4 comments

  • hn_submit 1 hour ago
    To be launched within five years?! The Chinese will long before that have produced something similar and returned the data already.

    The UK has to become a lot more active in getting this project to the launchpad.

  • zorobo 5 hours ago
    Would a satellite positioned at Earth Moon L2 be stable enough? It would also need a relay to communicate with earth…
    • avisser 34 minutes ago
      > Once CosmoCube’s data is back on Earth

      Did I miss it or did they fail to explain how that would work? Does it just slowly move around the moon so it gets its 1000 hours of observation, then eventually comes out of the EM shadow?

      Or is there some final boost that pushes it?

      Will it crash into the moon eventually?

    • ericbarrett 2 hours ago
      It takes a bit of stationkeeping to stay at L2; like keeping a ball at the top of a low, smooth hill - needs a nudge every now and then.

      A circular Moon orbit can last years with no fuel use if you pick your inclination correctly. Look up "frozen orbits" (the Moon is lumpy)

  • cozzyd 7 hours ago
    RFSoCs seem like extreme overkill for this frequency range, though since Xiphos makes a space-grade one, it's not so unreasonable I guess.

    Alas, I'm working on a competing project that I won't go into detail about :).

  • vincent-manis 11 hours ago
    s/dark side/far side/
    • NitpickLawyer 8 hours ago
      You're generally correct, but in this particular instance it does actually make sense to call it the dark side. Dark, as in "quiet" from RF interference. Just like some areas on Earth, near radio observatories, are declared "dark" (i.e. everyone tries to avoid using high RF emitting stuff in these regions, even comms satellites avoid it).
    • ButlerianJihad 11 hours ago
      [dead]