A United Kingdom startup wants to build a cosmic radio station in the moon orbit to listen to radio waves from the early universe.
Blue Skies Space has secured a contract of the Italian space agency to design a fleet of small satellites that could orbit the moon and listen to signs of the cosmic “dark age”. That is the time before the first stars illuminated, when the universe was mainly a rotating mass of hydrogen gas.
Hydrogen atoms naturally emit radio waves at a very specific frequency: 1420MHz – Known as TThe hydrogen line. When that signal stretches in 13 billion years of cosmic expansion, it moves in red in the FM radio band (above 88-108MHz).
These old radio signals are almost impossible to detect from the earth, thanks to our entire radio talk. But park some satellites on the other side of the moon – Far from that interference –He could help scientists cut the noise and unravel the clues of the early universe.
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That is what Blue Skies Space, the Italian Space Agency and space contractor OHB Italy will investigate under the joint project, called Radioluna.
The space of the blue skies will study if small low -cost cubesates, built from commercial parts and ready to use, can survive and make a real science while orbiting the moon. OHB Italy will discover how to build the spacecraft.
The mapping of these signals could complete the missing piece between the Big Bang and the first stars, showing how the universe evolved from the soft hydrogen fog to the cosmic network of the galaxies that we see today.
Dr. Marcell Tessenyi, CEO and co -founder of Blue Skies Space, told TNW that if the idea is feasible, it could result in a commercial service.
“Depending on the technical viability, the financial panorama and the appropriate infrastructure, we anticipate being able to deliver this system within five years after the end of the study,” he said.
Radioluna is not the only project in which the blue skies space is working. In October, the startup will launch its first satellite in orbit. The probe, Mauve, is a stars column satellite that will collect data on stars in the visible and UV parts of the spectrum. Scientists and academics will be able to access the data for a small membership rate.
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