ESA Outlines Ambitious Lunar and Mars Missions at Paris Air Show 2023

The European Space Agency (ESA) held a conference at the Paris Airshow today to discuss its ambitions in human and robotic space exploration. Speakers included ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher, CNES CEO Philippe Baptiste and Director General of the German Space Agency Walther Pelzer. ESA astronauts Thomas Pesquet, Samantha Cristoforetti and Matthias Maurer also contributed their views. The conference covered a wide range of topics, including the Artemis program, the European Large Orbital Telescope (ELT) and the ExoMars mission.

ESA Aiming for the Moon and Mars

One of the key themes of the conference was Europe’s plans to return to the Moon and eventually send humans to Mars. Aschbacher said that ESA is committed to playing a leading role in these ambitious missions. “We want to be part of the first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years,” he said. “And we want to be the first to put humans on Mars.”

ESA is already working on a number of projects that will help it achieve these goals. For example, the agency is developing a new lunar rover that will be able to explore the Moon’s surface. ESA is also working on a new rocket, the Ariane 6, that will be able to launch heavy payloads into space.

The Artemis Program

The Artemis program is a NASA-led initiative to return humans to the Moon by 2024. ESA is a key partner in the Artemis program, and it is providing a number of contributions, including the European Service Module (ESM), which will provide life support and propulsion for the Orion spacecraft.

The ESM is a critical component of the Artemis program, and it is a testament to ESA’s technological prowess. The ESM is the most complex spacecraft ever built by ESA, and it is packed with cutting-edge technology.

The European Large Orbital Telescope

The European Large Orbital Telescope (ELT) is a new generation of telescope that is currently under construction in Chile. The ELT will be the most powerful optical telescope in the world, and it will be able to see objects that are too faint or too distant to be seen by any other telescope.

The ELT is a major undertaking for ESA, and it is a testament to the agency’s commitment to ground-breaking science. The ELT will be used to study a wide range of astronomical objects, including exoplanets, galaxies and black holes.

ESA : The ExoMars Mission

The ExoMars mission is a joint ESA-Roscosmos mission to search for life on Mars. The mission is currently in its second phase, and it is scheduled to launch in 2022. The ExoMars rover will land on Mars in 2023, and it will search for signs of past or present life on the Red Planet.

The ExoMars mission is a challenging undertaking, but it is also a very exciting one. The mission has the potential to make a major breakthrough in our understanding of life in the universe.

The conference at the Paris Airshow was a major event for ESA, and it showed that the agency is committed to ambitious missions in human and robotic space exploration. ESA is a leading player in the global space community, and it is playing a key role in the exploration of the Moon and Mars.

“We want to be part of the first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. And we want to be the first to put humans on Mars.”
-ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher