The European Area Company (ESA) has awarded ispace-Europe a €65m contract to ship MAGPIE, Europe’s first lunar floor exploration mission, which can examine water ice and different volatiles on the Moon’s south pole.
The settlement was formally signed at ESA Area for Inspiration 2026 in Copenhagen by Daniel Neuenschwander, ESA’s Director of Human and Robotic Exploration, and Julien-Alexandre Lamamy, CEO of ispace-Europe.
The contract, awarded in July 2026, covers the remaining improvement and supply of MAGPIE.
The lunar rover is scheduled to launch in 2029 aboard ispace’s Mission 4 ULTRA lunar lander.
Its outcomes are anticipated to enhance understanding of the Moon’s south polar setting whereas offering knowledge that might assist form future useful resource prospecting and longer-duration lunar missions.
Neuenschwander highlighted the importance of the venture: “The Moon’s south pole is a key vacation spot for future exploration.
“By prospecting for water and different risky sources, MAGPIE will present vital information for the subsequent section of sustainable lunar exploration.
“As ESA’s first lunar rover and first mission a part of the Moon Discover initiative which goals at creating key capabilities in a extra agile and environment friendly means, MAGPIE demonstrates a brand new strategy to exploration.
“Combining formidable scientific and technological targets with a sooner, less expensive improvement mannequin, the mission brings collectively European experience and worldwide cooperation by our partnership with JAXA.”
Lunar rover to seek for water ice
MAGPIE, quick for Mission for Superior Geophysics and Polar Ice Exploration, will spend round 10 Earth days exploring the lunar south pole.
Its cell platform will carry a drill, risky analyser, ground-penetrating radar and neutron detector throughout completely different places and geological options.
By evaluating measurements from a number of websites, scientists will have the ability to examine how water ice, different volatiles, regolith and subsurface geology fluctuate throughout the area.
Some areas across the lunar poles stay completely shadowed, doubtlessly permitting water ice to outlive for very lengthy intervals. Understanding its distribution and properties is taken into account necessary for future exploration.
Water extracted from the lunar surface might ultimately assist longer-duration human missions and doubtlessly present sources for exploration deeper into the Photo voltaic System.
European consortium behind MAGPIE
Led by ispace-Europe in Luxembourg, the MAGPIE consortium brings collectively organisations from 5 European international locations, together with Technische Universität München, ESR Expertise, the Open College, RAL Area, the College of Oslo, and the Czech Technical College in Prague.
The €65m contract covers rover and payload improvement, manufacturing, testing, transportation to the lunar floor, mission operations and supply of scientific knowledge to ESA.
ispace-Europe will even construct on expertise from its TENACIOUS rover, which launched on ispace’s Mission 2 in 2025.
Lamamy says MAGPIE will assist combine European applied sciences into a whole lunar mission and develop the capabilities wanted for future human exercise on the Moon.
He added: “MAGPIE brings collectively a few of Europe’s main scientific and engineering experience round a shared ambition for the Moon.
“We’re proud to guide this consortium alongside ESA, combining business supply with world-class science to analyze the lunar south pole whereas constructing Europe’s operational functionality on the lunar floor.
“The information and expertise we construct by MAGPIE will prolong far past this mission, serving to to put the foundations for future lunar exploration missions globally.”
The mission will give Europe sensible expertise in working a lunar rover whereas producing knowledge that might information future useful resource prospecting, robotic exploration and sustained human exercise on the Moon.
