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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The Lunar Meteoroid Impact Observer (LUMIO) is a mission designed to observe, quantify, and characterize the impacts of meteoroids on the lunar far side and, therefore, complement in both space and time the observations currently taken from Earth. While Earth-based lunar observations are restricted by weather, geometric and illumination conditions, a Moon-based observation campaign can improve the detection rate of impact flashes and the general quality and reliability of the final scientific product. The mission has successfully completed the Phase A design, after successfully passing Phase 0 and an independent study in the ESA Concurrent Design Facility that has fully confirmed its feasibility. The LUMIO spacecraft is a 12U XL CubeSat with a mass of around 28 kg, released into Lunar orbit by a carrier spacecraft and capable of autonomously transferring from this initial parking orbit to its final destination, a halo orbit about the Earth–Moon L2 point from which permanent fulldisk observation of the Lunar far side can be performed. The mission objectives will be achieved thanks to the LUMIO-Cam, a custom-designed optical instrument capable of detecting light flashes in the visible spectrum, and an innovative on-board data processing system, capable of drastically reducing the amount of information that needs to be transmitted back to Earth. The camera is capable of generating 5TBd−1 of data, out of which only approximately 1MBd−1 will need to be transmitted to Earth, since impact identification will be performed autonomously onboard and only relevant information will be actually transmitted. This paper will present the current status of the mission, summarising the main results of the Phase A design and the way forward to the following steps in mission implementation (Phases B-C). The paper will include a summary of the spacecraft system design and mission analysis. Particular focus will be given to the mission operations aspects. @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. @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. @en

The Lunar Meteoroid Impact Observer (LUMIO) is a mission designed to observe, quantify, and characterize the meteoroid impacts by detecting their flashes on the lunar far side. Earth-based lunar observations are restricted by weather, geometric and illumination conditions, while a lunar orbiter can improve the detection rate of lunar meteoroid impact flashes, as it would allow for longer monitoring periods. This paper will focus on the communications and radio navigation system of the mission, designed for the ESA roadmap for lunar exploration. LUMIO has been designed to operate autonomously after deployment from a lunar mother spacecraft in a low inclination lunar orbit and to reach without human intervention his final destination orbit close to the Earth-Moon L2 point, where science can be carried out. Being the destination orbit always in view from Earth (despite a distance of 460000 - 480000 km), Direct-to-Earth communication was added to the mission as a mean to reduce risk and allow independent verification of several of the innovative technologies that would be demonstrated, first of all autonomous navigation. A detailed link budget analysis will be presented for all mission phases for both the link with the mother spacecraft in low lunar orbit and the link with Earth. Beside defining the achievable data transfer, we will focus also on evaluating the available ground stations to better evaluate mission cost with respect to science return. Radio-navigation performances will also be evaluated to estimate the position and relative velocity accuracy, given also the limited performances available for the on-board navigation transponder. This will help also better defining the on-board autonomous navigation system, constraining the total error budget. Further strategies, such as beacon tones, will be evaluated to lower the overall operational cost by employing continuous monitoring with a low performances ground station and, only when needed, perform high speed downlink using a deep-space class ground station. This strategy is considered of extreme importance, especially for small missions, to allow opportunistic operations on high gain antennas, given their very busy schedule. Keywords: LUMIO, CubeSat, Lunar, Radio, link @en

The Lunar Meteoroid Impact Observer (LUMIO), one of the two winning concepts of the SysNova Lunar CubeSats for Exploration call by ESA, is a mission designed to observe, quantify, and characterize the meteoroid impacts on the Lunar far side by detecting the flashes generated by the impact. 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 mission, which has successfully completed its Phase A in March 2021, 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 background noise due to the Earth. The propulsion system is one of the most crucial design choices for the LUMIO spacecraft. It accomplishes various functions: orbital transfer from the initial Lunar orbit to the final halo orbit around L2, station keeping, reaction wheel desaturation, end of life disposal manoeuvres. The total required Delta-V budget for orbital transfer and station keeping is 201.8 m/s, plus an additional total impulse for reaction control tasks ranging from 110 Ns to 170 Ns, depending on the type of reaction control system that is selected. This paper presents a detailed summary of the phase A selection and design of the LUMIO propulsion system, based on the full list of requirements generated by the mission analysis. The main challenges of this process and the way they have been tackled are presented and discussed, including: use of two separate systems as opposed to an integrate one for main propulsion and reaction control tasks; availability of sufficiently reliable European propulsion options, to reduce the general mission costs; feasibility of replacing a chemical/cold gas system with electric propulsion; possible need for custom changes to the design of the selected COTS option (e.g. due to tank sizing). @en