OHB has won a new lunar infrastructure deal from the European Space Agency (ESA). Its subsidiary, OHB System AG, has won a feasibility and preliminary design studies deal for OASIS — the Outpost for Advanced Scientific Investigation Station — a shared infrastructure planned support scientific experiments and technology demonstrations on the lunar surface over the long term. OHB announced the deal, Oct. 19.
As prime contractor for the ESA studies, OHB is responsible for the overall system concept and is working together with partners on system requirements and the preliminary design phase. OASIS is envisioned to be a modular and scalable concept to support a variety of scientific instruments, technology demonstrators and robotic systems in the future.
The OASIS concept is compared to the role of research stations or utility networks on Earth. Future lunar payloads could rely on shared infrastructure and central services instead of having to develop and transport power, communications and data systems for every mission separately. The OASIS platform is designed to provide core services such as power supply, communications and data storage for multiple payloads, thereby enabling long-term scientific and technological activities on the lunar surface.
“With OASIS, we are taking lunar exploration a step further. Europe is not only looking at individual missions to the Moon, but at the infrastructure that will enable long-term scientific research and technological innovation in the first place. With OASIS, we are creating the conditions that will allow science and technology activities to be conducted on the lunar surface sustainably and beyond the scope of individual missions,” Marco Fuchs, CEO, OHB, said in a statement.
