Motorsport fans explore space at festival of speed
Thousands of motorsport enthusiasts at the UK's Goodwood Festival of Speed are discovering how ESA is gearing up for a new era of missions to the Moon.
Goodwood is the world's biggest celebration of automotive culture but its remit extends far beyond Earthbound transport to include spacefaring vehicles designed to push the boundaries of science and exploration.
This year, visitors to the festival’s Future Lab exhibition are being greeted by a scale model of ESA's planned Argonaut lander, an autonomous lunar delivery vehicle that is set to play a major role in future activities on the Moon.
The Argonaut replica is accompanied by several ESA engineers who are overseeing the lander’s development.
Argonaut is one of ESA’s planned contributions to NASA’s Artemis programme, which aims to return humans to the Earth’s natural satellite by the end of the decade, setting the stage for the establishment of a thriving lunar economy and the development of technologies that could enable expeditions further into deep space.
Capable of transporting more than 2000 kg of cargo from Earth to any given location on the lunar surface, the lander will support this emerging sustainable lunar ecosystem by facilitating scientific research and ensuring the reliable delivery of supplies for astronaut habitats.
It will be sent to the Moon on ESA’s next-generation Ariane 6 launch vehicle and, once in space, it will be supported by an off-planet communications and navigation system developed as part of ESA’s Moonlight programme, which is led from ESA’s facility in the UK.
ESA is joined by a wide range of innovative companies at the Future Lab, including Epic Games, which is showcasing the first stage of a special lunar project for the videogame Fortnite.
Developed in collaboration with ESA, the game includes the Argonaut lander and is set near the Moon’s south pole.
In preparation for future missions, ESA is building applications to test operations and train crews on the same software platform used for Fortnite.
ESA’s space science activities are also being featured at the Future Lab.
Science teams from the University of Sussex and the University of Oxford are presenting spectacular imagery of distant galaxies delivered by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, which has just completed its first year of scientific operations.
The teams are also highlighting future science applications of the recently launched Euclid mission to investigate the nature of dark matter and dark energy.
The Goodwood Festival of Speed is taking place from 13 to 16 July.