Renovating the Yevpatoria RT-70 Radio Telescope…

Interesting tidbit of news today. It involves a huge Soviet era radio telescope…

It is said on the news in Moscow that Russia and Ukraine are to work together to renovate the giant Soviet-era radio telescope near Yevpatoria on the Crimean Peninsula.

This information came to light after an inspection led by the Russian Space Agency. The finding was that work needed to be done to keep utilizing the telescope for future space missions.

The 32-year-old telescope has an antenna almost the size of a football field. With its 70m antenna diameter, it is among one of the largest radio telescopes in the world. The Soviet era radio telescope has an advantage in comparison with other largest radio telescopes in the fact that the telescope includes powerful transmitters. These transmitters would allow this scope to communicate with extra terrestrials if need be and makes this telescope unique in that aspect…

It is needed in top form because Russia needs to use the telescope for support on a planned Russian robotic mission to the Martian moon Phobos in 2011…