Our Ambition
The ultimate goal of the CAPIBARA-COSMOS program is to provide a scalable, robuts, simple, and agile platform for monitoring high-energy transients in the X-ray and gamma-ray, in particular upon the “golden era” of multi-messerger astronomy in the 2030s. Besides as a student-led endeavour CAPIBARA-COSMOS has a unique educational value, enabling young aspiring researchers to get they hands dirty with aerospace engineering and satellite development all the way to astrophysical data analysis and fundamental physics.
The Three-Phase Roadmap
Phase 1: Foundation (2024-2026)
Our goal in this first phase is to learn about the field, completing a literature review and understanding the high-energy gap and challenges. We will formalise our advisory board (3-5 professors and senior experts), write our FYS! proposal for Duo and secure lab space/reosurces at 2-3 universities. We also want to get started with the software regarding simulations and data analysis tools, such as ML transient detection for rapid alerts.
Phase 2: Demonstrator (2026-2032)
COSMOS-Duo, two identical CubeSats developed at our univerisities, will be the first student-led in-orbit triangulation, demonstrating our main innovation and moving closer to our goal of a monitoring constellation. The goal is to deliver 1º-5º localisation constraints for over 20 bright GRBs per year, an order of magnitude better than single CubeSats. Both satellites will consist of commercial CubeSat busses, building upon the knowledge gained in pregious student-led missions. We intend to apply to ESA's Flight Your Satellite! program, and plan for launch around 2030 and extend its operation until the next phase (approximately aiming for 5 years of lifetime).
Phase 3: Constellation (2032-2035)
Reaching our ultimate goal, COSMOS-NET will be a 4 microsatellite constellation providing fast transient and multi-messenger counterpart alerts with arcminute-level localisation for follow-up observations. The goal is to perform continuous, all-sky observations and rapidly provide useful data to the astrophysics community. COSMOS-NET data combined with observations from other X-ray, IR, optical, and radio telescopes well as gravitational wave (GW) and neutrino observatories will unfold a new multi-messenger view on the nature of the universe.
Why this approach works? CAPIBARA-COSMOS flips the usual mission development model, we put students as the primary developers, supported by our advisory council of senior researchers and experts and industry partners. Thus, each phase proves capability and provides experience to students to build the next. The CAPIBARA Collaboration is an international student-led group of students building not only innovative missions, but also a network of enthuasistic and high-achieving students across universities.