UK Space Agency funding will enable university based scientists to be involved in a raft international missions to the Moon, Mars and Venus.
They will contribute to a total of seven projects that include specific work on detecting ice under the surface of the lunar south pole and a raman spectroscopy instrument for commercial rover and lander missions.
Among the global space institutions they will partner are NASA, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Indian space agency ISRO as well as Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and iSpace commercial mission.
Dr Paul Bate, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, said:
“These projects present an opportunity for UK science to make crucial contributions to ground-breaking global missions that will deepen our understanding of the Moon and our neighbouring planets.
“This funding, which builds on previous early-stage awards, will help catalyse international investment into the UK space sector and highlights the value we place on sharing knowledge and expertise with our counterparts overseas to break the boundaries of space exploration.”
UKSA said the projects, which were selected following an initial £400,000 funding round in 2022, all demonstrated UK scientific excellence in critical areas of space science and exploration technology – including detector and hardware development, pipeline processing, optics and spectroscopy. They also provided opportunities to work closely with international counterparts making progress in similar areas.
Participating universities include Cambridge, Leicester, Aberdeen, Sussex, Royal Holloway and the Open University.
Royal Holloway notably will support the Indian state agency’s Chandrayaan programme; its Chandrayaan-3 mission became the first in the world to successfully land on the lunar south pole.
Other project focuses include processing of multi-band radar and developing analysis software for missions to detect lunar south pole sub-surface ice and map surface of Venus, lunar spectroscopy, imaging and monitoring.
For full details of UK Space Agency funding beneficiaries click here.
Pic: UK-built camera used in ExoMars Raman Laser Spectrometer by University of Leicester for project with iSpace, Japan (source: Rull et al, 2017)
