After the successful completion of the Phase B in late 2023, the approval of the following phases represents a fundamental milestone for the project. In the next years, the detailed design and the development of the CubeSat will continue during Phases C and D. The Phase E, which foresees the launch and operation of the satellite, is currently scheduled for 2027. The LUMIO mission is framed within ESA’s GSTP and as such it has received support from the national delegations of Italy (ASI), Norway (NOSA), Sweden (SNSA) and UK (UKSA).
LUMIO (Lunar Meteroid Impacts Observer) is a 12U CubeSat, where a Unit stands for a cube of 10 cm edge. The mission main objective is to monitor the Lunar far side to detect flashes produced by the impact of meteoroids on the Lunar surface. The spacecraft will reach the Moon after a 3-month transfer along an extremely efficient trajectory. Then, it will move on a “halo” orbit around the Earth-Moon L2 Lagrangian point, which allows a permanent monitoring of the lunar far side. The gathered data will be used to refine the meteoroid flux models hitting the Earth-Moon system. The high frame-rate images acquired by the LUMIO-Cam will be processed aboard and in real time; these will be downloaded on ground for further processing.
