Phase A Design of the LUMIO Spacecraft: a CubeSat for Observing and Characterizing Micro-Meteoroid Impacts on the Lunar Far Side

Abstract

The LUnar Meteoroid Impacts Observer (LUMIO) is a CubeSat mission to a halo orbit at Earth–Moon L2 that shall observe, quantify, and characterize meteoroid impacts on the Lunar farside, by detecting their flashes. In this way, LUMIO is expected to significantly contribute to Lunar Situational Awareness and to the current knowledge on the evolution of meteoroids in the cislunar space. This will allow, ultimately, to achieve a better understanding of the origins of the Solar System, the composition of its planets and the possible hazards caused by impacts between the Earth and Near Earth Objects. LUMIO was one of the proposals submitted to the SysNova LUnar CubeSats for Exploration call by the European Space Agency. The mission was awarded ex-aequo winner of the challenge, and its scientific relevance and technical feasibility were confirmed by an independent study conducted by the ESA Concurrent Design Facility. The LUMIO Phase A study is currently ongoing and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2020. This paper, after providing a short overview of the scientific relevance of the mission, presents in detail the status of the current LUMIO Phase A study, including an overview of all spacecraft sub-systems and the evolution of their design from Phase 0 to Phase A.