Chinese scientists looking to use lunar satellites to understand initial days of earth

A lot of theories exist about the early dark days of the universe, but Chinese scientists have found a new way to get a glimpse into that period. The Discovering the Sky at the Longest Wavelengths (DSL) mission, which is also called Hongmeng, will be sending around ten satellites to orbit around the world in order to pick different cosmic signals. The satellites will also block the electromagnetic interference from humans on earth to completely understand the cosmos in a better way.

The mission, led by Chen Xuelei of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and his team of researchers, was approved by Chinese Academy of Sciences' New Horizons Program.

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This was among a number of projects covering topics like “astronomy, exploration, Earth science, heliophysics and exoplanet missions”, according to media reports.

During the initial days of the earth, there was “faint, stretched out, ultra-long wavelength light emitted by hydrogen atoms” which were created from the Big Bang, according to South China Morning Post. Those signals will be collected by nine out of the ten satellites.

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While it is extremely difficult to collect the signals near earth due to ionosphere, the mother satellite will be storing the data from the other satellites while orbiting on the far side of the moon.

“The proposal is an innovative alternative to the much more costly and technically challenging route of setting permanent telescopes on the surface of the lunar far side,” Wu Ji, a senior Chinese space scientist, told the South China Morning Post.