Advances in the ESA-DLR LUNA Analog Facility: Updates on Users’ Testing and Facility Development

Kurzfassung

The Artemis era has begun with the Artemis I mission in 2022: since then, NASA is working eagerly to bring back humans on the lunar surface with the Artemis III mission planned in September 2026. This renewed interest in our natural satellite since the Apollo times is spinning the wheel of innovation in many technology sectors. New partnerships and paradigms are constantly being born, especially with the involvement of private investors, thus opening the doors for a new commercial era. This revolution of the space sector is also affecting Europe, where consolidated institutions and new players are investing a considerable amount of resources. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the European Space Agency (ESA) have recently partnered to build a worldwide-unique lunar analog facility named LUNA. The facility has been constructed onto the premises of the DLR Cologne campus and it is fully integrated with the operational network of the European Astronaut Centre (EAC), the German Space Operations Center (GSOC), and the Microgravity User Support Center (MUSC). The ultimate goal of the facility is to close the gaps between analog field activities and lab testing, offering to international partners, industries, research institutions, start-ups and universities a cutting-edge platform able to fully simulate on ground realistic Moon conditions such as dust, reduce gravity and peculiar lighting scenarios. The 700 m2 regolith testbed area allows full robotic systems’ operations and lunar Extravehicular Activities (EVAs) simulations. The realism of such activities is further enhanced by a dedicated ground segment, already connected with the existing control centres of the International Space Station (ISS) and the forthcoming lunar Gateway ones. Training astronauts, maturing technologies, deploying infrastructures, and testing new operational concepts in analog campaigns are the key features of LUNA that allow derisking before flying to the lunar surface. With the official inauguration of the facility in September 2024, this work presents the first results obtained during the first users’ campaigns focused on human and robotic interactions. The scientific objectives and the resulting lessons learnt are presented, including a complete outlook of the utilization scenarios envisaged