Artist illustration of DAPPER mission and the Moon

Exploring the far side of the Moon and beyond with NESS

April 23, 2021

From Innovation News Network: NASA has created the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI), bringing together teams of researchers who are interested in the Moon, asteroids, and the moons of Mars, airless bodies in Earth鈥檚 neighbourhood. Most of the teams involved in SSERVI are therefore interested in areas such...

Artist illustration of the Dark Ages Polarimetry Pathfinder (DAPPER), which will look for faint radio signals from the early universe while operating in a low lunar orbit. Its specialized radio receiver and high-frequency antenna are currently being developed by NRAO. Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF, Sophia Dagnello

A Roadmap for Science on the Moon

Sept. 30, 2020

From CU Boulder Today: Scientists at CU Boulder have laid out a roadmap for a decade of scientific research at the moon. Teams from the university will participate in four upcoming or proposed space missions that seek to use the moon as a unique laboratory for peering back to the...

Artist illustration of the Dark Ages Polarimetry Pathfinder (DAPPER), which will look for faint radio signals from the early universe while operating in a low lunar orbit. Its specialized radio receiver and high-frequency antenna are currently being developed by NRAO. Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF, Sophia Dagnello

NRAO Joins Space Mission to the Far Side of the Moon to Explore the Early Universe

Sept. 22, 2020

National Radio Astronomy Observatory News Release: The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) has joined a new NASA space mission to the far side of the Moon to investigate when the first stars began to form in the early universe. The universe was dark and foggy during its 鈥渄ark ages,鈥� just...

An illustration of the Dark Ages Polarimeter Pathfinder, or Dapper, spacecraft orbiting past the far side of the moon.

NASA patented a faster, cheaper route to the moon. The first spacecraft to use it could make Nobel Prize-winning discoveries about the universe.

Sept. 2, 2020

From Business Insider: The moon is both seductively close to Earth and cosmically far away: Decades after the end of the space race, it remains extraordinarily expensive and difficult to actually get there. The journey just got a bit easier, however, thanks to a freshly published NASA invention. The agency's...

NRAO logo

Dark Ages Polarimeter Pathfinder

July 16, 2020

From NRAO eNews: The NRAO Central Development Laboratory (CDL) is assisting with the development of the Dark Ages Polarimeter Pathfinder (DAPPER), a lunar-orbiting spacecraft concept designed to measure the spectrum of highly-redshifted hydrogen emitted during Cosmic Dawn, the epoch of initial star formation in the evolution of the Universe. The...

DAPPER Mission concept in orbit around Moon

Under a DAPPER Moon: NASA Eyes Wild Radio Science Projects on the Lunar Farside

Dec. 23, 2019

From Space.com: NASA's quest to return humans to the moon could boost a field of research that might not seem particularly lunar in nature: cosmology. But the far side of the moon could be a powerful place to answer some of the most compelling questions about the universe 鈥� and...