Lunar Pathfinder
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- SSTL
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- Mission Support Services,
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- Vantage Point,
- https://www.sstl.co.uk/what-we-do/lunar-mission-services
- Lunar Orbit
- Lunar Pathfinder
upon request €
< 18 months
Service Description
The Lunar Pathfinder spacecraft is designed to provide affordable communications services to lunar missions via two powerful S-band links to lunar assets on the surface and in orbit around the Moon, and an X-band link to Earth.
ESA and NASA have signed a Memorandum of Understanding in June 2022 and a Joint Management Implementation Plan in 2023. Through those agreements, NASA is supporting the delivery of the Lunar Pathfinder spacecraft in lunar orbit in exchange for an access to the Lunar Pathfinder lunar relay communication services towards its lunar payloads.
The Lunar Pathfinder services will be a mission enabler for polar and far-side missions, which, without direct line of sight of the Earth, would otherwise have to procure their own communications relay spacecraft. It will also significantly help future lunar orbiters and landers to fulfil their mission objectives.
Lunar Pathfinder is complementary to Direct-to-Earth communication solutions and a credible alternative to institutional deep-space ground stations, offering orbiters and near-side missions a better availability, enhanced safety and improved data-rate.
Lunar Pathfinder Mission Builder
Lunar Mission Services from SSTL | SSTL
This tool allows potential future users of the SSTL Lunar’s communication relay services to perform an initial assessment of the services they could receive through Lunar Pathfinder.
www.sstl.co.uk
Background
We are going back to the Moon!
An international team is working together to provide payload services in lunar orbit and on the lunar surface in 2026, as part of Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 2. This mission has been awarded through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative to carry multiple science instruments to the lunar surface including the Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment-Night (LuSEE-Night) developed by NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory with the University of California, Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory, and the User Terminal (UT) developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Firefly’s commercial spacecraft will also bring into lunar orbit Lunar Pathfinder, a powerful lunar communication relay developed by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd UK in public-private partnership with ESA with investments from the UK Space Agency.
Lunar Pathfinder is a first step towards ESA’s ambitious Moonlight vision to create a network of communications and data relay satellites serving users worldwide. Such satellites could also provide navigation data for lunar exploration, just as today we navigate using Galileo and GPS on Earth.
The far side and polar regions of the Moon are a particular area of interest to space agencies as a potential source of resources for water, fuel, metals and oxygen for a more sustainable presence of humans on the Moon and beyond. A communications relay satellite such as Lunar Pathfinder is necessary to ensure continuous contact for both robots and humans.
The Lunar Pathfinder mission also hosts two separate ESA experiments, the first testing the possibility of using existing navigation satellites for positioning on the Moon and the second a space weather monitor to understand radiation levels around the Moon – important for human explorers.
Current Status
After successful mechanical tests on the Structural Model of Lunar Pathfinder in 2024, SSTL has now closed the main pre-requisites for the integration of Lunar Pathfinder with its Rideshare, Firefly Aerospace and its Blue Ghost vehicles (transfer & Lander). The electrical and thermal interface are now frozen with residual RFC/EMI/EMC tests to be performed in December 2025.
Lunar Pathfinder and CLPS-CS3 – credit: SSTL & Firefly Aerospace
The Lunar Pathfinder Proto-Flight Model is currently under Assembly, Integration and Test process (now ~50% completed). All but one Flight units have been delivered to SSTL, securing the path to Launch Not Earlier Than November 2026.
SSTL, ESA and NASA team gathered for the KPG4 colocation – credit SSTL
Latest News
NASA Delivers Laser Retroflector Flight Hardware To ESA For Lunar Pathfinder
NASA delivered the first flight hardware for the Lunar Pathfinder mission to ESA (European Space Agency)
spacenews.com
SSTL hosts NASA and ESA for Lunar Pathfinder test review | Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) posted on the topic | LinkedIn
Exciting progress on our Lunar Pathfinder mission! We were delighted to recently welcome colleagues from NASA and ESA to SSTL for a test review of the hardware that will soon play a pivotal role in enabling communications and science on and around the Moon. Pictured here in our cleanroom, the SSTL Lunar Pathfinder team is joined by our NASA and ESA visitors alongside the core of the spacecraft. Behind them are the Flatsat and Flight panels, with the completed propulsion panel resting beneath the central thrust tube assembly. This collaboration marks another step forward in our shared ambition for lunar exploration and innovation.
www.linkedin.com
@SurreySat on X
Check out this cool video of SSTL’s Fergus Glen and Cameron Hodge - looking encouragingly satisfied - with the trial solar array deployment on the Satellite Risk Reduction Model for our Lunar Pathfinder Mission
x.com
Latest News | Small Satellite supplier | Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd | SSTL
Read up about our latest missions, launches, new technologies and satellites from our news page.
www.sstl.co.uk
CS-3 Science Payloads - NASA Science
Firefly’s Blue Ghost 2 lander will deliver three NASA CLPS science payloads to the lunar far side.
science.nasa.gov
Blue Ghost Mission 2
Firefly’s second lunar mission will deliver NASA, ESA, UAE, and commercial payloads to lunar orbit and the far side of the Moon in 2026.
fireflyspace.com
LuSEE – Space Sciences Lab
Space Sciences Laboratory
at the University of California, Berkeley
at the University of California, Berkeley
www.ssl.berkeley.edu
SSTL LUNAR SUPPORTS NASA PAYLOAD WORKSHOP | Small Satellite supplier | Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd | SSTL
The SSTL Lunar team recently travelled with ESA to Houston, TX, USA, to support the payload workshop for the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Service (CLPS) CS-3 task order. The CS-3 task order, when issued, would deliver Lunar Pathfinder to lunar orbit and the LuSEE-Night payload to the moon’s far sid…
www.sstl.co.uk
ESA and NASA to cooperate on Earth science and lunar mission - SpaceNews
NASA and ESA announced agreements to cooperate on Earth science and a lunar mission but are still discussing more cooperation on Artemis and ExoMars.
spacenews.com
Case Study: Lunar Pathfinder
Lunar Pathfinder will be the world’s first dedicated lunar communications relay spacecraft when it launches in 2024.
www.gov.uk
The Moon – where no satnav has gone before
The test version of a unique satellite navigation receiver has been delivered for integration testing on the Lunar Pathfinder spacecraft. The NaviMoon satnav receiver is designed to perform the farthest ever positioning fix from Earth, employing signals that will be millions of times fainter th…
www.esa.int
Moon contract signals new direction for Europe
The European Space Agency wants more missions to look like the UK’s Lunar Pathfinder satellite.
www.bbc.com
ESA to be anchor customer on commercial lunar satellite - SpaceNews
ESA has signed a contract with SSTL to be the anchor customer on a commercial lunar communications satellite that company is developing.
spacenews.com