University of Portsmouth bags £1.5m boost for Moon-orbiting satellite

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Daniel Face

Dr Lucinda King, space projects manager at the university’s Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation

The University of Portsmouth has secured funding from the UK Space Agency following the success of a pilot project to launch a small satellite into orbit around the Moon.

The pilot study focused on CosmoCube, a radio-cosmology mission that will explore the so-called Dark Ages of the Universe from a Moon-orbiting satellite.

It was the first study at the university’s Space Mission Incubator, which saw science and engineering experts working together in real time to rapidly develop a design for the space mission.

Find out more about the Space Mission Incubator on our local site, Hampshire Biz News

Professor David Bacon, director of the university’s Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation (ICG), said: “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.

“Without the noise from Earth drowning out faint radio waves we’re trying to measure from the distant Universe, we can hopefully learn a lot about the ancient cosmos.”

Dr Lucinda King, space projects manager at the ICG, added: “It’s using the quietest location in the solar system available to us to have a sneak peek into the universe’s past.

“And the benefit of CubeSats is they’re small and have the potential to ‘piggyback’ on other mission launches, so hopefully there are going to be lots of chances to send these missions up soon.”

Led by the University of Cambridge in collaboration with the University of Portsmouth and RAL Space in Oxfordshire, the CosmoCube project has received £1.5 million from the UK Space Agency.

The Portsmouth team will build on the mission architecture developed in the pilot study and work towards designing each part of the mission’s system in meticulous detail.

They’ll also team up with experts at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to make improvements to the design, and to explore whether additional payloads could be added to CosmoCube to increase the value of the mission.

This partnership will also ensure that the system design is compatible with future lunar constellations of smallsats currently under consideration by JPL.

Dr Paul Bate, chief executive of the UK Space Agency, said: “These projects present an opportunity for UK science to make crucial contributions to ground-breaking global missions that will deepen our understanding of the Moon and our neighbouring planets.

“This funding, which builds on previous early-stage awards, will help catalyse international investment into the UK space sector and highlights the value we place on sharing knowledge and expertise with our counterparts overseas to break the boundaries of space exploration.”

Daniel Face

Born and raised in Berkshire, Dan fell into journalism after completing his bachelor’s degree in English at UCL. Writing for The Business Magazine and local Biz News sites has given him the opportunity to chat with all manner of small business owners and share their success stories with a wider audience. Outside of work, Dan enjoys live music, board games and quiz shows, and is making a slow but persistent effort to learn Spanish.