The University of Portsmouth’s new Space Mission Incubator played host to the team from CosmoCube.
Published: July 21, 2023 | Updated: 15th November 2023
Scientists at the University of Portsmouth recently joined their academic counterparts from Cambridge to work on CosmoCube, a mission to send a satellite into orbit over the far side of the moon.
As previously reported by Hampshire Biz News, the university recently opened its new Space Mission Incubator, a facility inspired by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory which allows for cross-discipline collaboration between teams of scientists and experts.
CosmoCube represented the pilot study for the newly launched centre, and the benefits it brought to the project were immediately apparent to all those involved.
Dr Eloy de Lera Acedo, Principal Investigator on the University of Cambridge-led mission, said: “I’ve never been part of anything like this before, but I think CosmoCube evolved more in three days than in the previous 12 months.
“The room and IT facilities were superb and despite it being the first time they were properly used, it worked extremely well.
“Engaging with industry experts helped the project move fast, but also generated relevant contacts for future collaborations.
“The results of this pilot will now help us to plan the next steps.”
Eloy and the team are ultimately looking to explore the so-called Dark Ages of the Universe, and their time in Portsmouth has proved vital in their efforts to get the mission off the ground – and, eventually, into space.
Professor David Bacon from the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at Portsmouth explained: “We want to see what happened very far away and extraordinarily long ago, towards the beginning of the universe’s history, before stars even started to shine.
“This is about measuring the behaviour of the early universe, to see what that can tell us about its visible – and invisible – contents.”
The study was supported by Surrey Satellite Technology, RAL Space, and Hampshire’s own In-Space Missions, with Space Projects Manager Dr Lucinda King leading the charge.
She added: “It’s been really exciting to work on this pilot project in our brand-new facility.
“Last summer I spent some time at NASA JPL to see this concurrent approach in action, and it’s been amazing to reproduce this at Portsmouth within a year.
“Space mission design has traditionally taken a linear approach, which is why it can take such a long time.
“But with concurrent mission design – having everyone working on different elements of design in the same room at the same time together – you can quickly iterate through any challenges and speed up the development of space missions.”