Engineers from Łukasiewicz – Industrial Institute for Automation and Measurements (PIAP) are among the five finalists in the competition organized by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Space Resources Innovation Center (ESRIC) in Luxembourg. The aim of the competition is to propose and test a robotic system for the exploration of raw materials on the Moon, in order to enable the future exploitation of extraterrestrial resources.

The engineers of the Łukasiewicz – PIAP Research Network have developed a mobile platform weighing 100 kilograms, intended for visual recognition of the area. A special version of the robot was developed on the basis of the PIAP Patrol platform. In July 2021, this robot was submitted to the Space Resources Challenge. After the selection stage, Łukasiewicz – PIAP was one of 13 institutions from Europe and Canada selected to participate in the next stage of the competition, which took place in November 2021 in the Netherlands. On a test track specially prepared by ESA that reflected the lunar environment, the participants had to overcome a terrain obstacle course within a specified time and identify as many interesting geological structures as possible.

After the evaluation of the competition committee, the Łukasiewicz – PIAP project was among the five finalists who will receive funding to improve their solution and test it again in a similar test, in September 2022. The final winner will be given the opportunity to further develop the technology and become part of the ESA supply chain for future lunar exploration.

The finalist should deliver ready-made elements that, along with the complete system, will be launched to the south pole region of the Moon in 2029 as part of the European Large Logistic Lander mission. This is one of the currently planned lunar missions, along with the famous Artemis mission aiming to build a transit and research station at the south pole of the Moon.

Adrian Andrzejewski