Thales Alenia Space has signed an €862 million contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop the Argonaut Lunar Lander, which will deliver cargo, infrastructure and scientific instruments to the moon’s surface.
The Lander’s propulsion module will be built, tested and assembled in Thales’ Space Manufacturing and Assembly facility in Belfast. The propulsion module will power the Argonaut Lunar Lander allowing it to ascend and descend to the moon’s surface, carrying its cargo of scientific instruments, rovers, and much more, which will assure European autonomous access to the moon.
The Argonaut spacecraft consists of three main elements: the lunar descent element (LDE) for flying to the Moon and landing on the target, the cargo platform one, which is the interface between the lander and its payload, and finally, the element that the mission designers want to send to the Moon.
Thales Alenia Space is the prime contractor for the development of the Lunar Descent Element. The overall mission responsibility, ie the use of the LDE and integration with payload, will be the subject of a separate procurement in the future. The Lunar Descent Element is an independent architecture block of the international lunar exploration activities, namely a versatile system to support a variety of missions.
The announcement has been welcomed with excitement by Northern Ireland’s space industry. Robert Hill, NI SPACE cluster manager added; “This news is testament to the quality and credibility of Northern Ireland’s space sector, which has steadily expanded through collaboration between industry, academia, and the public sector. The most exciting part is—we’re going to the moon! In the next five to ten years, we will see propulsion modules from Northern Ireland landing on the moon’s surface, and we will also see the region’s first ESA astronaut taking flight into space after Rosemary Coogan completed her training last year. That’s a major achievement and something that would have seemed impossible just five years ago.”
“Argonaut lunar lander means a lot to our company” said Hervé Derrey, Thales Alenia Space CEO. “Thanks to this astonishing space vehicle, tons of cargo will be delivered to the Moon’s surface, including rovers, scientific missions and many more. This new element of the Artemis program will serve at facilitating long- duration manned lunar exploration missions and will be crucial to increase European autonomy in lunar exploration. The Moon will also serve as a stepping stone for crewed missions into deep space, with Mars being the next stage of the journey. I wanted to express my gratitude to ESA for awarding this new contract to our company. Today’s major achievement strengthens more than ever Thales Alenia Space’s leading positions in the fields of space transportation systems, orbital infrastructures and space exploration”.
“We are truly honored that ESA has renewed its trust in our company by awarding Thales Alenia Space this major contract to develop the European lunar lander that will enable Europe to access autonomously to the Moon’s surface”, said Giampiero Di Paolo, Deputy CEO and Senior Vice President, Observation, Exploration and Navigation at Thales Alenia Space. “Today, with its longstanding expertise in space exploration infrastructure and vehicles, our company, in line with ESA’s and ASI’s visions, has decided to enhance its competitiveness by investing in the development of technological solutions to help Europe achieve its goals. Supplying a significant proportion of the International Space Station’s pressurized volume, playing a major role on board Artemis, manufacturing the backbone of Orion’s European service module and leading flagship transportation programs such as IXV or Space Rider, Thales Alenia Space is more than ever at the forefront of exploration and space transportation systems”.