The limits of cosmology

The Moon is our future. It may seem like a chimera with a projected cost in excess of 100 billion$, and counting, dispensed on ARTEMIS with little to show to date. However it is the ideal site for the largest telescopes that we can dream about, at wavelengths spanning decimetric radio through optical to terahertz FIR. And it is these future telescopes that will penetrate the fundamental mysteries of the first hydrogen clouds, the first stars, the first galaxies, the first supermassive black holes, and the nearest habitable exoplanets. Nor does it stop there. Our lunar telescopes will take us back to the first months of the Universe, and even back to the first 10\(^{-36}\) second after the Big Bang when inflation most likely occurred. Our lunar telescopes will provide high resolution images of exoplanets that are nearby Earth-like ’twins’ and provide an unrivalled attempt to answer the ultimate cosmic question of whether we are alone in the universe. Here I will set out my vision of the case for lunar astronomy over the next several decades.