CAPIBARA-COSMOS

A Student-Built Pathway to an All-Sky High-Energy Monitor

Our Ambition

The ultimate goal of the CAPIBARA-COSMOS program is to provide a scalable, robust, simple, and agile platform for monitoring high-energy transients in the X-ray and gamma-ray, in particular upon the "golden era" of multi-messenger astronomy in the 2030s. Besides being a student-led endeavour, CAPIBARA-COSMOS has a unique educational value, enabling young aspiring researchers to get their 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 COSMOS-Duo and secure lab space/resources 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 universities, 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 previous 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, 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 building not only innovative missions, but also a network of enthusiastic and high-achieving students across universities.

Scientific Rationale

Synergies with Next-Generation Observatories

CAPIBARA-COSMOS is timed to become the high-energy sentinel for the 2035 multi-messenger network. Our aim is to provide preliminary transient alerts to trigger advanced telescopes and to provide all-sky monitoring for fast electromagnetic counterparts in the high-energy range. This contributes to rapid and precise localisation of short GRB counterparts to neutron star mergers detected by LIGO, ET, and LISA; and triggering follow-up observations by THESEUS, NewAthena, CTAO, and other observatories. Additionally, it can help identifying high-energy electromangetic counterparts to IceCube and KM3NeT neutrino alerts.

Scientific Outcomes

CAPIBARA-COSMOS data will join the great amount of diverse data publicly available for astrophysical research, contributing to science in many fields.

High-Energy Transients: Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), X-ray flashes, magnetar flares, tidal disruption events (TDEs), soft gamma-ray repeaters.

Persistent Sources: AGN variability, blazar flares, X-ray binaries.

Multi-Messenger Synergy: GW counterparts, neutrino astronomy, fast radio bursts (FRBs) counterparts, CR origin studies.

Cosmology: Star formation at high-z, reionization era studies, large scale structure (LSS) tracing.

Fundamental Physics: Lorentz invariance violations (LIV), photon mass constraints.

Solar High-Energy Events: Solar physics, SEP acceleration, space weather.

Key Concepts

What is Multi-Messenger Astronomy?

Multi-messenger astronomy is the coordinated observation and interpretation of multiple signals received from the same astronomical event. Many types of events involve interactions radiating not only across the electromagnetic spectrum, but also gravitational waves, neutrinos and cosmic rays. Reconstructing the source through different channels can allow better understand and reveals more information about the event.

What are high-energy transients?

Transients events are astrophysical phenomena that are only temporary for a short period of time. Typically between less than a second and days. High energy transients are, for instance, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), which are jet-driven 'explosion' of unknown origin. They release equivalently the energy of the Sun, in a few moments.

Ongoing Initiatives

The research it takes within CAPIBARA to develop CAPIBARA-COSMOS and how we will use its data products.

Machine Learning Transient Classification: ML driven classification for rapid alerts and automated transient detection systems.

Multi-Messenger Cosmology: Combining information from GRBs and GWs to learn about the expanding Universe. Contact

Fundamental Physics: Testing theoretical predictions with high-energy observations from gamma-ray bursts. Contact

Join the Movement

COSMOS is more than hardware, it's about building a new generation of space scientists. We're creating a collaboration where students don't just learn about space missions; they build and operate them.

For Students

Work on real flight hardware, simulations, or operations. No prior experience required, only requirement: passion and willingness to learn. Just get in touch with us.

For Advisors

Mentor the next generation. Join our Advisory Board or host a student team at your institution. You provide invaluable knowledge and guidance! Contact us.

For Institutions

Partner with us. Provide lab space, expertise, or funding. Help scale the student-led mission model. Contact for partnership.

Live Project Status

We're currently: Forming the core consortium and preparing our pathfinder proposal which we will publish soon

Follow Our Progress on GitHub