Steen Eiler Jørgensen wrote:
Dholmes wrote:


What did I miss in my quick list?


Development of a communications relay satellite in a halo orbit around the
L2 Lagrange point in the Earth-Moon-system, providing a communications link
to the far side of the Moon.

From http://www.tsgc.utexas.edu/archive/design/farside.html

"During the construction phase, a satellite in an L2 halo orbit will relay
data from the lunar surface to a geostationary satellite in Earth orbit to
the Earth's surface. When the base becomes fully operational, however, a
radio-free sky is desired to take accurate astronomical readings. Therefore,
a fiber optic cable will be used as a communication link from the base to a
transmitter/receiver station on the near side of the Moon. It will be laid
out by a robotic rover from the base to the limb of the Moon. From there,
the signal can be broadcasted directly to Earth without interfering with
astronomical observations."

From http://www.tsgc.utexas.edu/archive/design/farside2.html

Sounds like a good idea to me. This is also the proposed location for
the James Webb space telescope:
http://www.space.com/businesstechnol...st_030108.html


--
Hop David
http://clowder.net/hop/index.html