Luxembourg has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Japanese space robotics company, ispace inc., with the aim of developing miniaturised technology that will support the endeavours to discover, map and utilise moon resources, part of the government’s space resources.lu initiative.
From its office in Luxembourg, the company will focus on business development, R&D and technical services including payload development, engineering and integration.
Luxembourg will provide funding through national R&D grants or co-funding programmes of the European Space Agency (ESA) towards projects such as the isapce ‘roving spectrometer’, which is being developed in order to bring an innovative mass spectrometer developed by the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) to the moon, so that it can explore elemental components of the moon’s ice and surface.
Luxembourg Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy, Étienne Schneider, announced the signature of the MoU yesterday.
“The Luxembourg Government forges ahead with the SpaceResources.lu initiative. With ispace from Japan, we welcome another foreign company which chose our country as a European hub for developing highly advanced technologies and capabilities like robotics for exploring and mining resources in space,” he said.
“The cooperation with LIST as a renowned research organisation and the collaboration with a key player of the local innovation ecosystem like Paul Wurth provide ispace a promising starting position as a new actor in the Luxembourg space sector.”
Takeshi Hakamada, CEO of ispace, joined Minister Schneider to announce the MoU.
“It is a great honor to collaborate with Luxembourg and to be the first space resource company to be recognised for our focus on the Moon. We see the Moon as a strategic stepping stone to further spur human activity in space,” he said, adding, “with strong technological, legal and financial support, we are convinced that Luxembourg is the best place for us to begin our European operations.”
Image: Minister Schneider with Takeshi Hakamada. © MECO
