Lumio: Achieving autonomous operations for lunar exploration with a cubesat

Stefano Speretta, Angelo Cervone, Prem Sundaramoorthy, Ron Noomen, Samiksha Mestry, Ana Cipriano, Francesco Topputo, James Biggs, Pierluigi Di Lizia, Mauro Massari, Kartik Mani, Diogene Dei Tos, Simone Ceccherini, Vittorio Franzese, Anton Ivanov, Demetrio Labate, Leonardo Tommasi, Arnoud Jochemsen, Janis Gailis, Roberto FurfaroVishnu Reddy, Johan Vennekens, Roger Walker

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Lunar Meteoroid Impacts Observer (LUMIO) is one of the four projects selected within ESA’s SysNova competition to develop a small satellite for scientific and technology demonstration purposes to be deployed by a mother ship around the Moon. The mission utilizes a 12U form-factor CubeSat which carries the LUMIO-Cam, an optical instrument capable of detecting light flashes in the visible spectrum to continuously monitor and process the meteoroids impacts. In this paper, we will describe the mission concept and focus on the performance of a novel navigation concept using Moon images taken as byproduct of the LUMIO-Cam operations. This new approach will considerably limit the operations burden on ground, aiming at autonomous orbit-attitude navigation and control. Furthermore, an efficient and autonomous strategy for collection, processing, categorization, and storage of payload data is also described to cope with the limited contact time and downlink bandwidth. Since all communications have to go via a Lunar Orbiter (mothership), all commands and telemetry/data will have to be forwarded to/from the mother ship. This will prevent quasi-real time operations and will be the first time for CubeSats as they have never flown so far from Earth.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication15th International Conference on Space Operations, 2018
PublisherAmerican Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA
ISBN (Print)9781624105623
DOIs
StatePublished - 2018
Event15th International Conference on Space Operations, SpaceOps 2018 - Marseille, France
Duration: May 28 2018Jun 1 2018

Publication series

Name15th International Conference on Space Operations, 2018

Conference

Conference15th International Conference on Space Operations, SpaceOps 2018
Country/TerritoryFrance
CityMarseille
Period5/28/186/1/18

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Space and Planetary Science

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