The European Space Agency (ESA) moon challenge: Pandeia team technical report

• Main Authors: Manuel Entrena Utrilla, Carlos, Soni, Anushree, Punch, Orla, Oliveira, Marta, Aliaj, Bora, Gasquez Garcia, Oriol, Musilova, Michaela, Hussein, Alaa
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: European Space Agency (ESA) 2015
• Subjects: HE9719 Artificial satellite telecommunications; T0059.7 Human engineering in industry. Man-machine systems; TA0168 Systems engineering; TJ0212 Control engineering systems. Automatic machinery (General); South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/58844/; http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/58844/1/The%20European%20Space%20Agency%20%28ESA%29%20Moon%20Challenge_Pandeia%20Team%20Technical%20Report.pdf; http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/58844/2/The%20European%20Space%20Agency%20%28ESA%29%20Moon%20Challenge_Pandeia%20Team%20Members.jpg

The ESA Moon Challenge was an International Student Contest that focused on human-robotic partnership for lunar exploration as part of the Symposium Moon 2020-2030: A new Era of Human and Robotic Exploration. The Challenge required participants to design mission scenarios for ESA’s HERACLES study. The Pandeia proposal aims to establish the groundwork for permanent human presence and exploration of the Moon through a cost reduction approach, focused on reusability and in situ resource utilization (ISRU). The proposal consists of four trips to the lunar surface in a landing site near the South Pole. These trips are a progressive and realistic set of technology development and demonstration missions, which build the basics for a lunar ISRU infrastructure and eventually lead to the resumption of human operations on the lunar surface. The diversity of the Pandeia Team, formed by alumni of the International Space University, allowed the team to cover many of the most important aspects of the problem, from science goals and engineering to outreach considerations.