The mantra 'bigger is better' is popular among astronomers, who develop ever-larger telescopes for a better view of the universe. But in Canada, where researchers are building the smallest space telescope ever, the saying bears no weight.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) plans to put its first space telescope in orbit inside a package no bigger than a suitcase. At $10 million in Canadian terms (about $6 million in U.S. currency), the microsatellite is the agency's cheapest spacecraft ever built, and is expected to help date the age of the universe and hunt for extrasolar planets once in orbit. A launch date is expected within the next year.

The Canadian telescope, dubbed the Microvariability and Oscillation of Stars or MOST telescope, weighs in at 132 pounds (60 kilograms) and measures 2 feet (65 cm) both wide and tall, and about one foot (30 cm) deep. It will carry only one instrument, a 15-cm telescope to measure the vibrations of Sun-like stars, known as stellar seismology, to determine their age.

Matthews said MOST will look at fairly bright stars, ones visible to the naked eye from Earth. These stars, he said vibrate because sound waves are produced during convection, the process that brings hot gas from a star's core to its surface. Since sound doesn't travel in space, it bounces around within the star, causing it to vibrate. Astronomers can then measure these vibrations to measure how much fuel is left in the star and calculate its age.

"Astronomers have gotten pretty good at determining the age of clusters of stars, but we don't really have a way of doing it with individual stars," Matthews said. "We've targeted some of the oldest stars known to see how they measure up with the estimated age of the universe, because you can't be older than your mother."

The universe is thought to be at least 12.5 billion years old. Though some researchers think it may be even older. Matthews hopes to find stars old enough to accurately date the universe using relatively simple equipment.

"It's a little like a hobby telescope, one you'd have in your backyard," said aerospace engineer Kieran A. Carroll, MOST initial system designer for the contractor Dynacon Enterprises Limited. "A hobby telescope connected to a desktop computer, not even a Pentium, with a cell phone or two attached."

But the system works so well, that researchers believe MOST could also detect light reflected from extrasolar planets as they circle parent stars. Simulated tests of the instruments, they said, showed it to be more versatile than previously thought.

The Canadian effort has drawn nods from officials with perhaps the most famous space observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).

"The MOST telescope is a wonderful complimentary tool to our project," said Ray Villard, spokesman for the Space Telescope Science Institute that oversees the HST. "It's a tribute to miniaturization."

Villard said the HST, with its 2.4-meter aperture and multiple instruments, resembles a Swiss army telescope, with thousands of researchers trying to secure time to use it. The beauty of MOST, he added, is its specificity, allowing one scientist the time and equipment needed to make as many observations as possible.

Although MOST isn't a likely candidate to replace it larger cousins like the HST, some hope it might open up space to smaller space agencies, or even universities.

"In some sense, we're trying to change the paradigm of some aspects of space science," Matthews said. "To change the mentality that you've got to invest $100 million to build a big research platform and get it in space."

But at $10 million or less, the idea of putting a small, dedicated instrument in space, for only a few years (MOST is expected to fly up to five years in all) may be more enticing.

MOST has already attracted attention of Canada's Department of National Defense, which is interested in using the system to build an asteroid-hunting satellite to catch space rocks travelling near the Sun. The two agency's are studying the concept of a Near Earth Space Surveillance (NESS) satellite that would look for the asteroids, as well as track other satellites in orbit.

Building small has also put MOST on a faster schedule than its competitors. The French effort COROT, short for Convection Rotation and planetary Transits, has a similar mission plan to MOST and is due to launch in 2005. Meanwhile, the Danish mission Measuring Oscillations in Nearby Stars (MONS) aboard the small Romer satellite though funding problems have left the launch date indefinite.

On Earth, setting up a telescope is relatively simple. Just attach it to something stable and point it at the sky. In space there's nothing to latch onto, making it tough to keep satellites - especially small ones like MOST, pointed in the right direction.

"Big satellites use large reaction wheels to stay stable, but no one ever thought to make small ones for microsatellites," Carroll said.

Dynacon engineers built smaller reaction control wheels, gyroscopes about the size of a soup can that spin to keep MOST aligned with its target star. Prior to MOST, observations were limited to accuracy of within a degree or two or arc. A degree of arc is a measurement astronomers use to determine width in the sky. The full moon, for example, is about half a degree wide. The new reaction wheels, MOST scientists said, can provide stability more than 400 times better than any system to date and make the whole system viable.