The European Student Moon Orbiter (ESMO) is planned to be the first European student mission to the Moon.Building upon the successful approach pioneered by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Education Office, thismission aims to bring together European universities to design, manufacture and operate a lunar orbiter mission.Following a competitive tendering process Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) has been selected as theindustrial prime contractor for this mission. SSTL also acts as an industrial mentor to the Network of Universities(NoU) involved in the programme.The ESMO project aims to attract, train and qualify the next generation of engineers and scientists forimplementing the challenging missions of the European Space Agency by providing valuable hands-on experienceon a relevant and demanding project. There are 19 universities from 11 countries involved in the programme,bringing in a range of undergraduate and post graduate students supported by professional academic staff at eachuniversity.The project preliminary definition phase started in October 2009, system requirements and definition reviewshave been successfully completed and the Preliminary Design Review Process commenced in April 2011. TheESMO mini-satellite is designed to be launched into Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) as a secondary payload in2014. It requires on-board propulsion to transfer the spacecraft from its initial orbit into its operational lunar orbitwhere it will be used to perform scientific, technology demonstration and outreach activities. With a piggy backlaunch to GTO, the use of flight spare hardware and donated kit from a range of project sponsors, ESMO is a truehitchhiker mission to the moon. This paper describes the ESMO mission profile, system design and baselinepayloads. It outlines the programmatic approach to this mission and concludes with a summary of the ESMO projectstatus, the technical challenges being faced due to the combination of donated technologies and hitchhikingrequirements, and the opportunities offered via this inspirational mission.
展开▼
