ESA Awards ispace New Contract for MAGPIE Moon Mission - European Spaceflight angielski

The ispace EUROPE-led consortium was awarded an initial pre-Phase A contract for the Mission for Advanced Geophysics and Polar Ice Exploration (MAGPIE) in December 2024. MAGPIE is being developed under ESA’s Small Missions for Exploration programme, which was introduced to support low-cost, rapid-development space missions that advance Europe’s exploration objectives.

The primary objectives of the MAGPIE mission are to explore and characterise volatile deposits in the lunar polar regions and to search for water ice that could support a sustained human presence on the Moon. While few details about the rover itself have been released, a paper presented at the 23rd IAA Symposium described MAGPIE as “a midsized rover.”

On 3 June, ESA awarded ispace an extension of its pre-Phase A contract, bringing the total contract value to €2.695 million. According to an ispace press release issued the same day, the extension will support collaboration on the implementation phase of the MAGPIE mission to the Moon. This includes the development of the mission concept, maturation of payload technologies, interface design, and prototype manufacturing in preparation for a future lunar exploration mission. However, no projected timeline has been provided for when the mission might launch.