Sector: Planetary Exploration / Autonomous Navigation
Number of satellites: 1
Form factor: 16U
LUMIO (Lunar Meteoroid Impacts Observer) is a CubeSat mission dedicated to observing meteoroid impacts on the lunar surface. The satellite will operate in a halo orbit around the Earth-Moon L2 Lagrange point, from which it will observe the lunar far side and detect the flashes produced by meteoroid impacts. These observations will complement those performed from Earth on the lunar near side and will improve the knowledge of the meteoroid flux in the cislunar environment, providing useful information also for future lunar exploration activities.
The satellite will be equipped with LUMIO-Cam, an optical instrument operating in the visible and near-infrared for the detection of impact flashes. The acquired data will be processed on board to identify events and select the scientific information to be transmitted to Earth. The mission will also test technologies for CubeSat operations in cislunar space, including autonomous navigation techniques. LUMIO is developed within ESA’s General Support Technology Programme (GSTP) and is primarily supported by the Italian Space Agency, with the participation of the space agencies of Norway, the United Kingdom and Sweden.
Development team: Politecnico di Milano (Prime & Principal Investigator); Argotec S.r.l.; Leonardo S.p.A.; IMT S.r.l.; Nautilus - Navigation in Space S.r.l.; S&T Norway AS (NO); Lift Me Off Ltd (GB); ECAPS AB (SE).
Development status: Phase C (detailed design) ongoing.
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