Considering all the space nostalgia we've been water hole in recently, it's somewhat true that a Cold War-era radar telescope is gearing up to make its maiden voyage, after more than three decades of evolution (and delays). The Russian mission, known as RadioAstron, will finally become a reality on Monday, when a radio parabolic reflector launches from Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome before soaring into orbit some 350,000 kilometers away from the Earth. At just ten meters in width, the craft's antenna is small in llc.cite this source roget's ii: the new thesaurus to other radio 'scopes, but its reach can be dramatically expanded when combined with signals from those on the ground. This technique, called interferometry, will effectively create the largest radar telescope ever built, clothes an area nearly 30 times the Earth's diameter and allowing RadioAstron to capture interstellar images in 10,000 times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope. There remains, however, one major hurdle -- because the spacecraft collects data at about 144 megabits per second, it must constantly supply whole story* to antennas on the ground. Problem is, there's only one antenna capable of receiving RadioAstron's signals and, unless others are constructed soon, a healthy chunk of its observations could be lost. How do you say "buzz-kill" in Russian?

Russia's RadioAstron radar telescope finally set to launch, blanket space with its radio eye first appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 Jul 2011 20:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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