Politecnico di Milano to Lead ESA LUMIO Mission to Observe Meteorite Impacts on the Far Side of the Moon

The Moon, as we know (especially on the day of the launch of the Artemis II mission), will become increasingly important in future space programs of agencies worldwide as well as for private companies. For this reason, studying our natural satellite is a priority, especially in view of the future permanent space bases that will be built in the coming years. A new mission, called ESA LUMIO (Lunar Meteoroid Impacts Observer), will be launched in the coming years to observe the far side of the Moon to detect meteorite impacts.

According to reports, ESA LUMIO is now at a decisive stage towards its realization, with a launch expected starting from 2027. It is important to note that this mission will be led by the Politecnico di Milano through the DART Lab of the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology. The far side of the Moon is, for obvious reasons, more difficult to observe, and thus the available data is less than that from the side visible from Earth despite there having been missions that have explored it, such as Chang'e-4 and Chang'e-6.

ESA LUMIO is part of the European Space Agency's General Support Technology Programme (GSTP) and is primarily supported by ASI, with contributions from the space agencies of Norway (NOSA), United Kingdom (UKSA), and Sweden (SNSA).

ESA LUMIO and its Moon-Dedicated Mission

The core of the mission is a 12U CubeSat with a mass of about 30 kg. This satellite will be positioned to operate in a halo orbit around the L2 Lagrangian point of the Earth-Moon system. From this position, located beyond the Moon and stably oriented towards its far side, the satellite can continuously observe the surface not visible from Earth. The goal is to detect the flashes generated by meteoroid impacts, brief and bright events that provide valuable information about the distribution of particles in the cislunar environment.

These data will complete the observations made from Earth on the visible side of the Moon, allowing for more accurate models of meteoroid flux to be constructed. This is fundamental knowledge not only for planetary science but also for the safety of future lunar exploration missions, which will need to operate in a dynamic and potentially hazardous environment.

On board the CubeSat 12U will be LUMIO-Cam, a camera that will observe in the visible spectrum and near-infrared designed to detect impact flashes with high sensitivity. To reduce the bandwidth used for analysis, the instrument will record images, and the system will process them directly on board. Only those deemed interesting will be sent to the control center on Earth.

As mentioned above, Politecnico di Milano coordinates an industrial and scientific consortium that brings together some of the most active entities in the European space sector. Argotec is responsible for the design, integration, and testing of the satellite platform; Leonardo is developing LUMIO-Cam; IMT provides transponders and solar panels; Nautilus handles the avionics; S&T Norway manages scientific data; Lift Me Off develops the propulsion system; and ECAPS provides the thrusters.