Mysterious as the dark side of the moon

It has always been the dream of astronomers to putting telescopes and other instruments on the far side of the moon. The mass of the moon would block radio signals from the earth and would also avoid disturbances caused by the earth's atmosphere. With these distractions blocked, astronomers would be able to pick up faint signals left over from the early universe. NASA has recently awarded two planning grants for research on these technologies and how they will be put into place (hopefully on NASA's next voyage to the moon, around 2019). A team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Naval Research Laboratory are working to develop radio antennae that will pop out after being dropped on the moon's surface. Jack Burns, a professor and researcher at the Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy at the University of Colorado at Boulder, explains that since the far side of the moon is the quietest place in the inner solar system in terms of radio waves, if a radio telescope is placed there, the results will be "very dramatic."