Europe is “on board for the return to the Moon” with LUNA, its installation simulating the surface of our satellite, welcomes astronaut Thomas Pesquet in an interview with AFP, for whom participating in a lunar mission would be “a dream”.
The Frenchman tested this “unique in the world” installation on Wednesday at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne, which reproduces the lunar environment and should make it possible to train astronauts and test the equipment that will one day go to the Moon.
QUESTION: How was your first “outing”?
ANSWER: With Matthias (Maurer, another astronaut from the European Space Agency, editor’s note), we rehearsed what a trip to the surface of the Moon would look like in 25 kg spacesuits with equipment for geology, communication, for deploy antennas, analyze rocks…
What surprised me is the grazing light that will be on the Moon, especially at the South Pole. We have a lot of difficulty evaluating the relief, with this regolith (the thick layer of dust which covers the lunar surface, editor’s note), where we are sinking. As soon as we got off the path, finding where to put our feet was a different story.
What is striking is also the slowness. We are not on Earth, we are much less skilled. It reminded me of my spacewalks on the International Space Station (ISS).
Q: What does the inauguration of LUNA represent for European ambitions?
A: This is a bit of a pivotal moment for Europe because we are really embarking on lunar exploration. We have already made commitments with NASA on quite a few supplies of elements and equipment for Artemis (the American program to return to the Moon, editor’s note). But LUNA is really the first very visible mark of the fact that, that’s it, we are embarked for the return to the Moon.
We prove it by investing in things that will last for the long term. We are going to open this installation to other space agencies, researchers and, we also hope, to private companies.
Q: Can LUNA strengthen the chances of Europeans being among those who will actually set foot on the Moon?
A: Our participation in the American Artemis program – essentially the service module of the Orion capsule which will allow astronauts to go to the Moon – gives us three places on the first three missions. But these are missions around the Moon. NASA tells us +to go down to the Moon, we have to propose something that can be done on the surface+. The Japanese have a pressurized rover and we have a lander that we hope to use to have a say. LUNA is not something contractual, but it allows us to show our will.
Q: Is the Moon a personal goal for you?
A: Yes. In my generation of astronauts, recruited in 2009, we all did one or two missions to the ISS, we all stayed between 100 and 400 days in space. Now we want to go further, that’s normal. It would be the dream and the culmination of a career. The Moon is still 1,000 times further away than the ISS. When you go to the ISS, you feel like you’re doing something unusual. But going to the Moon is yet another level of adventure.
Q: For an astronaut of your generation, born after the last Apollo missions, what did the Moon represent?
A: It probably wasn’t as strong for us as it was for previous generations. Which is liberating, because we didn’t enter our careers saying to ourselves ‘we’ll never do as well anyway’. We only looked towards the future. And ISS missions are a lot of work! For almost 10 years, I had my head in the handlebars and when I started to breathe in 2022-2023, the lunar missions arrived. It’s a phenomenal opportunity.
Q: Are you already training for this?
A: We are training, but it is a goal that is both quite distant and diffuse. We don’t know exactly what we will do. Are we training to be at the controls of the Orion ship or to go down to the surface? These are completely different missions. We also lack a lot of material elements to be able to train. So, we are ready.
