CosmoCube Targets 13.5-Billion-Year-Old Signals From Lunar Orbit as UK-Backed Mission Nears 5-Year Launch Window
Updated
Updated · Courthouse News Service · Aug 14
CosmoCube Targets 13.5-Billion-Year-Old Signals From Lunar Orbit as UK-Backed Mission Nears 5-Year Launch Window
3 articles · Updated · Courthouse News Service · Aug 14
Summary
Nature Astronomy published details of CosmoCube, a suitcase-sized satellite backed by the UK Space Agency that could launch within five years to hunt signals from the universe’s cosmic dark ages.
For about 40 minutes of each two-hour lunar orbit, the Moon would shield the craft from Earth’s ionosphere and radio noise, enabling observations of the 21-centimeter hydrogen line at 10-50 MHz.
Over a planned two-year mission, researchers aim to gather about 1,000 hours of data and use repeated calibration plus statistical filtering to separate the faint cosmic signal from onboard and Milky Way interference.
Detecting that emission would offer the first direct view of the roughly 150 million years before the first stars formed and could clarify how dark matter helped assemble early stars and galaxies.
The timing may matter: planned far-side missions by the United States, India and others could eventually erode the Moon’s rare radio-quiet environment.