Space antenna project 'might still happen'

Date: 24/1/2012

A project using antennas to try and register the disturbance caused by gravitational waves in space may still proceed, despite financial issues previously appearing to bring the programme to a halt.

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna was to be a spaceborne observatory controlled by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), which had the potential to give scientists a whole new view of the universe and a better understanding of its workings, the Scientific American reports.

This partnership was dissolved in March 2012 after costs overran regarding the James Webb Space Telescope - but researchers are hoping to reinvigorate the project in the form of a scaled-back version.

Astrophysicist Tyson Littenburg at the University of Maryland, College Park Tyson Littenberg stated: "The partnership may be dead, but the concept and the community and the enthusiasm is not dead."

ESA is an international organisation with 19 member states that currently has around 2,200 members of staff, while a new ESA centre recently opened up in Oxfordshire.

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Posted by Ronnie Gray