The European Space Agency has published a call for the development of very large solar array technology for use aboard the agency’s European Charging Station for the Moon (ECSM) system.
In 2021, ESA’s Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) completed an initial study of the ECSM concept. The CDF is a multidisciplinary team within the agency that works to accelerate the design of future space missions.
ESA envisions ECSM as providing power at a strategic location on the lunar surface during both the lunar day and night for the agency’s own missions and those of its international partners. The agency also examined the system as the basis of a power grid on the Moon, which will be essential for the development of the lunar economy.
ECSM would be launched as an Argonaut payload, a large multiuse lunar lander being developed by ESA. The lander would be launched aboard an Ariane 64 with a mass of around 10,000 kilograms and a diameter of 4.5 metres. The development of Argonaut was approved at the ESA ministerial council meeting in late 2022. At the time, the agency said that it foresaw launching five Argonaut missions in the next decade. According to the agency, these missions will begin “from the 2030s.”
Following the initial ECSM study, the agency awarded contracts to Thales Alenia Space Italia and Brussels-based Space Applications Services for a pair of pre-phase A studies that were completed between 2022 and 2023.
The publishing of the Very Large Solar Array (VLSA) project on 26 April represents the most recent development for the ECSM initiative. The project calls for a critical review of the technology that would allow for the construction and deployment on the Moon of solar arrays with widths above 10 metres capable of producing more than 60 kW of power. In addition to its use on the Moon, the call requires the system to be reviewed for use on the surface of Mars.
