Europe on Wednesday awarded several contracts to industrialists to participate in the American Artemis program for the return of astronauts to the Moon in 2024. "We were on the Moon, but at the level of the equator. The most interesting on the Moon is the South Pole, ”explains Didier Schmitt, of the European Space Agency, on Europe 1 on Friday.

Europe is investing for a return of Man to the Moon.

The European Space Agency announced on Wednesday the award of numerous contracts to European manufacturers, including Airbus and Thales Alenia Space, as part of a participation in the American Artemis lunar program and a soil sample return campaign Martian.

In total, 2.6 billion euros will be put on the table by Europe by the end of the year.

A space station is going to be built

The main objective of Artemis is to land astronauts on the Moon with the American Orion space vehicle in 2024. The European Space Agency has awarded Airbus the construction of the third service module of this vehicle.

The manufacturer is also awarded the development of a lunar lander project.

It will be responsible for transporting "up to 1.7 tonnes of cargo to any location on the lunar surface," according to the company.

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Artemis also includes a space station orbiting the moon, the "Lunar Gateway", whose assembly is due to begin in 2023. It will serve, for at least 15 years, as a laboratory and as a staging post for astronauts on their way to the moon.

Thales Alenia Space, a Franco-Italian joint venture specializing in pressurized space modules, has been tasked with developing the station's housing module.

"The most interesting on the Moon is the South Pole"

On Europe 1, Didier Schmitt, of the European Space Agency, described on Friday the usefulness of the space station module which will revolve around the Moon for astronauts: "It allows them to live for several weeks, a month, or even more, as they prepare to descend to the moon, then ascend and depart. "

In 1969, man has already been to the moon.

But this time, the objective is to explore its hidden side.

"Indeed, we were on the moon. But we were at the level of the equator. The most interesting on the moon is the south pole. You have places, craters, which have never seen the The moon has not moved for four billion years, so it is a repository of everything that has happened in the solar system since that time ", decrypts Didier Schmitt.

French astronaut Thomas Pesquet is one of the most serious European candidates to go to the moon in the years to come.