A Polish company will take part in a lunar rover mission for the first time.

• The launch of the European lunar mission is planned for 2028.
• The member of the consortium that prepared the rover is the Gliwice-based company KP Labs.
• On the Silver Globe we will investigate, among other things, the occurrence of water sources.

MAGPIE is a European lunar rover mission funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) under the Small Mission for Exploration initiative and operated by ispace-Europe.

The Gliwice-based company KP Labs is a member of the consortium. This will be the first European in-situ mission to search for the Moon's polar resources.

It combines advanced instruments, European engineering expertise and a consortium of experts to map, measure and understand the resources of the Silver Globe.

The rover will be directed to the southern region of the Moon to investigate the presence of water ice, map the distribution of hydrogen, and analyze the geological history of this environment.

The rover will investigate the presence of water sources on the Moon.

MAGPIE will help answer a fundamental question about the Moon's water cycle, providing valuable knowledge for sustainable exploration and future in-situ resource utilization.

The team analyzed aspects such as power generation, engineering controls, and mobility to ensure the rover would be able to achieve all its science goals on schedule.

The rover's technical design, mission operations concepts, and surface exploration objectives were assessed. Since no critical issues were identified, the rover can now proceed to the next phase of funding and development.

Based in Luxembourg, ispace-Europe leverages its experience in rover development with a consortium including partners from Germany, the UK, Poland, the Czech Republic and Norway, as well as leading European research institutions.

"For KP Labs, participating in this mission is a natural extension of our work on advanced data processing in space. Extending the reach of our technology from low Earth orbit to the lunar surface is both a technical challenge and a symbolic achievement. It demonstrates that Polish technology can be part of a European lunar mission, which is a source of pride not only for our company but also for the entire Polish space sector," says KP Labs COO Michał Zachara.

The MAGPIE instrument suite includes the Lunar Volatile Scout (LVS) drill to analyze regolith samples for volatiles such as water, and the HardPix neutron spectrometer to detect hydrogen.

The radar will map the Moon's subsurface.

The Lunar RIMFAX ground-penetrating radar will map the subsurface and a data processing unit will manage and transmit data.

Together, these instruments will help locate and characterize water-rich areas, understand how they formed, and assess their potential for future use by humans and robots.

The mission is scheduled to launch in 2028, bringing Europe closer to realizing the world's first scientific exploration of the Moon's polar regions.