The Prospect drill, designed to penetrate 1–2 m into the lunar surface, is being developed by ESA to fly to the Moon’s South pole on Russia’s Luna-27 lander in 2020. The contract for Prospect Phase B was signed with Leonardo Airborne and Space Systems division at the Farnborough International Airshow this week. Prospect is one of the three elements of early lunar exploration activities of ESA, allowing Europe to analyse the Moon’s subsoil for the very first time.
ESA lunar exploration systems engineer Richard Fisackerly explains: “It is an essential part of a science and exploration package being developed to reach, extract and analyse samples from beneath the surface in the Moon’s south polar region.”
See: http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/05/Lunar_ice_drill
and http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/07/Signature_of_the_Prospect_B_contract_between_ESA_and_Leonardo3
