EU-funded LUVMI lunar rover could open new horizons in space exploration

A lunar exploration conference hosted by the Research Executive Agency brought together scientists, industry experts, decision-makers and the public in a discussion on the opportunities and challenges for lunar science, technology for exploration and lunar payload accommodation prospects.

The main protagonist of the ‘Lunar Exploration Renaissance’ conference was the Lunar Volatiles Mobile Instrument (LUVMI), a revolutionary 45 kgs rover developed under a REA managed Horizon 2020 project. The lightweight rover could make missions to the Moon more feasible, help untap sources of extra-terrestrial water and open up new possibilities for fuelling future space missions and satellites.

To achieve this, LUVMI is designed to explore the Polar Regions of the Moon and to drive into a Permanently Shadowed Region (PSR), which appears to contain large amounts of water. The latter is fundamental to pave the way towards reducing dependence on non-renewable resources on Earth and leading to sustainable practices.

Upcoming lunar and other space missions will also ask for better ways of handling and analysing the material. LUVMI’s  state-of-the-art technology can analyse samples in situ and a Europe-wide facility to store extra-terrestrial samples will help to protect moon samples from contamination and increase their usability in scientific experiments. The data collected will allow greater exploration of space, including to prepare for manned-missions to Mars.

The project team, led by Space Applications Services NV/SA in Belgium, hopes that LUVMI could be sent to look at the characteristics of the moon’s water ice – the existence of which was confirmed last year – as well as the chemicals in the crust and atmosphere, known as volatiles.

The rover could also explore ways to extract oxygen and water for use by humans and as fuel by vehicles and satellites, potentially aiding future missions. “We expect this to be a kind of exponential effect – that once you can extract resources, these enable many things that can help you extract more resources and expand into the solar system,” says Diego Urbina from the project team.

Recently, LUVMI researchers successfully tested a 60 kg prototype on the Noordwijk coast in the Netherlands. The aim of this test was to observe the rover’s autonomous performance in navigating dangerous obstacles and moon-like surfaces. LUVMI is expected to be ready for the Moon by the mid-2020s.

Curious about the project? Read more and test your lunar driving skills through the LUVMI simulator.