{"id":504139,"date":"2026-03-30T22:13:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T22:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/504139\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:13:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T22:13:12","slug":"esa-seeks-commercial-provider-to-transport-payload-to-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/504139\/","title":{"rendered":"ESA Seeks Commercial Provider to Transport Payload to the Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ESA-Seeks-Commercial-Provider-to-Transport-Payload-to-the-Moon.webp.webp\" alt=\"ESA is seeking a commercial partner to deliver its NILS2 instrument to the Moon, with preference being given to European operators.\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6277 lazyload\"  data- style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 800px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 800\/500;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The European Space Agency is seeking a commercial provider to deliver its NILS2 instrument to the Moon to measure negative ions on the lunar surface.<\/p>\n<p>On 1 June 2024, ESA\u2019s original Negative Ions at the Lunar Surface (NILS) instrument touched down on the surface of the Moon aboard China\u2019s Chang\u2019e 6 lunar lander. The instrument was designed to detect and analyse negatively charged ions on the Moon\u2019s surface produced by interactions between the solar wind and the lunar regolith.<\/p>\n<p>Built by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, the original NILS instrument operated intermittently throughout the mission, collecting a total of 346 minutes of data. This was the first time the agency had produced scientific data on the Moon\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n<p>On 19 March, ESA published a call seeking a commercial operator to deliver the follow-on NILS2 instrument to the Moon, oversee its operation, and facilitate the return of scientific data.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to European Spaceflight, an ESA spokesperson said that this new mission aims to collect data for a longer duration than its predecessor. Regarding the procurement of the lunar flight, the agency said its \u201cintention is to find ways of procuring the flight whilst spending money in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If the agency is set on a provider with a strong European presence, the most likely candidate is ispace, which maintains a subsidiary in Luxembourg. The company is already working with ESA on the development of <a href=\"https:\/\/europeanspaceflight.com\/esa-awards-ispace-new-contract-for-magpie-moon-mission\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the MAGPIE lunar rover mission<\/a>, which will explore and characterise volatile deposits in the lunar polar regions and will search for water ice that could support a sustained human presence on the Moon.<\/p>\n<p>According to the agency, the choice of commercial lander will determine the mission\u2019s launch timeline. However, it added that it hoped the flight would occur \u201cwithin a couple of years from now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>        Keep European Spaceflight Independent<\/p>\n<p>Your donation will help European Spaceflight to continue digging into the stories others miss. Every euro keeps our reporting alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Space Agency is seeking a commercial provider to deliver its NILS2 instrument to the Moon to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[5878,90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-504139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-european-space-agency","tag-science","tag-space","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}