Space propulsion company Nammo UK announced earlier this week that it had submitted a bid to supply the main engine of the European Space Agency’s Argonaut lunar lander.
Argonaut is designed to be a multi-use lander that will carry between 1,500 and 1,800 kilograms of cargo and experiments to the surface of the Moon. Initial development of Argonaut was approved by ESA member states in late 2022, and a maiden flight of the lunar lander is expected by 2031.
There are currently two likely candidates for the main engine that will power Europe’s premier lunar lander in the coming decade. The first is the Nammo UK RELIANCE (Rocket Engine for Lunar and Interplanetary Anglo Norwegian Commercial Exploration) engine, which the company has confirmed it submitted for consideration. The engine is capable of generating 6 kN of thrust and, as of May 2024, has completed several test firings.
The second engine being considered is the ArianeGroup SPE-T (Space Propulsion Engine – Throttleable) engine, which is based on the BERTA engine demonstrator that was developed under the ESA Future Launchers Preparatory Programme. In June, ArianeGroup announced that it had completed a hot fire test campaign of a pre-development model of the engine using hypergolic propellants. According to the company, the flight version of the engine will make use of green propellants.
Both proposals are currently being considered by a Technical Evaluation Board.
