The growth of the human population, industrialization of developing countries and rising living standards for the population are continuously increasing global energy demand, that in the next 30 years is forecast to double.

The European Charging Station for the Moon is a proposed payload for future use in the next phases of establishing human presence on the Moon, envisioned to provide power to multiple Users on the lunar surface.

Mars Ice Access Mission is a key robotic precursor mission to future human exploration planning. It is part of ESA’s Exploration Programme, named “Terrae Novae”, encompassing all ESA’s human and robotic activities related to the exploration and utilisation of Earth Orbit, Moon and Mars. The “Mars Ice Access Mission Study” is a Pre-Phase A level study. The objective of the study was to propose a preliminary design of a mission aiming to:

The AERODEM is an ESA demonstration mission that will implement an aerocapture phase in order to provide an atmospheric ∆V instead of a standard chemical one for orbiting a SpaceCraft around Mars. The aerocapture technique currently studied relies on a discrete event drag modulation technique that modifies only once the aerocapture module ballistic coefficient by separating / retracting the heatshield.

An interplanetary probe must decelerate from a hyperbolic interplanetory trajectory to an orbital trajectory when it arrives at its destination. Currently, this maneuvre is achieved using chemical propulsion, which means that propellant makes up a significant fraction of the vehicle mass. Aerocapture is an alternative concept that instead uses aerodynamic drag from the athmosphere of the planet to decelerate the arriving spacecraft.

The European Charging Station for the Moon (ECSM) is to be integrated within the EL3 Architecture, which provides the function of transportation of ECSM to the lunar surface. The Power Station mission is envisaged as possible EL3 payload and it aims at providing power, at a strategic location on the lunar surface, during lunar day and night to ESA and International partner assets. It is in line with the envisioned international lunar exploration architecture.

The Mars Weather Network Mission is a key precursor mission to future human exploration planning which consists of two orbiting spacecraft and four Lander together these will provide a comprehensive understanding of weather patterns at Mars.

During this Phase 0 maturation study, ASUK, with the support of Thales Alenia Space (TAS), Nammo, MDA and GMV, performed a programmatic, business and technical assessment of a future low-Earth orbit (LEO) refuelling mission. The mission concept proposes developing and demonstrating core technologies in a preliminary service offering to enable a commercial in-orbit refuelling service. Such a service will swiftly redefine how satellites are designed and operated, launching a dynamic and sustainable in-orbit ecosystem with significant potential.

In the frame of an In Orbit Servicing Maturation Phase (IOSMP) contract, this maturation study has been realised on the START-€ solution which is proposed to extend the lifetime of geostationary orbit (GEO) communication satellites. The START-€ servicer spacecraft will first demonstrate on a GEO communication satellite its ability to perform the critical operations related to its mission, before proceeding with several commercial life extension missions by capturing and taking the AOCS control of aged client spacecraft.

The Sun regularly releases considerable amounts of energy resulting in coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and accelerated particles, which can have a variety of adverse space weather effects at Earth and in the near-Earth environment. A useful means of tracking space weather activity is via solar radio bursts (SRBs) associated with CMEs and solar energetic particle events (SEPs); CME-driven shocks can be tracked via Type II SRBs, while energetic electrons escaping into the heliosphere can be tracked via Type III SRBs.