SpaceX, a company founded by Elon Musk, is supposed to support NASA on a mission: It is about nothing less than the birth of the universe.
Washington - NASA would like to research the formation of the universe - and has commissioned the space company SpaceX * from Elon Musk * to shoot the corresponding device into space. The authority announced. The mission involved is called Spherex. That stands for the cumbersome title "Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer" - so it should be about the history of the universe, the epoch of reionization and ice. A special light meter (spectrophotometer) is supposed to get to the bottom of questions.
In the Spherex mission, which is scheduled to run for two years, the sky is to be patterned in near infrared light.
"This, even if not visible to the human eye, serves as a powerful tool to answer cosmic questions about the birth of the universe and the subsequent evolution of galaxies," writes the US space agency Nasa in a press release on the mission.
SpaceX is supposed to help Nasa to explore the history of the universe
The mission will also look for water and organic molecules - "Basic requirements for life as we know it - in regions where stars are born from gas and dust, known as star cradles," it says.
Disks surrounding stars should also be searched for, as new planets could arise there.
Astronomers want to collect data on over 300 million galaxies and more than 100 million stars in the Milky Way.
Nasa estimates the cost of the mission, including the performance of SpaceX, at 98.8 million US dollars (almost 82 million euros).
In June 2024, a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Nasa already works with SpaceX on a number of occasions
The mission "provides an unprecedented galactic map that contains 'fingerprints' of the first moments in the history of the universe," announced NASA's science director Thomas Zurbuchen in 2019, according to Business Insider.
NASA is also working with Tech pioneer Elon Musk's SpaceX company on other projects: For example, a SpaceX space capsule recently brought four astronauts from the ISS back to Earth *.
Another four-person crew is brought to the ISS in another capsule.
In addition, SpaceX received the coveted NASA contract to build the lander for the next mission, in which people are to land on the moon.
* fr.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.