Main Engine Cut OffESA Plans Euro-Russian Lunar Exploration to Go Beyond Apollo
More good signs for ESA’s exploration plans:
Parker and Norman Bone, managing director of airborne and space systems at Italy’s Leonardo-Finmeccanica, signed a contract valued at slightly more than 8 million euros ($9 million) to develop a prototype for ESA’s Prospect drill and laboratory. Prospect is scheduled to fly aboard Russia’s Luna-Resurs mission, formerly in 2020 and now scheduled to launch in 2021.
A full construction contract for the Prospect drill, which Leonardo is developing with Britain’s Open University, is expected in 2018. The hardware is designed to penetrate more than 1 meter below the lunar surface to look for water.
ESA will be asking its member states in December to a full-blown exploration program that encompasses ESA’s participation in the International Space Station and both the lunar and Mars exploration initiatives.
Whatever decisions come out of the ESA’s December meeting should be exciting.