英国开发的微型卫星CosmoCube计划被送往月球背面，执行一项为期两年的任务来探测宇宙历史中最神秘的时期。1这颗卫星体积仅相当于小型随身行李箱，将利用月球的天然屏障阻隔地球无线电干扰，搜寻来自第一批恒星出现前的极其微弱的21厘米氢线信号。1由剑桥大学Cavendish实验室教授Eloy de Lera Acedo领导的国际研究团队设计了这项观测计划，项目资金来自英国航天局，预期在未来五年内发射，成本目标低于5000万欧元。1
月球背面的地理位置优势在于能够在约两小时的轨道周期内屏蔽地球的无线电干扰约40分钟。1该任务将搜寻频率范围为10至50MHz的信号，预期收集约1000小时的观测数据。1这些数据有望揭示宇宙如何从黑暗时代演变为今日充满星系和复杂结构的宇宙，同时阐明暗物质在早期宇宙中所发挥的角色。1相关研究成果已发表在《Nature Astronomy》期刊2026年第10卷第8期。1
A British-led international research team plans to deploy a spacecraft roughly the size of a small carry-on suitcase to the far side of the Moon in an ambitious effort to detect radio signals from the cosmic dark ages, the era before the first stars formed.1 The CosmoCube satellite will exploit the Moon's natural shielding properties to detect extremely faint 21-centimeter hydrogen line signals originating from more than 1.35 billion years ago.1 By positioning the observatory on the lunar far side, researchers expect to block Earth's radio interference for approximately 40 minutes during each two-hour orbital cycle, enabling unprecedented sensitivity to these primordial signals.1
The mission, led by Eloy de Lera Acedo, a professor at Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory, is scheduled to launch within the next five years and is expected to cost less than 50 million euros.1 Over its two-year operational period, the mission will collect approximately 1,000 hours of observational data across a frequency range of 10 to 50 megahertz.1 Funding for the project comes from the UK Space Agency.1 The findings, published in Nature Astronomy Volume 10, Issue 8 in 2026, suggest that CosmoCube's observations will illuminate how the universe transitioned from its dark ages to the galaxy-rich cosmos visible today, while also clarifying the role of dark matter during the early universe's formation.1
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