European Student Moon Orbiter


The European Student Moon Orbiter was a proposed European student mission to the Moon. Student teams from 19 universities throughout Europe worked on the program.
ESMO was conceived by the Student Space Exploration & Technology Initiative under the support of the European Space Agency ; prior to the start of Phase A the full responsibility for the management of the program was transferred to the ESA Education Office.
In 2009, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd was selected as prime contractor. ESMO was scheduled for launch in late 2013 or early 2014, but further ESA evaluation deemed the ESMO project's costs "unsustainable" given the ESA Education Office's budget.

Objectives

The mission objectives for ESMO were:
The educational aim of the project was to provide valuable hands-on experience to university students within a real and demanding space project. This is in order to fully prepare a well qualified workforce for ambitious future ESA missions.

Lunar Transfer

The spacecraft of approximately 190 kg mass and a size of 76 x 74 x 74 cm was designed to be launched as a secondary or auxiliary payload into Geostationary transfer orbit in late 2013 / early 2014.
From there, the spacecraft would use its on-board propulsion to travel to lunar orbit via a weak stability boundary transfer. This travel via the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point would take three months, but it requires much less propellant than a direct transfer.
ESMO is intended to be operated in lunar orbit for six months.

Payloads

Payloads that were considered for the orbiter included:
The table below provides an overview of the spacecraft platform and the ground segment.
SubsystemDescription
Attitude Determination and Control System 3-axis stabilized: 2 star trackers, 4 sun sensors, 2 inertial measurement units, 4 reaction wheels, 8 cold gas thrusters
On-board Data Handling2 ESA LEON2 processors running data handling software and ADCS software; 32 MB Serial Flash for payload data storage; CANbus data interfaces
CommunicationsLow Gain Antennas for omni-directional coverage; S-band transponder with PSK-PM modulation and range & range rate capability for radio-navigation; 8 kbit/s downlink / 4 kbit/s uplink between Moon and Earth stations
PowerBody-mounted 3J GaAs solar cells for 170 W beginning of life power & 122 W end of life power; 24-29 V unregulated bus; 1800 Wh capacity Li-ion batteries
Propulsion4 liquid MON/MMH bipropellant thrusters: 22 N thrust each, 285 s specific impulse
StructureCFRP/Al honeycomb construction box with load bearing central thrust tube
Thermal ControlPassive: MLI & surface coatings; active: local heaters for eclipse
Ground SegmentGround stations: 25m S-band dish in Raisting and 15m S-band dish in Villafranca; Perth/Kourou for launch and early orbit phase and manoeuvres

Current Teams

21 teams from 19 European universities in ESA member states and cooperating states were part of the project.
UniversityCountryResponsibilities
University of LiègeBelgiumNarrow Angle Camera Payload
Czech Technical University in PragueCzech RepublicAOCS Interface Module
University of TartuEstoniaAssembly, Integration and Verification and Satellite Operation
SupaeroFranceStar Tracker
University of StuttgartGermanyPropulsion System - Gas Feed
Technische Universität MünchenGermanyLunaNet Payload & Ground Station
University of L'Aquila and University of Rome La SapienzaItalyMicrowave Radiometer Scientific Payload
Politecnico di MilanoItalyAttitude Determination and Control System
Politecnico di MilanoItalyPropulsion System - Liquid Feed
Warsaw University of TechnologyPolandThermal Control Subsystem
Wroclaw University of TechnologyPolandCommunications System
AGH University of Science and TechnologyPolandSpace Environment & Effects Analysis
Politehnica University of BucharestRomaniaAttitude Determination and Control System
Politehnica University of BucharestRomaniaStructure
University of BucharestRomaniaRadiation Monitor Payload
University of LjubljanaSloveniaSimulator
University of LjubljanaSloveniaRadar Payload
University of MariborSloveniaOn-board Data Handling
University of OviedoSpainHarness
University of VigoSpainGS/OPS-V team. Ground Station VIL-1 team.
University of GlasgowUKMission Analysis and Flight Dynamics
University of SouthamptonUKSystem Engineering
University of WarwickUKPower Subsystem

Led by ESA's Education Office at ESTEC, the project successfully completed a Phase A feasibility study and continued with the preliminary design during phase B.
So far, more than 200 students have been involved in phases A and B of the ESMO project.
Since November 2009 SSTL coordinate and supervise the work of the students, providing system-level and specialist technical support.
Regular workshops at ESTEC and ESOC as well as internships at SSTL were organized to support the student teams in their ESMO related activities and provide training / knowledge transfer. Additionally, facilities at SSTL will be utilized for spacecraft assembly, integration and testing.
As a major milestone during phase B, the System Requirements Review for ESMO was performed in 2010. At SRR the system requirements and system design were finalised. Part of the SRR also selected the university teams to participate in the following phases of the project.
After passing a preliminary design review in March 2012, the program was ended as a result of budget constraints.
ESMO was to have been the fourth mission within ESA's Education Satellite Programme following SSETI Express, YES2 and the European Student Earth Orbiter.