Reserve Pool of Science Activities for the Moon: A SciSpacE Announcement of Opportunity

ESA invites the science and research community to submit innovative science research activities that can be undertaken at the Moon.

Selected activities will be entered into a reserve pool enabling the capability to respond adeptly and timely to emerging near-term lunar flight opportunities.

Emphasis is on European payloads that are capable of being developed to flight readiness within 3 years of an identified compatible flight opportunity.

“Science in Space Environment” (SciSpacE) is part of ESA’s European Exploration Envelope (E3P) programme within the Human and Robotic Spaceflight Exploration (HRE) Directorate.

SciSpacE prepares and delivers ambitious science activities across varied research platforms including the International Space Station (ISS); ground-based space analogue facilities, e.g., including bedrest studies, Antarctica Concordia station, radiation facilities, drop tower, sounding rockets, parabolic flights; and is expanding to include beyond low Earth orbit (BLEO) destinations, i.e., Lunar orbit, Moon and Mars.

SciSpacE fosters multidisciplinary science activities across the domains of Life Sciences (health and biology), Planetary Sciences and Physical Sciences, with an emphasis on scientific excellence, innovation, and space and exploration research-relevance. As well as delivering world class science, SciSpacE research activities are supporting Europe’s economy, preparing responsible future human and robotic space exploration, and delivering solutions to challenges on Earth and in space.

To advance and further enhance ESA’s strong SciSpacE research programme, a new Announcement of Opportunity (AO) is released titled: Reserve Pools of Science Activities for LEO and Moon. This joint AO is composed of two parallel campaigns for the ISS and the Moon.

The ISS Campaign can be accessed here.