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[EN VIDÉO] ESA is exploring the possibility of 3D printing a lunar base With the advent of 3D printing, new design ideas are emerging. After proving that printing in space with lunar dust is possible, the European Space Agency (ESA) presents an ambitious project: a 3D printed base on the moon. Discover in the video how this surprising building could be built.
A few days ago we celebrated the Russian Yuri Gagarin, who became the first person to fly into space on April 12, 1961. Since that date, Russia had been a leading space power, but had lost its luster after the collapse of the USSR and subsequent halt to its space ambitions. Since then, it had regained its rank as the leading space power, but without ever becoming the number 1 it once was.
For the decade 2016-2025, it had launched an ambitious program that would allow it to regain its former glory with its expertise in human spaceflight and its impressive launch vehicles. It also intended to rely on numerous programs in collaboration, notably with NASA, China and the European Space Agency. This umpteenth program should make it possible, above all, to catch up in the area of space services and to compete better with the New Space sector.
And then she decides to attack Ukraine. We know the rest. The sanctions on entire parts of its economy in a very large number of sectors, including the space sector, could cost it much more than expected. In the space realm, this war is already having short-term effects, but also for the decades to come, mainly in space transportation, in orbital activities, and in cooperative exploration programs.
After Mars, ESA will not go to the moon with the Russians
After this aggression, the director of ESA launched a comprehensive review of all activities carried out in cooperation with Russia and Ukraine. After postponing the launch of ExoMars 2022 in order to find alternatives to what the Russians had to provide for the mission, the ESA Council took the decision on April 13 to end cooperative activities with Russia on the Luna 25 missions, 26 and 27
It should be noted that the expected acquisition of scientific and technological capabilities after deploying European equipment on Luna missions is a priority for ESA. The development of this equipment continues and it will fly on board other, non-Russian programs. In any case, these projects were difficult to manage, especially because of the multiple flight delays. Even before the Ukraine crisis, ESA was considering other flight options, mainly with NASA’s CLPS lunar program, which aims to contract out the transport of scientific instruments on lunar soil to private companies, and with the Lunar Polar Exploration- Mission of Japan and India.
Where and how is this advanced equipment used?
Specifically, Luna 27’s Prospect instrument, which must demonstrate the technical feasibility of using water ice for many purposes such as air, water and fuel supplies, will fly on a NASA CLPS mission. The pilot system, which implements technologies for navigation and avoidance of hazardous situations derived from the ATV program – and which is also based on studies of space debris – is strategic for ESA’s autonomy in the area of lunar exploration. Notably, it is used by the European Large Logistics Lander (EL3), which can transport up to 1.7 tons of cargo to any location on the lunar surface. Therefore, the pilot’s navigation camera, dubbed Pilot-D, will fly and be tested aboard a private CLPS mission.
As for Pilot, the complete system designed to allow Luna-25 and Luna-27 to land with very high precision, ESA is considering using it on another mission.
In addition, ESA’s Director General and the President of the Japan Space Agency (JAXA) have signed an agreement to transport ESA’s Exospheric Mass Spectrometer (EMS) aboard the Lunar Mobile Lupex robotic mission, which will be jointly operated by Jaxa and Isro.
ESA wants to explore the moon with Russia
Article by Rémy Decourt published on 09/13/2016
The European Space Agency’s lunar exploration program, discreetly, exists. ESA is said to be cooperating on three Russian lunar missions and their role is anything but anecdotal, as Bérengère Houdou of ESA’s Lunar Exploration Office tells us.
Today, the European Space Agency does not hide its lunar ambitions and in particular its amazing vision of a village on the moon. For now, the idea remains vague and should not be taken literally. “The term ‘moon village’ does not mean that we will build houses, schools and a town hall on the moon,” Franco Bonacina, spokesman for ESA’s Director General, recently told us. It’s less about building a city than allowing each partner to bring their own twist with different systems and different missions and maybe multiple locations. While they await the realization of this village, “ESA is cooperating with Russia on three missions as part of a partnership with Roscosmos, its space agency,” explains Bérengère Houdou of ESA’s Lunar Exploration Office.
This interest in the moon is not new. Until 2012, the European Space Agency was working on the technologies of a robotic lunar lander, with a view to a European mission that should prepare new manned flights to the moon in the near future. The idea at the time was to allow Europe to learn how to land on the surface of our satellite, but also on other bodies in the solar system, “as was the case with the Huygens mission, which landed successfully on Titan in January 2005, and will be with the Schiaparelli lander of the ExoMars 2016 mission, scheduled to land on the Red Planet in October”. Going further back in Esa’s history, we cite the Euromoon 2000 program. It planned for the year 2000 to land a lander and install a small satellite in orbit to accurately map a region of the South Pole with a view and then a to place the lunar module there, anticipating the establishment of an outpost for human exploration. Back in 1996, this program took over the concept of the Elspex 2000 mission (European Lunar South Pole Expedition), which ESA had abandoned at the time and which planned to land on the moon in the summer of 2001.
The moon in focus
Despite the abandonment of these projects, the ideas persisted. Since the arrival of Johann-Dietrich Wörner, ESA’s new director in July 2015, the lunar pull within the agency is stronger than ever and the idea of a major lunar exploration that would precede a full-scale exploration of Mars is taking shape. This will be accomplished through “significant participation in Russia’s robotic lunar program and prospective studies examining future scenarios of manned exploration that could replace the space station.” This involvement in the Russian program is accomplished notably through “delivery of the very sophisticated pilot lunar landing system for the Russian Luna Resource Lander mission (Luna-27), which is scheduled to be launched in 2021, as well as an on-site analysis of prospect samples and a drill” .
Pilot (Precise and Intelligent Landing using Onboard Technologies), as it is called, “will be able to achieve a very high level of analysis and decision-making autonomy that has never been seen before”. This system is designed for precision landing with obstacle detection to make hard-to-reach places like the South Pole accessible. With this mission, the Russians and Europeans plan to “land in unexplored regions to take stock of natural resources that could subsequently be used for manned missions.” Pilot will use innovative technologies that enable real-time field analysis. He will be able to create his own elevation maps and use them in the final minutes of Luna-27’s landing phase. It will determine its own landing field compatible with the lander “autonomously and without the intervention of ground controllers”, taking into account numerous parameters. For example, up to an altitude of a few hundred meters, it will be able to detect slopes that are too steep and obstacles that are too large, allowing Luna-27 to “reprogram its final trajectory at the last moment.” If Pilot’s lunar experiment proves successful in the future, it could be adapted to the needs of other missions, e.g. B. A landing on Ceres, Project Nautilus.
Bring lunar samples back to Earth
Luna-27’s landing site has not yet been determined, but we do know that it will have very special light properties and will be at the South Pole. With grazing sunlight combined with the region’s topography littered with impact craters, the South Pole is home to many “illuminated areas, some for much of the day or others permanently shrouded in shadow.”
The Prospect Laboratory (Platform for Resource Observation and In-Situ Prospecting for Exploration, Commercial Exploration and Transportation) is a system consisting of a “drill designed to drill samples from the lunar soil to a depth of two meters possibly at a temperature of -170°C and scientific instruments to carry out their analysis”. This drill will be derived from that of the ExoMars 2020 rover, which will use it to extract samples from the Martian soil. In a next step, the Prospect data help assess the “feasibility of utilizing local resources and, why not, exploiting them commercially that may be of interest to the private sector”.
Before Luna-27, Russia plans to launch Luna-Glob (Luna-25) in 2019. “It is also a lander, but a demonstration that must show that Russia is capable of going to the moon in complete safety land.” ESA’s contribution to this mission is modest. “She will test the navigation camera, which will then be used by the Luna-27 pilot system to land gently. This camera, which has no scientific use, is only used for landing. These images are used by the lander to know where it is in relation to the lunar surface.
In the longer term, the European Space Agency has expressed interest in “participating in a robotic mission to return lunar samples that could be carried out in collaboration with Russia and other partners.” The idea will, of course, be to use the pilot and prospect’s technical experience, but also to develop technologies that make it possible to “bring samples back by keeping them in the temperature conditions in which they were taken”.
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