German Lunar Mission
November 10, 2007
Deputy Economy Minister Peter Hintze, who is also the German government's aerospace coordinator, told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday, Nov. 7, that a lunar orbit mission would be "a chance for Germany to prove its competence in this area."
He said such a mission would for helpful for scientific research, and said it was "feasible and useful."
Hintze said the unmanned space craft in orbit around the moon would make it possible to map Earth's closest neighbor using the technologies Germany has been leader in developing: stereo photography, radar technology and spectral sensing.
The German government, however, has not yet decided on the matter, Hintze cautioned. It is to review a report prepared by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) before making a decision in the first quarter of 2008.
No manned mission planned
The project dubbed LEO (Lunar Exploration Orbiter) would cost around 350 million euros ($513.6 million), which Hintze said would cover the planning, building and launch of the spacecraft.
Johann-Dietrich Wörner, head of DLR, emphasized that LEO was not intended to compete with efforts of the European Space Agency (ESA), but to complement them. DLR is a member of ESA.
"A lunar mission would be a building block and would not be against Europe or against cooperation," he said, as cited by Reuters news agency.
He also said that German experts had discussed the project with NASA, ESA and the Russian Space Agency.
Germany is not planning a manned lunar mission or moon landing, both Hintze and Wörner said.
Galileo financing gap still looms
Meanwhile, Hintze also said that he hoped EU-member states would reach an agreement by Christmas on how to fill a 2.4 billion euro financing gap in Europe's planned satellite navigation system project entitled Galileo.
European Union legislators last month voted to increase the bloc's spending on the project -- which aims to compete with the US's Global Positioning System (GPS) -- by 739 million euros in the first reading of the EU's 2008 budget draft.
Those funds would be in addition to the 151 million euros already allotted to the project for next year. Private companies are reluctant to contribute to help bridge funding gap.
"We are awaiting financing proposals from the European Commission," Hintze said, as quoted by Reuters. "The money that's there now is not sufficient."