perpetually shadowed impact
crater at the south pole of the moon to detect the first
electromagnetic radiowaves of the Universe that
come from the Dark Cosmic Age.
• The objective is to detect the first electromagnetic
waves at the redshifted 21 cm Hydrogen neutral
atom radio signal from the Dark Age of the Universe
prior to reionization era.
Why?

• Because the Dark Age of the Universe is the only epoch of time that the
Astronomy can´t detect their electromagnetics waves from the Earth or from
Space Satellites.
• It´s dificult because the radio interference from radiation of the Sun and
interference From the radiation of man made radiowaves from the Earth.
• And the Bounce of those first electromagentic long radiowaves in the Ionosphere
of the Earth that acts like a shield so
• So is very difficult to detect them from ground.
 If there no Stars in Dark
Ages from where born those
Electromagnetic waves?
Electrons that rotate in the outermost orbits of the nucleus of the atom have a
greater amount of energy than those that rotate closer to it.
As the influence made by the attraction of the nucleus of the atom on those
eletrons in this case is weaker, those electrons are the most likely to leave
their orbit.
When some alien particle collides with one of these electrons in higher orbit
motion, the electron become excited, causing it to leave its corresponding
orbit and occupy, for brief moments, another orbit of a higher energy level
and further away from the nucleus of the atom to which it belongs.
The immediate reaction of the nucleus of the atom will be to attract the
electron to incorporate it back into its original orbit immediately in order to
continue maintaining a neutral electrical balance.
At the precise moment that the electron returns to its orbit, the extra energy
that was acquired when passing from a lower level to a higher energy level
orbit, is released in the form of a photon of light .
Electromagnetic Wave

• The Electromagnetic waves are the fastest moving thing in the Universe, they move at the
speed of light, because they are light (Photons), (300.000 kilometers per second)
• But they have other properties too: Wavelenght and Frecuency.
• Wavelenght: is the distance between two succesive peaks or troughts in the wave pattern.
• Frecuency: is the rate at which these peaks or throughts move past a specific point
• Because the speed of light is Fixed, high frecuency waves must have shortwavelenghts,
and low frecuency ones must have longer wavelenghts.
Doppler Effect and Stretching of the Wave

• Thanks to Spectroscopy we can detect the motion

of stars. A phenomenom known as the Doppler
effect causes slight shifts in the colour of a star
light towards the blue or the red end of the
continum sprectrum depending on whether it is
moving towards or away from us.
• Edwin Huble discovered that many Galaxies has
absortion lines in the continum spectrum to the
red wavelenght discovering the Streching of the
Wave while travels on the space time, so more the
distant galaxies futher away more faster than de
nearest to the Earth.
Stretching of the dark era photon
wave goes from gamma wave at its
beginning to radio wave at the end
due to its loss of energy during its
long journey from 13 billion light
years of space to us.
• Radio frequencies emitted by luminance
emitted prior to the creation of the Stars,
in the "Dark Age" of the Universe.
21-centimeter line

• The hydrogen line, 21-centimeter line, or H I line is the electromagnetic

radiation spectral line that is created by a change in the energy state of
neutral hydrogen atoms. This electromagnetic radiation has a precise
frequency of 1420 Hz, which is equivalent to the vacuum wavelength of
21. cm in free space.
• the redshift, this line will be observed at frequencies from 200 MHz to
about 9 MHz on Earth. It potentially has two applications.
• First, by mapping the intensity of redshifted 21 centimeter radiation it can,
in principle, provide a very precise picture of the matter power spectrum in
the period after recombination. Second, it can provide a picture of how the
universe was reionized, as neutral hydrogen which has been ionized by
radiation from stars or quasars will appear as holes in the 21 cm
background.
• However, 21 cm observations are very difficult to make. Ground-based
experiments to observe the faint signal are plagued by interference from
television transmitters and the ionosphere, so they must be made from very
secluded isolated sites with care taken to eliminate interference.
 Epoch Time to Study
• 300.000 years after Big Bang (cosmic microwave
background )
• 1 billion years after the Big Bang (Beginning of
Reinonization Era when the first Stars and Galaxies
born)

Several other projects hope to make headway in this

area in the near future, such as the Precision Array for
Probing the Epoch of Reionization (PAPER), Low
Frequency Array (LOFAR), Murchison Widefield
Array (MWA), Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope
(GMRT), Mapper of the IGM Spin Temperature
(MIST), the Dark Ages Radio Explorer (DARE)
mission, and the Large-Aperture Experiment to Detect
the Dark Ages (LEDA).
Permanently
Shadowed Regions
(PSRs), S Pole

• This data represents the XY coordinate location of

Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSRs) as observed
on the south pole.
• As a Shield against the Sun and Earth
• Radio Quitness (VLF Radio)
• As a Platform for long interferometers area
 Radio Lunar Observatories Proposals
• Yuki Takahashi 2002 (Yuki) A Concept for a Simple Radio Observatory at the Lunar South Pole 2002/1 (Gorgolewski) Highest sensitivity radio astronomy and SETI from the far side of the Moon (including crater Saha)
2002/1 (Gorgolewski)
• Future space VLBI on lunar orbits and the radio shadow on the far side of the Moon 2000/4 (Jones et al) Space VLBI at Low Frequencies 2000 (Woan) Capabilities and Limitations of Long Wavelength Observations
from Space 2000 (Kuiper,Jones) Lunar Surface Arrays 2000 (Weiler)
• The Promise of Long Wavelength Radio Astronomy 2000 (Jones et al) The Astronomical Low Frequency Array: A Proposed Explorer Mission for Radio Astronomy 2000 (Maccone) Laydown of A Tether from Earth
Visible Location to Far Side for Lunar SETI 1999 (Woan)
• A very low frequency radio telescope on the far side of the Moon 1999/2 (Weiler,Jones)
• Low Frequency Astrophysics from Space (ALFA) 1998 (Weiler) review of radio astronomy from space 1997 (Jones,Weiler)
• Low Frequency Radio Astronomy From the Moon 1997 Very Low Frequency Array on the Lunar Far Side [ESA SCI(97)2] 1997/3 (Woan)
• Some design considerations for a Moon-based radio telescope operating at frequencies below 10 MHz (ESA) 1996 (Woan)
• Design Considerations for a Moon-based Radio Telescope Operating at Frequencies below 16 MHz 1997 (Basart etal)
• Directions for space-based low-frequency radio astronomy 2. Telescopes 1997 (Basart etal)
• Directions for space-based low frequency radio astronomy 1. System considerations 1996 (Bougeret)
• Very Low Frequency Radio Astronomy 1994/6 (Lecacheux)
• Solar system, low frequency radio astronomy from the Moon 1993 (ISU)
• International Lunar Farside Observatory and Science Station 1992/5 (Marsh,Mahoney,Kuiper,Jones)
• Concept for a lunar array for very low frequency radio astronomy 1992/5 (Basart,Burns)
• Low frequency astronomy from lunar orbit 1992/5 (Duric) Very low frequency radio astronomy from lunar orbit 1992 (Hughes Aircraft Company)
• Engineering Design of an Unmanned Lunar Radio Observatory 1992 (Hughes Aircraft Company)
• Telerobotically Deployed Lunar Farside VLF Observatory 1991 (Hughes Aircraft Company) Astronomical lunar low frequency array 1991 (Burns)
• Aperture synthesis imaging from the moon 1990/4 (Basart,Burns) Initial design of a lunar far-side very low frequency array 1990/2 (Duric,Burns)
• VLF radio astronomy from the moon - Probing astrophysical plasmas 1990/2 (Kuiper,Jones,Mahoney,Preston)
• Lunar low-frequency radio array 1990/1 (Kuiper, Jones, Mahoney, Preston)
• A simple low-cost array on the lunar near-side for the early lunar expeditions 1990/1 (Smith)
• Very low frequency radio astronomy from the moon 1990/1 (Basart,Burns)
Some Specs Data of a
low cost Mission

• Launchers Alternatives:
Protón Rocket
Delta IV heavy rocket
GSLV Mark III Rocket
Japan HII Rocket

• First Motheship with de antennas: 2000

kg / 100 km lunar orbit.
1. Op. Antenna / Rectenna
proposal

2. Op. Antenna / Nuclear

Energy Proposal

3. Op Antenna with Solar

Pannels outer crater ring
Problems

• Internet lunar satellite constelations

• Ice water in perpetually lunar shadowed crater in the south pole race

• Alternative location: CERES´s perpetually shadowed craters.