AN AMBITIOUS project to search for clues to the origins of the Universe
by studying cosmic background radiation looks likely to be approved by the
European Space Agency.
ESA’s Space Science Advisory Committee has picked the project as the third
medium-sized mission of the agency’s Horizon 2000 exploration programme.
Instruments on the £300 million COBRAS/SAMBA satellite will have fifty
times the resolution of its forerunner, COBE, the Cosmic Background
Explorer.
However, a four-year spending freeze imposed on ESA’s science budget last
October will delay the start of work to build the satellite by 12 months.
