OffWorld Europe and the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) have recently signed a pivotal agreement to launch a comprehensive, multi-year development program for an In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) processing system focused on ice resources. This system will play a vital role in facilitating sustainable lunar exploration by enabling the extraction, processing, and storage of vital resources directly from the Moon’s surface. The project, which is under the oversight of the European Space Agency, will leverage OffWorld’s cutting-edge robotic modules that are capable of carrying out a range of functions, including prospecting, mining, processing, storing and delivering oxygen, hydrogen, and other volatiles to customers on the lunar surface. The program is already underway, and the first demonstration mission on the lunar surface is slated for 2027.
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OffWorld Europe and Luxembourg Space Agency Collaborate in New Lunar ISRU Exploration Program (Photo: Business Wire)
OffWorld’s state-of-the-art swarm robotic systems will be utilized to transport the processing modules into a permanently shadowed region on the lunar surface where water ice is thought to form and accumulate. OffWorld Europe’s objective is to process all excavated critical material, developing capabilities to process lunar volatiles and dry regolith into valuable consumables such as life support gases, propellants, and water supplies for radiation protection, hydroponics, and other life support systems.
This project has the potential to catapult the space industry forward and pave the way for human expansion into the rest of the solar system, while also benefiting life here on Earth by driving innovation in robotics, technology, and resource processing. OffWorld deployed the world’s first autonomous excavation robot in an operating mine and is now the first company to have secured…
