Space-based ultra-long wavelength radio observatory (low cost) - SURO-LC

SURO-LC is the radio astronomer's equivalent of the first high resolution X-ray space telescopes. It opens up a largely unexplored spectral band, previously hidden from Earth, to make new discoveries in the nearby and distant universe. The proposed mission offers the first omnidirectional low frequency radio survey at high sensitivity and high resolution. SURO-LC all-sky or rapid monitoring (for rapid solar and galactic events) operation is in the largely un-explored frequency domain between 0.1 and 70 MHz, of which the 0.1 - 30 MHz range is mostly inaccessible from earth because of ionospheric blocking and man-made radio frequency interference (RFI). SURO-LC deploys a formation of nine spacecraft in a low relative-drift Lissajous orbit at SEL2, 1.5 million km from earth in a radio clean environment. Eight spherically distributed Cubesat daughters, equipped with 3 orthogonal dipole antennas, form a distributed interferometric radio telescope. An offset mothership provides data acquisition, digital signal processing, and ground communication.