Dark Ages Radio Explorer Mission: Probing the Cosmic Dawn
Dayton L. Jones, T. Joseph W. Lazio, Jack O. Burns

TL;DR
The Dark Ages Radio Explorer (DARE) mission aims to measure the 21-cm hydrogen signal from the cosmic dark ages using space-based antennas on the Moon's far side, providing insights into early universe formation.
Contribution
This paper introduces the DARE mission concept, including deployable antenna technology and its role in probing the cosmic dawn from space.
Findings
Development of low frequency antenna prototypes for space deployment
Design of space-based observations to detect the hydrogen signal from dark ages
Complementary data to ground-based re-ionization studies
Abstract
The period between the creation of the cosmic microwave background at a redshift of ~1000 and the formation of the first stars and black holes that re-ionize the intergalactic medium at redshifts of 10-20 is currently unobservable. The baryonic component of the universe during this period is almost entirely neutral hydrogen, which falls into local regions of higher dark matter density. This seeds the formation of large-scale structures including the cosmic web that we see today in the filamentary distribution of galaxies and clusters of galaxies. The only detectable signal from these dark ages is the 21-cm spectral line of hydrogen, redshifted down to frequencies of approximately 10-100 MHz. Space-based observations of this signal will allow us to determine the formation epoch and physics of the first sources of ionizing radiation, and potentially detect evidence for the decay of dark…
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