ESA lunar gateway science opportunity open to Canadians

A full view of the Lunar Gateway including Canadarm3, a Canadian contribution to be built by MDA. Credit: NASA JSC.

Canada is a cooperating state within the European Space Agency (ESA) which affords the communities access to both science and industrial opportunities. ESA has recently released a science opportunity for the Lunar Gateway open to Canadians.

This week the Canadian Space Agency sent out a notice from ESA for the following Lunar Gateway science opportunity.

“The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) would like to inform you that the European Space Agency (ESA) has published a solicitation for the selection of international science teams for the European Radiation Sensor Array (ERSA) and Internal Dosimeter Array (IDA) payloads on the Lunar Gateway. This is the second of two solicitations that serve to establish the Gateway International Heliophysics and Space Radiation Science Working Group; the first of these solicitations, for the creation of science teams for the Heliophysics Environmental and Radiation Measurement Experiment Suite (HERMES), was published by NASA on November 17, 2020.”

“The CSA, ESA, JAXA, and NASA are collaborating in the development and scientific utilization of the Lunar Gateway. The CSA wishes to encourage Canadian participation in the Gateway program to help realize its potential as a platform for research into the lunar space environment. Although Canada is an ESA Exploration Envelope Programme participating state, for the scope of this research announcement, Canadian scientists may participate in proposals to ESA, but cannot be financially supported by ESA.”

“The deadline for submissions is November 12, 2021.”

“Further information about ERSA and the ESA announcement of opportunity may be found here.”

About Marc Boucher

Boucher is an entrepreneur, writer, editor & publisher. He is the founder of SpaceQ Media Inc. and CEO and co-founder of SpaceRef Interactive LLC. Boucher has 20+ years working in various roles in the space industry and a total of 30 years as a technology entrepreneur including creating Maple Square, Canada's first internet directory and search engine.

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