LUMIO: An Autonomous CubeSat for Lunar Exploration

Speretta, Stefano; Cervone, Angelo; Sundaramoorthy, Prem; Noomen, R.; Mestry, Samiksha; Cipriano, Ana; Topputo, Francesco; Biggs, James D.; Lizia, P. Di; Massari, Mauro; Mani, Karthik V.; Tos, Diogene Alessandro Dei; Ceccherini, Simone; Franzese, V.; Ivanov, A. B.; Labate, Demetrio; Tommasi, L.; Jochemsen, Arnoud; Gailis, Jãnis; Furfaro, Roberto; Reddy, V.; Vennekens, J.; Walker, Roger

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-11536-4_6

Cited by 13 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…The PocketQubes could also be dropped on the respective surface of celestial bodies as probes. A concrete example of this potential application can be related to a specific Lunar mission in which Delft University of Technology is participating, called LUMIO [29]. LUMIO is a 12U CubeSat that will orbit around the Earth-Moon Lagrangian point L2 to monitor the micro-meteoroid impacts that occur on the Lunar far side, which can be identified and characterized through the flashes they make at impact.…”

Section: Space Explorationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Utility and constraints of PocketQubes

et al. 2020

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PocketQubes are a form factor of highly miniaturized satellites with a body of one or more cubic units of 5 cm. In this paper, the characteristics of PocketQubes in terms of their constraints and their (potential) utility are treated. To avoid space debris and limit collision risk, the orbits of PocketQubes need to be constraint. An analysis of orbital decay characteristics has been carried out which, considering existing space regulations and a pro-active attitude, PocketQubes should preferably be launched in low Earth orbits below 400 km altitude. Due to technical constraints, such as form factor, power and attitude control, the domain of applications for single PocketQube missions is limited. Still, they can act as low-cost training and technology demonstration platforms. To make PocketQubes an attractive platform for other types of missions, not only the launch cost, but also the development, production and operations cost should be significantly lower than CubeSats. When the PocketQube platform matures and produced in high numbers, networks of PocketQubes can enable new applications. Applications considered feasible are in the field of (but not limited to) continuous surveillance using optical instruments, gravity field monitoring using precise orbit determination, in-situ measurements of the space environment, low data rate or bandwidth communication services and inexpensive probes around other celestial bodies.

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Section: Space Explorationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Utility and constraints of PocketQubes

et al. 2020

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“…Pushing further the concept of interplanetary CubeSats, several missions have been proposed that rely on the CubeSat for the main scientific mission: this is due to the very high cost a bigger satellite would have in the same mission or even due to the impossibility to carry out the scientific task with a bigger satellite. Examples of this last trend are M-Argo [6], targeting a near-Earth object, or LUMIO [7], designed to perform longterm observations of the far-side of the Moon to characterize meteoroid impacts.…”

Section: Miniaturized Space Missionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Software-defined testbed for next generation navigation transponders

Speretta

Oei

Busso

et al. 2019

2019 8th International Workshop on Tracking, Telemetry and Command Systems for Space Applications (TTC)

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“…CubeSats can be built and assembled using COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) components, properly screened for survivability in the deep-space environment. Moreover, CubeSats can share the launch with either a main passenger as a piggyback or other CubeSats in a rideshare configuration [41]. While the costs to design and build a CubeSat scale with size, those related to operate it remain unaltered when ground-based radiometric navigation is used.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deep-Space Optical Navigation for M-ARGO Mission

et al. 2021

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The Miniaturised Asteroid Remote Geophysical Observer (M-ARGO) mission is designed to be ESA’s first stand-alone CubeSat to independently travel in deep space with its own electric propulsion and direct-to-Earth communication systems in order to rendezvous with a near-Earth asteroid. Deep-space Cubesats are appealing owing to the scaled mission costs. However, the operational costs are comparable to those of traditional missions if ground-based orbit determination is employed. Thus, autonomous navigation methods are required to favour an overall scaling of the mission cost for deep-space CubeSats. M-ARGO is assumed to perform an autonomous navigation experiment during the deep-space cruise phase. This paper elaborates on the deep-space navigation experiment exploiting the line-of-sight directions to visible beacons in the Solar System. The aim is to assess the experiment feasibility and to quantify the performances of the method. Results indicate feasibility of the autonomous navigation for M-ARGO with a 3σ accuracy in the order of 1000 km for the position components and 1 m/s for the velocity components in good observation conditions, utilising miniaturized optical sensors.

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LUMIO: An Autonomous CubeSat for Lunar Exploration

Cited by 13 publications

References 12 publications

Utility and constraints of PocketQubes

Utility and constraints of PocketQubes

Software-defined testbed for next generation navigation transponders

Deep-Space Optical Navigation for M-ARGO Mission

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