This week ESA have approved the next stage of the Lunar Meteoroid Impacts Observer (LUMIO) CubeSat mission, meaning it could be ready for launch as early as 2027.
Every day, huge numbers of meteoroids bombard the Earth and Moon. These fragments of asteroids, planets and comets have been studied for decades, especially during meteor showers.
Counting the frequency of showers and number of these meteoroid impacts, also called meteoroid flux, that occur on Earth has been invaluable in building models to help us understand how meteor showers work, how often they occur and how much harm they are likely to cause. These models can be useful when predicting when the next large meteoroid could impact Earth, or the rate at which they might degrade equipment in space.
The Moon has a similar flux to Earth, which means understanding the same impacts on the lunar surface – their size, the speed of impact and the area they affect – could help to add more information to these models.
Will meteor showers affect future rovers or habitats on the Moon?
How much damage can these meteoroids cause to equipment in space or on the lunar surface?
What defensive strategies are needed for future human habitats on the Moon?
What are the spatial and temporal characteristics of meteoroids impacting the lunar surface?
The mission will also help answer several questions we have about how impacts vary depending on the Moon’s geography, including; are the impacts evenly distributed across the lunar surface? Or does the side leading the Moon in orbit really encounter up to 80 per cent more impacts than the other side?
One day, the mission’s data could be vital in designing hazard strategies for the next era of lunar exploration and to protect future human and rovers inhabiting the Moon long-term, as part of a lunar situational awareness programme.
These impacts can be recorded in several ways, from the seismic waves they generate, the visible new craters they create or the emission of radiation flashes. By monitoring these flashes means a larger area will be surveyed (traditional surveys only include Earth's upper atmosphere) of meteoroid impacts in the Earth Moon orbit, meaning even more meteoroid impacts should be detected in shorter periods of time.
“Detecting impact flashes has been selected as the most advantageous method for LUMIO for various reasons: it yields an independent detection of meteoroid impacts, provides the most complete information about the impactor, and allows for the monitoring of a large Moon surface area,” explain the LUMIO collaboration in a paper published on the completion of LUMIO Phase A.
During the annual Geminids meteoroid shower, the mission could detect more than 6000 impact flashes.
The autonomous mission, funded through GSTP Element 3 and led by Politecnico di Milano, Italy, will have a direct link to Earth. The CubeSat will always be visible from the ground due to the special halo orbit which was selected.
To observe the flashes LUMIO will use its main payload, the onboard LUMIOCam. This optical instrument is capable of detecting these flashes in the visible & near infrared spectrum and will be able to continuously monitor and process the data almost in near real-time.
The mission aims to observe meteoroid impacts on the far side of the Moon continuously for up to 14 days. By doing so, scientists hope to gather better data on meteoroids near Earth. The Moon acts as a natural target for these impacts but observing these flashes using a telescope on Earth is limited to times when the near side of the Moon is between 10% and 50% illuminated, and the observations made are often affected by background noise. Observations on the far side of the Moon can take place when the Moon is less than 50% illuminated, which occurs during half of its orbit.
The specific objectives of the LUMIO mission are:
To conduct observations of the lunar surface in order to detect meteoroid impacts and characterise their flux, magnitudes, luminous energies, sizes and locations.
To complement observations achievable via Earth-based assets in space, time, and quality in order to provide a better understanding of the meteoroid environment.
To demonstrate deployment and autonomous operation of CubeSats in lunar environment, including navigation & trajectory control aspects.
To demonstrate miniaturised optical instrumentation, real-time on-board payload data processing and platform technologies in the lunar environment.
LUMIO was one of two winning concepts from the ESA SysNova Lunar CubeSats for Exploration challenge selected for further study in the Concurrent Design Facility. After passing Phase 0 and an independent feasibility study, the mission successfully completed Phase A and B studies.
Fittingly for the week we mark Asteroid Day, the team has now been given funding and approval through GSTP’s Element 3, with the support of Italy, Norway, Sweden and the UK to take the mission all the way through from producing an engineering model, to launch and, eventually, nominal mission operations.
The consortium includes Politecnico di Milano, Argotec, Leonardo, IMT- Ingegneria Marketing Tecnologia, Nautilus, ECAPS, LMO and S&T Norway.
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