LunarSAT (Lunar Academic Research Satellite) was originally developed in order to be a part for the ESA's EuroMoon Lander mission that was scheduled for launch within the year 2001. It proposed that a micro satellite (LunarSAT), would have been launched in orbit around the Moon a few months before the lander, and among other scientific observations, it would have also taken high resolution photos of proposed landing sites.

On March 1998, ESA's Long Term Space Policy Committee canceled, mostly for financial reasons, the lander mission, but it continued to support the orbiter mission. The ESA's financial support lasted up to Phase B of the mission development, but the agency still shows interest in the project.

The idea for the LunarSAT orbiter originated in the summer of 1996 where about 80 students, young scientists and engineers met at Alpbach in Austria for the "Mission to the Moon" workshop, a joint effort of ESA and the Austrian Space Agency (ASA). LunarSAT development and execution involves, for the first time, many students and young professionals from all over Europe.

The people

Up to Phase B, that ESA financed the project, the preliminary study for the mission was given to the University of Surrey, in England.

Today, the core of the project is within a number of European Universities, under the lead of the Astronautics Division of the University of Munich, Germany. The University of Uppsala in Sweden handles the science center of the mission. Support also comes from universities from Germany, France, England, Austria, Spain, Denmark and Poland. The University of Innsbruck in Austria hosts the Public Outreach & Education division.

In addition, over 100 students and young professionals from 15 European countries (in addition with team members from Tunisia and Cuba) involve in many ways with the project. Our team members are among them, representing Greece.