[The Mona Luna, a large lunar rover concept developed by Venturi Space for ESA]
[Solar panels on Mona Luna]
[Unveiling ceremony for Mona Luna, a large lunar rover concept developed by Venturi Space for ESA]
[French astronaut Jean-François Clervoy talking at ceremony]
[Mona Luna being unveiled]
[Antonio Delfino, Director of Space Affairs, Venturi Space, talking at ceremony]
[Venturi Space, ESA and CNES logos on lunar rover]
Antonio Delfino (interview): “So the technologies associated to the rover are quite innovative, because nobody was interested in a massive rover. If we develop a lunar economy one day on the moon, you need mobility. It’s like it was the case in Europe, around the world, 100 years ago. Mobility is very important to transport goods, transport persons. So if you want really to exploit the moon, to mine the moon, because the moon is very important thing for humanity, it would be important to have mobility. This is why we are, and you see here, just massive rovers, not just small rovers.”
[Mona Luna]
[Flexible wheels]
[Rover]
[Wheel]
Antonio Delfino (interview): “This rover has the possibility to climb slopes with 27 degrees of slopes. So you have to avoid the rover to be stuck on very loose soil. On the moon you have very loose soils. This is why the mobility is very, very important. And the rover we designed until now, they have not compliant wheels, they have rigid wheels. And these rigid wheels cannot climb very steep slopes.”
[Mona Luna]
Antonio Delfino (interview): “You can take much more risk. And this is the story of commercialisation. So the idea is to cut the cost also. This is the reason why having not public fund but private fund, you can push at the limit. So you can allow yourself to make more experiments and to sustain failures and go fast. And at the end of the day, you can achieve some commercialisation at low cost.”
[Rockets to Paris Space Hub at Paris Air Show]
[ESA logo]
[ESA booth]
[Model of astronaut and lunar lander]
Dietmar Pilz (interview): “It is complex and it would be so much easier if there would be only one company that develops everything. But there are several reasons why this is not the case. Number one, not one single company has all the capabilities and all the technologies available that we need for the missions that we want to fly. Because we want to have state-of-the-art, the most relevant science missions, the most relevant Earth observation mission. Therefore, you need to combine the wisdom of many companies. That’s number one.”
[Space Cargo Unlimited display of capsule nicknamed the ‘Bento Box’, which can be used by a range of industries to conduct autonomous manufacturing in space]
[The ‘Bento Box’]
[Nicolas Gaume, CEO, Space Cargo Unlimited, looking at display]
[Display]
[Gaume adjusting display]
Nicolas Gaume (interview): “Space Cargo Unlimited is developing the first in-space manufacturing platform for Earth. This is a spacecraft that is going to fly a few weeks and board multiple projects in various fields: pharmaceutical, agricultural, electronics, new materials, to make things in space for Earth. Because space has a particular set of characteristics, one of the biggest being the absence of gravity, that allows to produce high-value product for Earth that are very difficult, if not impossible, to make on Earth.”
[Space Cargo Unlimited display]
Nicolas Gaume (interview): “We are in the next generation of applications, and making things in space can be a $10 billion market per year, which is something we’re quite excited about. So as we grow these opportunities, we actually are able to attract private investors. And it’s in a similar fashion to the 90s, the internet and then the whole digital revolution arose. From what was previously only publicly funded, you can have a public-private partnership.”
[Pléiades Neo/S950 Optical satellite, made by Airbus]
[Model of Vortex, by Dassault Aviation, a project to create a manned space aircraft that can go into orbit]
This script was provided by The Associated Press.