Prof. Joe Silk

I will review the prospects for future progress in cosmology. I will give examples of two futuristic experiments. One seeks the dark ages signature via low frequency radio astronomy on the far side of the Moon to provide a robust probe of inflationary cosmology. A second involves a far infrared telescope in a permanently shadowed lunar crater to search for the elusive deviations from the blackbody spectrum of the cosmic microwave background that were generated early in cosmic history. These concepts could be implemented in the coming decades of lunar exploration along with other, even more ambitious, telescope projects.