Ever
since humans looked up, we've been obsessed with gazing deep into the
seemingly infinite cosmos. We've got plenty of telescopes both on Earth
and floating around it that are staring out into the abyss, but the
ILO-X is going to be perched on the moon. And you'll be able to use it right from your computer.
A joint venture between International Lunar Observatory Association and Moon Express,
the ILO-X has been in the works for a while, but now its form is
finally complete. Sometime in 2015, it'll be the first private telescope
to land on the moon with all its discoveries piped right back to our
terrestrial Internet. And that's just the beginning; the plan is to
eventually have an entire remote-controlled observatory at the moon's
south pole, but you've got to start somewhere.
The ILO-X
is a tiny little sucker, about the size of a shoebox, and its camera has
a mere 6.4-megapixel resolution. But the goal isn't to be the best
telescope out there. The aim is to be a lunar telescope anyone
can use. The 'scope's Internet-based control system was already tested
here on Earth, and so now the only step is to get that souped-up webcam
on the moon. More
