ESA’s Argonaut represents Europe’s autonomous and versatile access to the Moon, supporting international exploration endeavours on the lunar surface. The spacecraft will support several missions to the Moon, launching aboard a four-booster Ariane 6 in the next decade.
The spacecraft has two main elements: the Lunar Descent Element, which takes care of flying to the Moon and landing on target; and the Passenger, which could be infrastructures, scientific instruments, rovers, technology demonstrators or vital resources for astronauts on the lunar surface such as food, water and air.
Artist’s view of the Argonaut lunar lander. Credit: ESA – P. Carril
Patch explained
Just as NASA with the Apollo and Artemis programmes, ESA drew inspiration from European mythology to name this lunar lander programme. The name is inspired by the Argonauts from ancient Greek myths; they accompanied the hero Jason in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. The adventurers travelled on the Argo, which some believed to be the first ship to sail the seas.
The Argonaut programme patch reflects this European heritage of science and mythology. The central element of the patch, a white crescent Moon, is formed of a white ship and sail. The curved line ending with a golden dot represents the orbit of the spacecraft bringing a payload, the golden fleece, to the lunar surface. The patch also contains a hidden message in the reflection of the lunar ship in the sea: it spells “.-.. ..- -. .-“, or “LUNA” in morse code.
Argonaut programme patch. Credit: ESA-K. Lochtenberg