The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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Efforts to explore the Moon have substantially grown recently, partly because it is a convenient place to develop the technologies and capabilities needed for people to explore deep space.
As a result a new lunar economy is emerging, which presents opportunities involving robots, habitat and transportation, as well as the provision of communications and navigation services.
Although space agencies remain the driving force behind space exploration, private companies are entering the market as well as public-private partnerships.
For the past three years ESA has been working along with industrial partners to explore the lunar market. It has identified the demand for a communication and navigation service to support the ongoing and future lunar missions.
All the proposed missions to the Moon share similar communications and navigation needs that could be satisfied by a commercial service provider.
The lunar satellites would provide communication and navigation signals for all these missions, ensuring adequate positioning services and constant connectivity for ground control and for scientists on Earth.
ESA is conducting deeper analysis of the lunar market and further elaborate possible solutions, both technical and business-related, to provide communications and navigation services for the Moon, as part of an initiative called Moonlight.