ESMO-URM-Italy

MicroWave Radiometric Sounder (MiWaRS)

ESMO payload - URM_B2

Univ. La Sapienza / L'Aquila Team - Italy

ESMO project

In March 2006, the Education Department of the European Space Agency approved the European Student Moon Orbiter (ESMO) mission proposed by the Student Space Exploration & Technology Initiative (SSETI, http://www.sseti.net/) association for a Phase A Feasibility Study. If found to be feasible, ESMO will be the third mission to be designed, built and operated by European students through the SSETI association, and would join many other contemporary missions to the Moon such as ESA’s SMART-1, the Chinese Chang’e-1, the Indian Chandrayaan, JAXA’s SELENE and Lunar-A, and NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The ESMO mission objectives are summarised as follows: Education: prepare students for careers in future projects of the European space exploration and space science programmes by providing valuable hands-on experience on a relevant & demanding project; Outreach: acquire images of the Moon and transmit them back to Earth for public relations and education outreach purposes; Science: perform new scientific measurements relevant to lunar science & the future human exploration of the Moon, in complement with past, present and future lunar missions; Engineering: provide flight demonstration of innovative space technologies developed under university research activities.

ESMO Sapienza web site

The general web site of ESMO Sapienza, including all teams, is: http://esmo.scepsi.it

MiWaRS payload

The MiWaRS payload, selected as a backup payload by SSETI at this stage, is thought to be a relatively light and simple instrument exploiting the feature of being substantially a low-noise receiver. In order to be allocated into ESMO Micro-Satellite and to fulfill the prescribed requirements, the MiWaRS may exhibit the following features:

	use of the nadir-pointing face of the a three-axis-stabilized Micro-Satellite in order to observe at the Moon surface;
	use of antenna planar technologies, such as microstrip patch array, to realize an antenna gain between 6 and 18 dBi in order to compact instrument volume, still obtaining enough spatial resolution; horn and backfire antennas will be also considered;
	use of multi-band antenna, tuned at different frequencies from C band up to K band (e.g., C, X, Ka and K channels), to realize a surface sounding capability;
	use of a sufficiently long integration time in order to ensure a good radiometric accuracy of the order of few kelvins;
	use of on-board radiometer calibration device or, in alternative, known stable microwave targets such as cosmic noise or specific features on the Moon surface, in order to perform the on-board instrument calibration;
	use of COTS (Components Off The Shelf) and low-power components, in order to reduce overall costs and power consumption ;
	use of an on-board data processing (filtering and compression) in order to adapt the data rate to downlink channel capacity

The MiWaRS configuration may exploit either a usual total-power topology (with the advantage of simple realization, but a poor calibration), or a pulsed-noise injection topology (with the advantage of good self-calibration, but a more complex technological design).

MiWaRS Team

Original proposal of La Sapienza to ESMO call

MiWaRS proposal to ESMO

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) of current MiWaRS activities

MiWaRS Official Team:

Mario Montopoli              (PhD student, Team leader, AQ)

Luca Di Marco Napini      (Master Eng. student, Vice Team Leader, RM)

Beatrice Barresi                (Master Eng., RM)

Daniele Canuzzi                 (Master Eng. student, RM)

Silvia Carosi                     (Master Eng. student, RM)

Marco Cicchinelli              (Bachelor Eng. student, AQ)

Laura D'Amata                 (Master Eng. student, RM)

Giovanni De Donato         (Master Eng. student, RM)

Federica De Gregorio       (Master Eng. student, RM)

Alessandro Di Carlofelice (Master Eng., AQ)

Francesca Equizi              (Bachelor Eng. student, AQ)

Domenico Sciumè            (Master Eng. student, RM)

Stefano Masci                (Bachelor Eng. student, AQ)

La Sapienza Team coordinators:

Andrea Negri (Master Eng. student, La Sapienza Team Coordinator)

Marianna Rinaldi (Master Eng. student, Ground Segment Team Coordinator)

MiWaRS Tutors

Frank S. Marzano     (Academic URM Tutor)

Piero Tognolatti         (Academic URM Tutor)

Nazzareno Pierdicca (Academic URM Tutor)

Giorgio Perrotta         (La Sapienza Team Tutor)

MiWaRS objectives

Useful overview guides on Microwave Radiometry are:

	Foundations of Microwave Radiometry
	Microwave Radiometers

Some Internet hints on:

	The Moon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon#Composition http://www.solarviews.com/eng/moon.htm
	Lunar physics http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/moon_oxygen_011015.html http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/moon_composition_010907.html http://epsc.wustl.edu/admin/resources/meteorites/regolith_breccia.html
	Exploring the Moon http://www.lpi.usra.edu/expmoon/

URM How To

	URM_B2 Mailing List (updated on 21-Mar-07)
	How to connect to ESMO-NEWSGROUP: Instructions for MIRC
	How to make a flow-chart within ECSS: Program

How to connect to the ESMO FTP site: ftp.sseti.net, https://portal.sseti.net/egroupware/login.php

LAST Update on the Web site: 21-Mar-07.

La Sapienza/L'Aquila team workshops	Location and time	Documents
URM team recurrent meetings	Every Wednesday - h. 15:00 Lab. of Ant., Remote Sens. & RadioProp. Dip. di Ing. Elettronica - 3° piano Fac. di Ingegneria "La Sapienza" - Rome
1^st Plenary La Sapienza Team workshop (Giornate di studio)	October 18-19, 2006 - h. 9:00 Saletta del Chiostro Fac. di Ingegneria "La Sapienza" - Rome	Presentations as PDF files Team photo
Meeting of URM Rome/L'Aquila team	Wednesday - December 13, 2006 - h. 15:00 Aula 6 Fac. di Ingegneria "La Sapienza" - Rome
Meeting for 2^nd ESMO workshop	Wednesday - January 10, 2007 - h. 15:00 Aula 17 Fac. di Ingegneria "La Sapienza" - Rome
2^nd Plenary La Sapienza Team workshop (II conference)	March 20, 2007 - h. 9:00-18:00 Aula 1 "A. Ruberti" Fac. di Ingegneria "La Sapienza" - Rome	Agenda Presentations as PDF files Team p hoto

ESMO Team	ESMO Standard Reports	ESA Templates
URM team	ECSS - URM Current Standard Reports	ECSS Report Templates

Work Package	Title	Contents	Personnel	Deadline	Data
LUNAR MODELS WP1000	Physical models of lunar surface and sub-surface stratigraphy	- Surface roughness and stratigraphy of lunar maria and terrae - Composition of lunar sub-surface (regolith, rocks, kreep ...)	- F. De Gregorio - S. Carosi - B. Barresi Tutors: F. Marzano, N. PIerdicca	December 31, 2006	Bibliography Reports Programs
	Thermal models of lunar surface and sub-surface heat transport	- Endo-thermal heat flux within lunar sub-surface - Eso-thermal heat flux on lunar surface	- L. D'Amata - M. Cicchinelli Tutors: P. Tognolatti, F. Marzano
MICROWAVE MODELS WP1000	Microwave dielectric models of lunar surface and sub-surface material	- Complex dielectric constant of lunar materials (regolith, rocks, kreep ...) - Distribution of lunar sub-surface material inhomogeneity	- B. Barresi - S. Carosi Tutors: F. Marzano, N. Pierdicca	January 31, 2007	Bibliography Reports Programs
	Microwave emissivity and antenna temperature models of lunar surface and sub-surface	- Incoherent models of lunar antenna noise temperature with 3 homogeneous layers - Incoherent models of lunar antenna noise temperature with multiple layers and scattering	- S. Carosi - M. Montopoli - F. De Gregorio Tutors: F. Marzano, N. Pierdicca
RETRIEVAL ALGORITHMS WP1100	Physical retrieval algorithms of lunar surface and sub-surface parameters	- Retrieval algorithms based on the inversion of physical-microwave models and their accuracy - Deconvolution algorithms for antenna overlapped field-of-view	- S. Carosi - L. D'Amata - D. Canuzzi Tutors: N. Pierdicca, F. Marzano	March 28, 2007	Bibliography Reports Programs
	Statistical retrieval algorithms of lunar surface and sub-surface parameters	- Retrieval algorithms based on the statistical inversion techniques - Expected accuracy of statistical algorithms based on synthetic data and MW-IR sensor integration	- M. Montopoli - S. Carosi Tutors: F. Marzano, N. Pierdicca
RADIOMETER SYSTEM WP1100	Analysis and inter-comparison of radiometer system configurations	- Selection of candidate radiometer configurations (total power, Dicke non-bal. and bal., noise-adding, integration with IR radiometer) - Matlab simulator to evaluate radiometric accuracy, sensitivity and criticality (calibration, thermal stability)	- D. Canuzzi - G. De Donato - D. Sciumè - L. Di Marco Napini Tutors: N. Pierdicca, F. Marzano, P. Tognolatti	March 31, 2007	Bibliography Reports Programs
	Design and optimization of multi-frequency radiometer antenna	- Selection of candidate multi-band antenna systems (microstrip patch arrays , horns, short back-fires) - Numerical optimization of antenna perfomances	- A. Di Carlofelice - F. Equizi - S. Masci Tutors: P. Tognolatti, F. Marzano
RADIOMETER HARDWARE WP1200	Design and optimization of radiometer components and receiver	- Analysis of the performances of radiometer layout components plus possible IR radiometer - Analysis and technical choice of optimal components	- L. Di Marco Napini - D. Canuzzi Tutors: G. Perrotta, P. Tognolatti, F. Marzano, S. PIsa	May 31, 2007	Bibliography Reports Programs
	Analysis of MiWaRS production costs, feasibility and satellite compatibility	- Analysis and choice of optimal components from cost/benefit analysis - Compatibility of radiometer with other satellite interfaces (data storage, power, stability, interference)	- L. Di Marco Napini - D. Canuzzi Tutors: G. Perrotta, P. Tognolatti, F. Marzano
RADIOMETER FEASIBILITY WP 1200	Overall evaluation of MiWaRS radiometer performances on multiple solution basis	- Selection of multiple radiometer configuration and retrieval algorithms - Identification of the MiWaRS baseline and upgraded versions	- ALL Tutors: F. Marzano, G. Perrotta, N. PIerdicca, P. Tognolatti	June 30, 2006 End of the project	Bibliography Reports Programs
	Revision of mission objectives and lunar radiometer requirements	- Mission objectives after feasibility study accomplishment - Baseline radiometer requirements satisfaction after feasibility study accomplishment - Proposal and set up of Terra-Luna experiments via MiWaRS	- ALL Tutors: G. Perrotta, F. Marzano, P. Tognolatti, N. Pierdicca