Belgian aerospace company Space Applications Services, based in Zaventem, plans to send the first Belgian rover to the Moon in early 2029.
The company said on Wednesday that its LUVMI-M rover will travel to the Moon’s south pole aboard the MK1 lunar lander built by US company Blue Origin.
According to Space Applications Services, this will be the first fully operational commercial lunar rover mission led by a European company.
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The rover was entirely designed and built in Zaventem and will also be operated from Belgium.
Its mission will include searching for volatile substances such as water ice and helium-3, mapping the geological and geotechnical properties of lunar dust, or regolith, recording seismic activity on the Moon, and studying plasma physics and particle interactions.
LUVMI-M will also demonstrate navigation, communication and other technologies needed for future lunar missions. The project is being financed entirely on a commercial basis.
Space Applications Services said it will become the first European company to offer access to the Moon “as a service”, allowing businesses, researchers and other organisations to use the rover and its data without having to develop a full lunar mission themselves.
“With LUVMI-M, we are not only bringing Belgian technology to the Moon, we are also taking an important step in the development of lunar exploration,” said Richard Aked, chief executive of Space Applications Services.
The company is aiming to launch new missions every two years, using different LUVMI rovers with increasing levels of autonomy and robotic capability.
Space Applications Services said it sees these successive missions as a stepping stone towards sustainable scientific and industrial activity on the Moon.
