ESA invites private space companies to create shared services for future Moon missions

The next decade promises to be an exciting period for lunar exploration, with multiple public and private missions setting their sights on the Moon. In view of this development, the European Space Agency (ESA) is inviting space companies in Europe and Canada to create shared services, which would reduce design complexity and make them lighter and more cost-efficient.

ESA is working on the Moonlight initiative that seeks to create a shared telecommunication and navigation service for future lunar missions by encouraging space companies to put a constellation of satellites around the Moon. Following their launch, the satellites will be carried into lunar orbit by a space tug and deployed one by one, eventually forming a constellation of lunar satellites.

According to the agency, science missions using Moonlight will be able to live stream high-quality video, increasing the volume of data and the speed of transfer, enabling better science to be done.

Additionally, Moonlight receivers installed on Lunar rovers will enable them to navigate the lunar surface autonomously with great precision, enhancing mission opportunities and potential applications, and lowering their associated risk and cost.

ESA said that almost 100 firms spanning the whole value chain have shown their interest in becoming involved in its ambitious project.

ESA is inviting private space companies in Europe and Canada to create a shared commercial telecommunication and navigation service for lunar missions by putting a constellation of satellites around the Moon 👉https://t.co/kCK0xcE9wE pic.twitter.com/yUR6nFaHJq

— ESA Telecommunications (@EsaTelecoms) February 27, 2023

ESA is already working on the Lunar Pathfinder mission that will provide communications services around the Moon. It will include a navigation payload demonstrator, which will allow positioning in lunar orbit using GPS and Galileo systems for the first time. The Lunar Pathfinder project is a first step towards the agency's ambitious Moonlight vision to create a network of communications and data relay satellites serving users worldwide.