EURO2MOON: Leveraging Lunar Resources Exploration to Foster International Collaboration and Benefit Sustainability in Space and Earth

For more than 50 years now, humans have not come back on the Moon but remained in LEO thanks to international orbital stations. However, new programs have been raised recently targeting a return of humans on the Moon in the 2020s with an ambitious goal of having a permanent presence. Based on the ISS experience, it will require a sustainable approach of operations in Space. This trend already began with the development of private launchers that lower the cost for accessing Space. From now on, a new step must be overcome to allow a sustainable and permanent human presence on the Moon. To overcome those challenges, many capabilities from Space and non-Space actors will need to be put together. To that end, the EURO2MOON Industrial association has been created in 2021, to position European Industry as a reference partner of the rising cis-lunar economy, through the exploration and the implementation of transversal Space resources value chains (for instance, to serve the purpose of long duration transportation, life support, energy production and storage, and construction of local infrastructure).