LUMIO Cubesat: Current Status and Lessons Learnt (so Far)

The Lunar Meteoroid Impacts Observer (LUMIO) is a CubeSat mission to observe, quantify, and characterise the meteoroid impacts by detecting their flashes on the lunar farside. The mission utilises a 12U CubeSat that carries the LUMIO-Cam, an optical instrument capable of detecting light flashes in the visible and NIR spectrum. The mission implements a sophisticated orbit design. An optical autonomous navigation experiment using the Moon images is planned. The CubeSat embarks novel on-board micro-propulsion, solar array drive assembly, and a miniaturized X-band transponder. Due to the challenging environment in which LUMIO operates, high reliability components are used ins some units. In this paper, the current status of the mission and system design will be given. LUMIO is one of the two winners of ESA’s LUCE SYSNOVA competition. The project has successfully passed PDR and is now approaching Phase C. LUMIO is implemented within the General Support Technology Programme (GSTP) through the support of the national delegations of Italy (ASI), United Kingdom (UKSA), Norway (NOSA), and Sweden (SNSA).