This research evaluates Laser Powder Directed Energy Deposition (LP-DED) for producing fine feature internal microchannels. This study is focused on enhancing and characterising the surfaces of microchannels produced using techniques such as abrasive flow machining, chemical milling, chemical mechanical polishing, electrochemical machining, and thermal energy method to modify internal surfaces of microchannels made from NASA HR-1 Fe-Ni-Cr alloy. Flow testing for discharge coefficient measurement is conducted on processed microchannel samples, followed by characterisation through optical microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Computed Tomography. Findings reveal variations in surfaces due to powder adherence, melt pool undulations, and polishing mechanisms. The study emphasises the significance of removing material equivalent to the mean powder diameter to reduce surface roughness and impact the discharge coefficient. The research proposes a ratio for planarising roughness and waviness peak height and density, offering insights for tailored surface adjustments in specific applications requiring reduced flow resistance. Highlights Internal microchannels with thin-walls were fabricated using the laser powder directed energy deposition process. Various surface enhancements and polishing processes were developed to modify the surface texture of the LP-DED channels. Flow testing was conducted to determine the discharge coefficient. Post-test characterisation was completed to obtain cross sectional area, perimeter, surface texture, and general surface condition to analyse results. Ratio of roughness and waviness peak and density (Spk/Spd and Wp/WPc) is proposed as a relevant surface characterisation parameter. Tailored surface modifications for specific end-use applications.

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In order for off-Earth top surface structures built from regolith to protect astronauts from radiation, they need to be several metres thick. In a feasibility study, funded by the European Space Agency, Technical University Delft (TUD aka TU Delft) explored the possibility of building in empty lava tubes to create rhizomatic subsurface habitats. With this approach natural protection from radiation is achieved as well as thermal insulation because the temperature is more stable underground. It involves a swarm of autonomous mobile robots that survey the areas and mine for materials such as regolith in order to create cement-based concrete reproducible on Mars through in-situ resource utilisation (ISRU). The concrete is 3D printed by means of additive Design-to-Robotic-Production (D2RP) methods developed at TUD for on-Earth applications with the 3D printing system of industrial partner, Vertico. The printed components are assembled using a Human--Robot Interaction (HRI) supported approach. The 3D printed and HRI-supported assembled structures are structurally optimised porous material systems with increased insulation properties. In order to regulate the indoor pressurised environment a Life Support System (LSS) is integrated, which in this study is only conceptually developed. The habitat and the D2RP production system are powered by an automated kite power system and solar panels developed at TUD. The long-term goal is to develop an autarkic, automated and HRI-supported D2RP system for building autarkic habitats from locally obtained materials.@en

In the original version of the book, on page xi, one of the authors listed for Chapter 2 is “R. Schnmehl”, which should be “R. Schmehl”. On page 21, the same correction needs to be made twice, in the listed authors at the top of the page and also in the footnotes. “Schnmehl” should become “Schmehl” in both the cases. This has now been rectified and the author’s name has been corrected. The correction to this book have been updated with the changes.@en

Establishing a permanent lunar base has gained increasing attention since it offers opportunities for international cooperation and the commercialization of space, forming the foundation and testing ground for a human existence independent from Earth. Essential to future missions beyond cislunar space is the exploration and in situ processing of the Moon's resources, especially the sustainable production of energetic resources and propellants. Utilizing in situ generated propellants can dramatically reduce transportation costs by removing the need to source propellants from Earth. Resources on the Moon are limited, and the extraction of available resources are energy-intensive processes demanding advanced techniques and technologies. Consequently, one of the biggest challenges lies in developing process architectures with a positive energy balance, for which comprehensive analyses are still missing. The focus currently lies on the extraction of water ice from lunar regolith and the production of hydrogen and oxygen through water electrolysis. However, alternative fuel and process options may reduce the energy cost while providing equivalent energetic revenue. In the scope of this research, the infrastructure and technologies required for extraction, refining, and storing are assumed to exist in cislunar space; therefore, only the operating cost is considered. Exergy analyses of in situ extraction methods are conducted to investigate whether the required energetic budget allows sustainable implementation. The analysis includes extraction methods and propellant options to reveal the extent to which alternatives to hydrogen are feasible. Exergy analyses determine thermodynamic losses of energy flows giving the ground for process optimization. The exergy destructed represents the margin of improvement within the process architecture and thus reflects the process's thermodynamic and economic value while allowing a more distinct examination of energy use. Assuming the availability of water and carbon dioxide ice in permanently shadowed regions, the analysis shows that choosing methane instead of hydrogen in combination with oxygen as propellants can reduce the required exergy input by up to a third. An example mission allows to directly compare the operating cost of the extraction processes for the different propellant options. The mission entails a spacecraft propelled by a liquid bipropellant engine utilizing the extracted propellant and transporting a payload of the same propellant to a depot located in lunar near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO). Although abundant in space, the results suggest that hydrogen may not be the only or even energetically cost-effective resource for developing cislunar and Martian space infrastructures. Likewise, sustainable extraction of propellants suitable for current and future propulsion systems will foster humanity's reach further into the solar system.

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Modern spacecraft and launch vehicle design is more oriented towards reducing system-level design and assembly complexities. In order to maintain high overall system performance while reducing these complexities, the use of smart materials and smart structural components is a well-known practice and is currently of rising interest to space systems' designers. The paper discusses a concept of smart space structures, in particular, a carbon fiber composites structure embedded with Optical Fiber Sensors (OFS) for spacecraft and launch vehicle applications. This study highlights the operational requirements for such tank and the smart features enabled by the optical fiber sensors. For the latter aspect, a quantitative comparison between Fiber Bragg Grating sensors (FBGs) and Distributed Optical Fiber Sensors (DOFS) based on Optical Frequency Domain Reflectometry (OFDR) is presented to state their core performance parameters, such as the sensitivity, sensing range, dynamic measurement capability, and spatial resolution. The increased performance and reliability in harsh environments associated with fiber optic sensors come with a reduction in size, mass, and power consumption compared to the conventional electronic sensors. Optical fiber sensors embedded in carbon fiber structures have proven their capability in providing accurate real-time measurements of temperature and monitoring structural integrity while detecting precisely possible points of rupture and failure as discussed and demonstrated in the literature review. The applications of fiber optic sensing in smart propellant tanks may extend to detecting fluid leakage, also providing increased precision in propellant gauging through temperature mapping, and can be used in on-ground qualification, pre-flight testing, as well as in-orbit operation, condition, and structural health monitoring. The article presents a statement for an optimal FOS embedding approach in composite pressure vessels and discusses the related placement and orientation method for the fiber optic sensors, coupled with a one component simplified analytical stress-strain transfer model deriving the stress component along the maximum principal direction (i.e., σ_MaxPrincipal). The novel approach is believed to serve the optimal employment of embedded FOS in composite structures, e.g., pressure vessels and light-weight structures in spacecraft, among other applications. The simplified model is believed to pave the way for effective data interpretation and processing, utilizing the available limited computational resources on-board the spacecraft.

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Interplanetary CubeSat missions are currently becoming more popular, with a significant number of recently planned missions. The context of this paper is a Mars mission, starting from a parking orbit around Earth: the adoption of a chemical propulsion system for the Earth-Mars transfer phase is investigated, considering the recent technological developments for CubeSats. A trade-off of propulsion system type and propellant results in the choice of a mono-propellant system adopting the HAN-based propellant AF-M315E (ASCENT). The main challenge for the propulsion system is to fit inside a CubeSat standardised volume, which can range up to 24 U, for which the implementation of a suitable COTS micro-pump is considered. Finally, the complete architecture and design of the propulsion system is presented. This work demonstrates the feasibility of adopting full chemical propulsion for an interplanetary CubeSat mission, with consequent advantages in terms of transfer time and required power, at the cost of relatively small mass and volume left for the other subsystems. Even better results can be expected for interplanetary missions requiring slightly lower AV budgets, such as Near Earth Objects exploration or asteroid fly-by missions.

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This manuscript aims to present and evaluate the applicability of combining optical line-of-sight (LoS) navigation with crosslink radiometric navigation for deep-space cruising distributed space systems. To do so, a set of four distributed space systems architectures is presented, and for each of those, the applicability of the combination is evaluated, comparing it to the baseline solutions, which are based on only optical navigation. The comparison is done by studying the performance in a circular heliocentric orbit in seven different time intervals (ranging from 2024 to 2032) and exploiting the observation of all the pairs of planets from Mercury to Saturn. The distance between spacecraft is kept around 200 km. Later, a NEA mission test case is generated in order to explore the applicability to a more realistic case. This analysis shows that the technique can also cope with a variable inter-satellite distance, and the best performance is obtained when the spacecraft get closer to each other.

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Line-of-Sight (LoS) navigation is an optical navigation technique that exploits the direction to visible celestial bodies, obtained from an onboard imaging system, to estimate the position and velocity of a spacecraft. The directions are fed to an estimation filter, where they are matched with the actual position of the observed bodies, retrieved from onboard stored ephemerides. As LoS navigation represents a really promising option for the next-generation deep-space spacecraft, the objective of this work is to provide new insights into the performance. First, the information matrix is analyzed to show the influence of the geometry between the spacecraft and the observed planet(s). Then, a Monte Carlo approach is used to investigate the influence of measurement error (ranging from 0.1 to 100 arcsec), and tracking frequency (ranging from four observations per day to one observation every two days). The effect on navigation performance is quantified by two indicators. The first is the 3D position and velocity Root-Mean-Square-Errors, computed once the estimation is considered to be steady-state. The second is the convergence time, which quantifies the required time for the estimation to reach the steady-state behaviour. The simulation is based on a set of four planets, which do not follow the common heliocentric dynamics but rotate around the Sun with the same (distance-independent) angular velocity of the spacecraft. This approach allows the separation of scenario-dependent behaviours from navigation intrinsic properties, as the same relative geometry between observer and observed objects is maintained during the whole simulation. The results provide a useful guide for the next-generation autonomous navigation system, for both the definition of hardware requirements and the design of an appropriate navigation strategy. Considerations are then applied to Near-Earth Asteroid fly-by mission scenarios for the definition of the navigation strategy and hardware requirements. It is shown the importance of relative angles between the spacecraft and the planets. In the single-planet observation scenario, when the angle between the position vectors of the spacecraft and planet approaches a null value, the estimation error decreases. In the double-planets observation scenario, when the separation angle between the two LoS directions gets close to 90°, the estimation error decreases. The main influence on the performance is driven by the measurement error, which with current technologies is shown to be able to provide a position error in the order of a few hundred kilometers, while with a lower measurement error (0.1 arcsec) it would be possible to have a position error below 100 km. Finally, it is demonstrated that tracking frequency plays a secondary role in the performance, and only influences tangibly the convergence time.

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This chapter discusses the current status of chemical and cold gas micro-propulsion systems for small satellites, with a particular focus on CubeSats. Initially, a short historical background is presented, focusing specifically on the precursor cold gas systems developed and demonstrated on small spacecraft in the decade 2000-10. A brief overview of the principle of operation of systems based on the thermodynamic expansion of a gas in a nozzle is then provided, including the simplified equations for characterizing their performance based on the one-dimensional, isentropic Ideal Rocket Theory. In particular, the specific technical challenges associated with the miniaturization of this class of propulsion systems are highlighted and shortly explained. The current state-of-the-art available commercial-off-the-shelf chemical and cold gas micro-propulsion systems is then described in detail, including comparative tables with their main design characteristics and performance parameters. Based on these tables, performance charts are presented that define a range of possible applications of this class of micro-propulsion systems to small satellite missions and tasks. Finally, some of the future expectations in the development of these systems are briefly discussed.

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The paper presents the initial outcomes of a project, currently ongoing under the supervision of the European Space Agency, having the main objective to specify and design a Fault Detection Isolation and Recovery (FDIR) system by making use of relevant RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, Safety) analyses for missions in non-deterministic environment with limited resources. The initial project tasks have been to select a study case represented by a CubeSat complex mission, analyse in detail both its mission and system requirements and, based on them, define a set of relevant RAMS analyses to be carried out in the second phase of the project, as inputs for the development of a FDIR concept aimed at a careful balance of the limited spacecraft resources in case of critical failures. Two possible study cases have been identified: LUMIO, a 12U CubeSat mission for the observation of micro-meteoroid impacts on the Lunar farside, and M-ARGO, a 12U deep-space CubeSat which will rendezvous with a near-Earth asteroid and characterize its physical properties for the presence of in-situ resources. Although both missions are characterized by a high level of autonomy and complexity in a harsh environment, LUMIO has been eventually selected as study case for the project. In the paper, the challenges and features of this mission are shortly presented. The specificities of the RAMS analysis and FDIR concept for this specific class of small satellite missions (including the selected study case) are highlighted in the paper, looking in particular at aspects such as the improvement of reliability while maintaining the CubeSat philosophy, the tuning of mission and system requirements in view of facilitating the design and implementation of the FDIR concept, and the current gaps within the RAMS/FDIR body of knowledge. The conclusions drawn during this first project phase provide a real view of how systems engineering must work in tandem with RAMS analyses and FDIR to achieve a more robust and functional mission architecture, thus improving the mission reliability.

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This paper aims to investigate the capabilities of exploiting optical line-of-sight navigation using star trackers. First, a synthetic image simulator is developed to generate realistic images, which is later exploited to test the star tracker's performance. Then, generic considerations regarding attitude estimation are drawn, highlighting how the camera's characteristics influence the accuracy of the estimation. The full attitude estimation chain is designed and analyzed in order to maximize the performance in a deep-space cruising scenario. After that, the focus is shifted to the actual planet-centroiding algorithm, with particular emphasis on the illumination compensation routine, which is shown to be fundamental to achieving the required navigation accuracy. The influence of the center of the planet within the singular pixel is investigated, showing howthis uncontrollable parameter can lower performance. Finally, the complete algorithm chain is tested with the synthetic image simulator in a wide range of scenarios. The final promising results show that with the selected hardware, even in the higher noise condition, it is possible to achieve a direction's azimuth and elevation angle error in the order of 1-2 arc sec for Venus, and below 1 arc sec for Jupiter, for a spacecraft placed at 1 AU from the Sun. These values finally allow for a positioning error below 1000 km, which is in line with the current non-autonomous navigation state-of-the-art.

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Modern spacecraft systems and launch vehicle design is more oriented towards reducing system-level design and assembly complexities. In order to maintain high overall system performance while reducing these complexities, the use of smart materials and smart structural components is becoming of more interest to space systems’ designers. The paper will present a concept of smart space structures, in particular carbon fiber composites embedded with Optical Fiber Sensors (OFS) for spacecraft and launch vehicle applications. Although the application is of interest as well to electric and hybrid propulsion with suitability for a variety of relevant propellants, the case study presented is on smart propellant tanks to be used in launch vehicle’s upper-stage chemical propulsion, utilizing gaseous and liquid fluids with specific interest in green propellants (i.e., EIL and NOx classes). This study will discuss the typical mission and operational requirements for such tanks and the smart features enabled by the optical fiber sensors. For the latter aspect, a quantitative comparison between Fiber Bragg Grating sensors (FBGs) and Distributed Optical Fiber Sensors (DOFS) based on Optical Frequency Domain Reflectometry (OFDR) is presented to highlight their core performance parameters, such as the sensing range and spatial resolution. The proposed smart tanks utilizing optical fiber sensors are found to be capable of providing precise readings of static and dynamic strain as well as temperatures on a wide range. The increased performance and reliability come with a reduction in size, mass, and power consumption compared to the conventional electronic sensors. Optical fiber sensors embedded in carbon fiber structures have proved capability in providing accurate real-time measurements of temperature and monitoring structural integrity while detecting precisely possible points of rupture and failure. The applications of fiber optic sensing in smart propellant tanks may extend to detecting fluid leakage and providing increased precision in propellant gauging and can be used in on-ground qualification, pre-flight testing, as well as in-orbit operation and health monitoring.@en

Metal additive manufacturing (AM) is being used for mission-critical applications in both developmental and production components, driven by economic and technical benefits. Laser powder directed energy deposition (LP-DED) allows manufacturing of thin wall geometric features for various components at diameters larger than 2 m. The characterization of geometric capabilities and limitations is critical for establishing guidelines for end users of the technology. Within this study, several samples of enclosed vertical tracks were fabricated and characterized using LP-DED, with 1 mm-thick walls and varying inclination angles up to 45° using the NASA HR-1 alloy (Fe-Ni-Cr). The wall thickness, melt pool, and surface texture, inclusive of waviness and roughness, were evaluated and results presented. The experimental results indicate that the wall thickness increases exponentially above 30°. The surface texture was shown to be dependent on 1) excess powder adherence, 2) melt pool irregularities causing material droop, and 3) excess material. The experiment revealed that the mean roughness reduces with increasing wall angle for the downskin surface. The upskin roughness reaches a maximum peak at 20° and slowly reduces as powder adheres within the valleys. Both the downskin and upskin surface textures are dominated by irregular waviness generated by the melt pool.@en

The Earth-Moon system is constantly bombarded by meteoroids of different size and impact speed. Observation of the impacts on the Moon can enable thorough characterization of the Lunar meteoroid flux, which is similar to that of the Earth. While Earth-based Lunar observations are restricted by weather, geometric and illumination conditions, a Lunar-based observation campaign can improve the detection rate and, when observing the Lunar far side, complement in both space and time the observations taken from Earth. The Lunar Meteoroid Impact Observer (LUMIO), one of the two winning concepts of the ESA SysNova Lunar CubeSats for Exploration challenge, is a mission designed to observe, quantify, and characterize the micro-meteoroid impacts on the Lunar far side. It is based on a 12U CubeSat that carries the LUMIO-Cam, a custom-designed optical instrument capable of detecting light flashes in the visible spectrum. The spacecraft is placed on a halo orbit about the Earth–Moon L2 point, where permanent full-disk observation of the Lunar far side can be performed with excellent quality, given the absence of Earth background noise. After passing Phase 0 and an independent feasibility study in the ESA Concurrent Design Facility, the mission has successfully completed its Phase A in March 2021. Although the Phase 0 design of the LUMIO spacecraft was assessed as feasible by the ESA CDF study, a number of critical issues were identified, which have been tackled by the Phase A design. The paper presents the outcome of this Phase A design effort for the LUMIO spacecraft. Particularly relevant changes or updates in the spacecraft design include: a consolidated design of the LUMIO-Cam, with longer baffle for straylight protection; a set of ADCS sensors and actuators with increased redundancy; a combination of Direct-to-Earth communication and inter-satellite link with a mothership in Lunar orbit; use of Earth ranging to complement and validate the current innovative autonomous navigation strategy based on optical observations of the Moon by means of the LUMIO-Cam; re-assessment of the COTS components selection for the power and propulsion systems.

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Heat exchangers for use in propulsion applications are very critical components because they must be efficient, compact and light and often operate with working fluids at extreme temperatures or pressures or both. Various components and systems use heat exchangers such as combustion chambers of gas turbines and internal combustion engines, fuel cells (air supply and thermal management), electric batteries (thermal management), evaporators and recuperators of waste-heat-to-power systems, and rocket engines. Even if the results are more generally applicable, the heat exchangers applications to which this study is more closely related are regeneratively cooled rocket nozzles and chambers, and repressurization systems for the launch vehicles. These components are often thin-walled and contain pressurized fluids, like propellants at cryogenic or elevated temperatures. Given that the environments that these propulsion components must endure are challenging, the manufacturing to meet these specifications often require long lead times due to specialty processes and unique tooling associated with the combined thin-wall integral channel and large-scale structures. Additive manufacturing (AM) offers programmatic advantages for reduction in processing time and cost in addition to various technical advantages, including the possibility to achieve enhanced hardware complexity targeted to superior performance, part consolidation, and the capability of processing of novel alloys. While AM is already being utilized for heat exchanger components in propulsion applications, almost all these AM components are made by means of Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF). L-PBF allows for fine features but is rather limited with respect to the overall size of the components that can be manufactured. Recent developments are maturing the Laser Powder Directed Energy Deposition (LP-DED) process which may be used, for example, to make integral channel thin-wall regeneratively-cooled rocket nozzles with diameters greater than 1 m. This paper highlights some integral channel heat exchanger demonstrator hardware applications of LP-DED, as well as the characterization of this process in combination with the use of the NASA HR-1 alloy. To properly utilize LP-DED for heat exchanger manufacturing, various aspects are being characterized such as geometry limitations, measurement of surface texture and geometric angled surfaces, surface enhancements for internal channels, and material evaluation. NASA HR-1 (Fe-Ni-Cr) is a high strength hydrogen resistant superalloy developed for use in aerospace applications, such as heat exchangers. Some aspects and considerations about the design of heat exchangers are summarized together with data relevant to LP-DED manufacturing in combination with the NASA HR-1 alloy. Microchannels were successful deposited down to 2.54 mm and 1 mm wall thickness, wall angles of 30°, both with high reproducibility. It was also found that the areal surface roughness is highly dependent on the size of the powder feedstock used for deposition. The characterization of these LP-DED features is critical for fluid flow and heat transfer predictions as it can be exploited to enhance heat transfer at the cost of increased pressure drop. @en

Electrothermal propulsion can be seen as an intermediate concept between electrical and chemical propulsion. Propellant heating typically happens by means of a resistance (resistojet) or an electrical discharge (arcjet). For the extremely miniaturized applications that will be discussed in this chapter, resistojets are by far the most commonly used form of electrothermal thrusters.

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Additive Manufacturing (AM) offers new design and manufacturing opportunities of thin-wall microchannel heat exchangers for aerospace and industrial applications. Laser Powder Directed Energy Deposition (LP-DED) is an AM process providing large scale manufacturing of thin-wall microchannel heat exchangers. Successful industrialization of the LP-DED process requires critical quantification and understanding of the metallurgical, geometric, and process limitations. Specifically, understanding the as-built surface texture, inclusive of roughness and waviness, is significant due to its effects on the friction factor and pressure drop within a heat exchanger. This experimental study completed a design of experiments (DOE) to determine the critical build parameters that impact surface texture for enclosed thin-wall samples. This study summarizes the characterization work of the LP-DED process for 1 mm enclosed walls with an Fe–Ni–Cr (NASA HR-1) alloy. The LP-DED parameters including laser power, powder feedrate, travel speed, layer height, and rotary atomized powder feedstock were modified in the experiment. An evaluation of the DOE samples and resulting surface texture is provided along with conclusions from these experiments. Results indicate that 3D areal and 2D profile (directional) surface texture is estimated by 2x the powder diameter that becomes captured or partially melted on the trailing edge of the melt pool. The fine powder showed a higher sensitivity to parameter changes but resulted in a higher density material and 23% reduction in roughness. Surface texture was also shown to vary between closed channel shapes (internal) due to ricochets, recirculation, and higher volume of powder available to bond compared to external (outer) surfaces. The understanding of the LP-DED process as-built surface texture is essential to fluid flow applications such as heat exchanges and can modify performance for enhanced heat transfer or can be a detriment to pressure drop.@en

The Lunar Meteoroid Impact Observer (LUMIO) is a CubeSat mission at the Earth-Moon Lagrangian point 2 (L2) designed to observe, quantify, and characterize the meteoroid impacts by detecting their flashes on the Lunar farside. LUMIO can be deployed as one of the payloads in the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload System or from Artemis-2 mission to a low Lunar orbit and to demonstrate autonomous navigation capabilities to reach its operational orbit around the Earth-Moon L2. From there, its scientific mission to map and investigate the spatial and temporal characteristics of meteoroids impacting the Lunar surface will start and is expected to last for one year. LUMIO is a 12U CubeSat including a dedicated camera to monitor impact flashes in the visible and near-infrared spectrum, and also allows estimating the impact of temperature and energy. Optical navigation using the payload camera will also demonstrate increased on-board autonomy and drastically reduced mission costs. Navigation validation will be carried out using standard ground-based radiometric techniques enabled by a miniaturized X-band coherent transponder on-board. LUMIO can also use an inter-satellite link for telemetry and control via a commercial Lunar data relay system, providing a redundant communication system and lowering the need for high-gain ground stations for routine operations. The satellite bus derives from a commercial version designed for Low Earth Orbit and it will feature several improvements to operate in the Lunar environment, including a more advanced thermal control and radiation shielding. Commercial Off-The-Shelf systems will require a radiation screening and this will contribute to maintain the mission budget low and aim at a launch date in 2024.@en

This chapter covers the development of cold gas microthruster, which is widely regarded as the simplest way of generating thrust in space, for nanosatellites. A brief background and principles of operation were given, followed by the introduction of nozzle theory that could be used in the preliminary estimation of microthruster performance and considerations in selecting a suitable propellant. The current state of development in cold gas microthruster (at the time of writing in 2020) was provided, from its first use in SNAP-1 in 2000 to another 12 nanosatellites as well as one technology demonstration mission in Prototype Research Instruments and Space Mission technology Advancement small satellite. The chapter ends with a discussion on future nanosatellite missions that will feature a cold gas microthruster system and the challenges, such as fabrication of micronozzle and its design optimization, to improve overall efficiency.

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The Lunar Meteoroid Impacts Observer (LUMIO) is a CubeSat mission to observe, quantify, and characterize the meteoroid impacts on the lunar farside by detecting their flashes. This complements the knowledge gathered by Earth-based observations of the lunar nearside, thus synthesizing global information on the lunar meteoroid environment and contributing to the lunar situational awareness. The goal of LUMIO is to advance our current knowledge of meteoroid models in the solar system. In this work, we present the methodology devised to predict the scientific contribution of LUMIO. Our approach relies on combined modeling and simulation of payload, orbit, and environment. The analyses carried out have been used to drive the design of the LUMIO mission and its payload, the LUMIO-Cam. A payload radiometric model is derived and exploited to assess the quality of the scientific measurements. A dedicated study about straylight rejection is carried out to assess how straylight noise affects LUMIO-Cam measurements. Our results indicate that a 150 mm baffle grants good performance when the Sun angle is between 20° and 90°. Furthermore, the present-day LUMIO mission has the potential to detect more than 6000 impact flashes during the activity peak of the Geminids in 2024 in the range of the equivalent impact kinetic energy at Earth of [10 ⁻⁶,10 ⁻¹]kton TNT Equivalent. Compared to previous programmes, LUMIO could refine information and fill the knowledge gap about the meteoroid population in the ranges of the equivalent impact kinetic energy at Earth of [10 ⁻⁶,10 ⁻⁴]kton TNT Equivalent and [10 ⁻⁴,10 ⁻¹]kton TNT Equivalent, respectively.

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