[3] The mission aims to prove a conceptual design for a lunar observatory that would be reliable, low cost, and fast to implement.
[16] The mission was called Moon Express Lunar Scout, and it would have used the MX-1E lander to deliver the observatory on top of the Malapert Mountain, a 5 km tall peak in the Aitken Basin region that has an uninterrupted direct line of sight to Earth, which facilitates communications any time.
[23] Some collaborators include the National Astronomical Observatory of China (NAOC), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the newly formed Southeast Asia Principal Operating Partnership, and others.
ILO-C "seeks to advance Galaxy imaging, 21st Century Astronomy / Science from the Moon and precursor proof-of-concept development for the ILO-1 flagship mission".
[35] It will be a small, wide-field optical telescope, produced in Beijing, China through an Memorandum of Understanding between International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA), Hong Kong University (HKU), National Astronomical Observatories of Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC), and the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT).
[36] The ILO-1 mission's objective is to conduct astrophysical observations from the surface of the Moon, whose lack of atmosphere eliminates much of the need for costly adaptive optics technology.
[37] Disadvantages include micrometeorite impacts, cosmic and solar radiation, lunar dust, and temperature shifts as large as 350 °C.