A Paris-based company wants to send a scientific mission to the moon before 2025.
ArianeGroup said it has signed a one-year contract with the European Space Agency to study the possibility of preparing a mission, with the aim of mining regolith.
ArianeGroup to study a Moon mission for @esa! 🚀🌙 See the press release here: https://t.co/SoEo75BLUb
— ArianeGroup (@ArianeGroup) January 21, 2019
The company said “regolith is an ore from which it is possible to extract water and oxygen, thus enabling an independent human presence on the moon to be envisaged, capable of producing the fuel needed for more distant exploratory missions”.
ArianeGroup said the mission would not involve sending men back to the moon.