Tiny satellite will use the dark side of the Moon as a shield

CosmoCube, a UK-built satellite the size of a small suitcase, will orbit the Moon’s far side for two years, using the lunar bulk to block Earth-based radio interference while detecting the 21-cm hydrogen line from the cosmic dark ages. Operating at 10–50 MHz, it will record about 1,000 hours of data, employ a Dicke-switched calibrator to correct internal noise, and use Bayesian techniques to subtract galactic foregrounds, aiming to map the universe’s transition before the first stars and investigate dark-matter effects.