LUNA: Europe’s Moon on Earth

ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer walks across the dusty terrain of LUNA, Europe's Moon on Earth. Nearby, ESA's Argonaut lander mock-up stands ready as he carefully navigates the simulated regolith - the dust, soil and rock on the Moon's surface. Alongside a fellow operator, he rehearses a moonwalk under the harsh glare of Sun simulators that mimic lunar lighting to test scientific tools designed to analyse lunar soil and rock.

ESA's robotic explorers, Interact and Spot, join the scene. Spot, the agile robot dog, picks up a sample while Interact, a wheeled robotic arm, supports this rehearsal of autonomous operations. Developed at ESA's ESTEC technical centre, these robots demonstrate the potential of human-robot collaboration for future lunar and planetary missions.

Outside the facility, the FLEXHab module stands as a future lunar habitat analogue. It enables studies on the ergonomics of living and working in confined environments, dust mitigation and tool maintenance - critical for long-duration surface missions.

LUNA is located near Cologne, Germany and is operated jointly by ESA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The facility is a cornerstone of Europe's contribution to international lunar exploration, supporting astronauts, scientists and engineers in preparing for missions such as NASA's Artemis programme.

Credits: ESA/DLR-M. Cowan

Access the video on the ESA video library: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Vi...

★ Subscribe: http://bit.ly/ESAsubscribe and click twice on the bell button to receive our notifications.

Check out our full video catalog: http://bit.ly/SpaceInVideos
Follow us on Twitter: http://bit.ly/ESAonTwitter
On Facebook: http://bit.ly/ESAonFacebook
On Instagram: http://bit.ly/ESAonInstagram
On LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/ESAonLinkedIn
On Pinterest: https://bit.ly/ESAonPinterest
On Flickr: http://bit.ly/ESAonFlickr

We are Europe's gateway to space. Our mission is to shape the development of Europe's space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Check out https://www.esa.int/ to get up to speed on everything space related.

Copyright information about our videos is available here: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Te...