M-Argo

Did You Know?

• Should the mission succeed, the ESA plans to approve a fleet of low-cost small spacecraft, perhaps 10 to 20 CubeSats at a time, to scout different asteroids.
• Roger Walker, overseeing ESA's technology CubeSats, stated that M-Argo will 'enable the cost of asteroid exploration to be reduced by an order of magnitude or more'.
• The multispectral imager was provided by the Polish firm KP Labs, which also contributed AI algorithms used on prior missions.

Spacecraft

M-Argo is a CubeSat largely made with cheap, standard parts used by hundreds of other CubeSats. The probe was designed by a consortium led by the Luxembourg Space Agency, alongside TICRA, GomSpace, and KP Labs. It measures 36.5 cm wide and 22 cm tall. Its propulsion system includes twelve tiny gas jets for orientation and trajectory adjustment; several designs were iterated before electric propulsion was chosen. The multispectral imager, provided by KP Labs, also contributed AI algorithms to process and compress data. The probe communicates via a specially designed X-band transponder and high-gain, flat-panel antenna, and will use an experimental Deep-Space Optical Navigation system during transit. Additional payloads include optical GNC, radio science, and the solar array orientation mechanism (μSADA).

Project history

By mid-2021, the M-Argo team had examined more than 700,000 potential destinations, identifying 150 viable options before narrowing them to a final five. One of these five will be chosen shortly before launch, as shifting orbital paths require last-minute adjustments. The five candidates vary in size, rotation speed, and distance from Earth, but all are small near-Earth asteroids under 100 meters across—a category no probe has yet visited. Though the spacecraft has been mostly built and ready since 2021, securing a rocket has been a persistent challenge. It was originally set to fly on a Vega-C in 2023, but that plan was abandoned after the Vega C flight VV22 failure. Next, an Ariane 6 launch was scheduled for 2025, but delays with Ariane 6 flight VA262 pushed things back. As of 2025, M-Argo is now slated for a 2027 launch, forcing a fresh review of the candidate asteroids.