[Satellite TODAY 11-09-09] The European Space Agency (ESA) selected Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) to manage a pan-European student-built mission to the moon, SSTL announced Nov. 6.
    The European Student Moon Orbiter (ESMO) program will place a spacecraft into a lunar orbit to map the lunar surface and acquire images and other scientific data. Students from at least 10 universities throughout ESA’s member states and cooperating states will learn about space science and engineering by collaborating on the design and building of systems that could be launched into orbit around the moon as soon as 2013.
    “SSTL has had its sights on the moon for nearly a decade, and ESMO combines the industrial and educational strengths of SSTL towards this exciting challenge. We have shown many times in the past that success in space can be achieved at a fraction of the cost normally considered, and we expect that this exciting mission will further demonstrate that this applies as well to science missions as Earth observation and communications,” Martin Sweeting, executive chairman of SSTL, said in a statement.