Spaceflight

Ideas for potential UK-US lunar science and exploration co-operation will be made public in November. The 14-person British National Space Centre (BNSC) and NASA Joint Study Group technical team has been working for eight months to develop its ideas for UK-US co-operation and will deliver its final report next month.

The group was announced in April and its remit was to identify common areas of interest, propose mission concepts with initial roles and responsibilities and the possible timeframes for such joint projects.

The group held two face-to-face meetings. Its members were drawn from NASA's two directorates for space operations and science and exploration systems, the BNSC, the UK government's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), academic and industrial organisations.

One concept being considered is the STFC's own lunar study report's recommended MoonLITE mission, an orbiter that would fire penetrators into the satellite's surface.