Capturing previously inaccessible radio waves has been a dream of astronomers for decades. Some 40 years ago, scientists started seriously considering what different types of lunar telescopes might be able to discover, as well as how they could be built.

Even then, according to a NASA document titled Future Astronomical Observatories on the Moon, scientists realized that the Moon offered a unique vantage point that could open up the last window in the electromagnetic spectrum at very low frequencies.

By the early 1980s, the Apollo missions were a decade in the rearview, but the burgeoning Space Shuttle Program was looking like a success. This led to renewed talks of returning to the Moon. Researchers hoped these developments might eventually lead to Moon bases that would enable the infrastructure for sustained scientific studies.

The only way we could conceive of putting scientific instruments on the Moon was with astronauts, says University of Colorado Boulder astronomer Jack O. Burns. He serves as director of the NASA-fundedNetwork for Exploration and Space Science, and for decades has been the lead crusader for building telescopes on the Moon.

Now, for the first time thanks to modern robotics and the emergence of private spaceflight companies Burns thinks this once-crazy idea can actually become a reality. His students now routinely work with remotely operated robots and machine learning algorithms things that would have been unimaginable in the 1980s, he says. Technology has caught up, and maybe thats what we needed.

Due to these technological advancements and more, lunar telescopes no longer require astronaut construction crews and $100 billion space programs. Instead, they could be built using rovers sent on privately built rockets that are already under development.

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The History and Future of Telescopes on the Moon - Astronomy Magazine