ESMO is the fourth mission within ESA's Education Satellite Programme and builds upon the experie... more ESMO is the fourth mission within ESA's Education Satellite Programme and builds upon the experience gained with SSETI Express (a micro-satellite launched into LEO in 2005), the YES2 tether experiment (launched into LEO on the Foton-M3 mission in 2007) and the European Student Earth Orbiter (a micro-satellite planned for launch in 2011/2012). The ESMO project is performed in order to attract and train the next generation of lunar and planetary engineers and scientists. The 250 kg ESMO mini-spacecraft is designed to be launched into Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) as a secondary payload in the 2012/2013 timeframe. An on-board liquid bipropellant propulsion system will be used to transfer the spacecraft from its initial GTO to the operational lunar orbit via the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point over a period of 3 months. A miniaturised payload consisting of a Narrow Angle Camera for optical imaging of the surface, and a sub-satellite for global gravity field mapping would perform measurements over a period of 6 months. Alternative payloads under consideration include a biological experiment, and a passive microwave radiometer. The paper presents the scientific, educational and technical aspects of the ESMO project, including a description of the payload, the spacecraft design and mission profile.
ESMO is the fourth mission within ESA's Education Satellite Programme and builds upon the experie... more ESMO is the fourth mission within ESA's Education Satellite Programme and builds upon the experience gained with SSETI Express (a micro-satellite launched into LEO in 2005), the YES2 tether experiment (launched into LEO on the Foton-M3 mission in 2007) and the European Student Earth Orbiter (a micro-satellite planned for launch in 2011/2012). The ESMO project is performed in order to attract and train the next generation of lunar and planetary engineers and scientists. The 250 kg ESMO mini-spacecraft is designed to be launched into Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) as a secondary payload in the 2012/2013 timeframe. An on-board liquid bipropellant propulsion system will be used to transfer the spacecraft from its initial GTO to the operational lunar orbit via the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point over a period of 3 months. A miniaturised payload consisting of a Narrow Angle Camera for optical imaging of the surface, and a sub-satellite for global gravity field mapping would perform measurements over a period of 6 months. Alternative payloads under consideration include a biological experiment, and a passive microwave radiometer. The paper presents the scientific, educational and technical aspects of the ESMO project, including a description of the payload, the spacecraft design and mission profile.
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Papers by M. Cross