Introduction to ESA's future Ground-Based Pilot Plant
Space resources are key enablers for the future of space exploration. To harness useful resources on the surface of the Moon, the design of upcoming mission architectures will require facilities allowing the end-to-end testing of technologies on a terrestrial analogue.
But what kind of facilities are required and who will use them?
In anticipation of ESA’s future Ground-Based Pilot Plant (GBPP), we would like to reach out to the international space resources community and gain a better understanding of their current level of knowledge and needs, as well as explore ways in which this community could leverage a ground-based pilot plant, capable to produce oxygen and metal from Lunar regolith.
To achieve this, we are preparing a series of online workshops and in-depth consultation exercises, open to actors from academia, research institutes, space and non-space companies to join and exchange.
As a first step in this direction, on 26 October we are hosting an introductory webinar aimed to bring together the community and gauge the level of conceptual understanding of a ground-based pilot plant. Following this session, we will build on the inputs received and design a series of targeted consultations to refine this knowledge, compile the findings and share the major outcomes with the community during Space Resources Week, taking place between 25 and 27 March 2024.