a symbol. It is the day of a total eclipse of the Moon, Monday, January 21, at dawn, that Europe is announcing its intention to launch a lunar mission in its own. Of course, well after the United States who will celebrate in July 2019 on the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission and the first man on the Moon. But with the ambition to contribute to the new rush on the satellite of the Earth and to show its willingness to act sovereign in the field of exploitation and exploration of space.
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the First step of this large project, the launch of a feasibility study, with a budget of 1 million euros. It has been entrusted to ArianeGroup, the manufacturer of the european rocket Ariane, the european space Agency (ESA). The industrial work in the framework of a “consortium innovative” to the sides of PT Scientists, a start-up German, who planchera on the future alunisseur, and Space Applications Services, a belgian SME in charge of the ground segment, communication systems and ancillary services.
“The industry is facing a technological challenge, with solutions of transport logistics and operation of the lunar soil. And it must tackle a business challenge because it is a service that we want to buy”
ArianeGroup will have to offer a transport solution. “We have the launcher to go on the Moon, it is the Ariane 6, and precisely the version 64, which is able to take the 8.5-ton orbiting cislunaire (the space around the Earth to the lunar orbit, editor’s NOTE). We will have to adapt the upper part of the Ariane 6 to the mission and the dropping of the little robot lunar,” says André-Hubert Roussel, chief executive officer of ArianeGroup. The decision to launch this first mission robotic european should be taken in 2022 from the perspective of a start before 2025.
ArianeGroup and its partners must issue their conclusions within a year. “The ESA does not build the spaceship but wants to buy tickets to the Moon. The industry is facing a technological challenge, with solutions of transport logistics and operation of the lunar soil. And it must tackle a business challenge because it is a service that we want to buy,” says David Parker, head of robotic Exploration and human to the ESA.
Send european astronauts
“The study needs to say in what conditions the exploitation of the resources of the lunar soil could be used to supply water, oxygen, fuel, etc.) the missions of the space exploration of other planets. Which would transport these resources from the Earth and reduce costs,” says David Parker. Carry a kilo between the Earth and the international space Station (ISS), located 400 km altitude in low earth orbit, expected to cost between 250 and 300 euros.
The Ariane 6, currently under development by ArianeGroup. Arianegroup
The next step will be to send european astronauts on the Moon, aboard an Ariane 6 who “will adapt” – in order to explore and exploit the surface over long periods of time. To this effect, a village lunar – idea promoted for years by Jan Woerner, director general of the ESA – would be built to maintain a permanent human presence.
2019 is a crucial year for Europe, which will have to decide if she wants to be a credible actor and ruler in space in the decades to come. Certainly, Europe is engaged in the lunar adventure, and tomorrow mars, via co-operation. ESA will participate to the construction, from 2019, of the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, a space station in orbit around the Moon, created by Nasa. Europe has delivered, at the end of 2018, Orion, the service module, capsule, a manned Nasa. But Europe must exist autonomously in the space operation, monitoring, protection, and exploration are (and will be) crucial for its economy but also the safety and future of its citizens.
