Portsmouth cosmologists are part of an international team planning an ambitious miniature spacecraft mission to the Moon’s far side, aiming to detect ancient radio signals from the universe’s mysterious Dark Ages and Cosmic Dawn periods.
Scientists from the University of Portsmouth are collaborating on an innovative space mission to unlock the secrets of the universe’s earliest epochs by deploying a small satellite to the Moon’s far side.
The CosmoCube mission aims to study the primordial universe immediately following the Big Bang, during a period when space remained dark and empty before the emergence of the first stars and galaxies.
The mission addresses a fundamental challenge in cosmic research: Earth’s overwhelming radio noise that drowns out faint signals from the distant universe. Our planet’s atmosphere and electronic devices create substantial interference for astronomers attempting to detect these ancient transmissions.
“It’s like trying to hear that whisper whilst a loud concert is playing next door,” explained Dr Eloy de Lera Acedo, who presented the proposal at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting 2025 in Durham.
The researcher, who heads Cavendish Radio Astronomy and Cosmology at the University of Cambridge, emphasised the difficulty of detecting special radio signals from hydrogen – the universe’s most fundamental and abundant element – without proper radio silence.
The mission would position a satellite on the Moon’s far side, utilising our natural satellite as an enormous shield to block Earth’s radio interference. This location would provide the quietest spot available in our solar system for astronomical observations.
“The aim of the CosmoCube project is to send a CubeSat to a really quiet spot in space, where the Moon is blocking radio frequency noise from Earth,” said Professor David Bacon, Director of Portsmouth’s Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation.
The satellite would operate at low frequencies between 10-100 MHz, specifically engineered to identify extremely weak signals amongst background noise.
CosmoCube seeks to illuminate how the universe transformed from its simple, dark initial state into today’s complex, star-filled cosmos. The mission could provide crucial insights into dark matter’s role in shaping cosmic structures and help resolve the Hubble tension – a significant discrepancy in measurements of universal expansion.
“It’s incredible how far these radio waves have travelled, now arriving with news of the universe’s history,” remarked Professor Bacon. “The next step is to go to the quieter side of the Moon to hear that news.”
The UK Space Agency has awarded £1.5 million to the project through its Science Bilateral Programme. The mission involves researchers from Portsmouth, Cambridge University, and STFC RAL Space, with industry collaboration from SSTL Ltd.
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Development is progressing well, with functioning laboratory prototypes undergoing environmental testing. The team has established a partnership with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to enhance the design and explore additional payload possibilities.
The consortium anticipates a four to five-year development timeline, targeting lunar orbit arrival before 2030.
The University of Portsmouth’s Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation represents a recognised international centre of research excellence, housing over 70 researchers investigating the universe’s most profound mysteries.
The institute achieved outstanding recognition in REF 2021, with 100% of its research rated as world-leading or internationally excellent. Its contributions span major international projects including Euclid, LISA, LIGO gravitational wave detectors, and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument.
CosmoCube emerged from the university’s Space Mission Incubator programme, which brings together science and engineering experts to rapidly develop space mission designs.
