PROSPECT (Package for Resource Observation and in-Situ Prospecting for Exploration, Commercial exploitation and Transportation), ESA

IM-4 · manifested · partner payload

ESA's drill-and-laboratory package (about 45 kg). The ProSEED drill goes down to 1 m, measures temperature and soil permittivity, and brings up cold samples; the ProSPA lab seals them in ovens, heats them, and analyses the released gas with an ion-trap and a magnetic-sector mass spectrometer. It looks for water ice and other volatiles, and demonstrates extracting oxygen from regolith.

PI: not in public sources (an ESA project; NASA names no PI)
Built by: ESA (Directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration), with Leonardo (Italy) as prime contractor and drill lead, and The Open University (UK) leading the ProSPA laboratory (partner agency)

Technology	subsurface drill and volatiles laboratory (ISRU prospecting)
Moon Base need	DN-007 L, DN-013 L, #0601 (The study's reading. NASA's CP-22 page says PROSPECT will help locate compounds 'that could provide water, oxygen, fuel, and building materials'. Drilling to 1 m near the South Pole and measuring ice and other volatiles in situ is the subject of DN-007 L and DN-013 L; its oxygen-extraction demonstration touches tech gap #0601 (ISRU). Both data gaps want many sites; PROSPECT samples one. IM-4 is not on NASA's Moon Base phases page; its 2027 date falls in Phase 1 ('Now through 2028'), which is the study's reading.)
Route onto CLPS	partner; No NASA call. ESA developed PROSPECT for Russia's Luna 27 lander and had reached Phase C/D. A CLPS flight was agreed with NASA at the beginning of 2022; after ESA's Council ended cooperation with Russia on the Luna missions, ESA redirected PROSPECT to CLPS, with the same package. NASA awarded the CP-22 delivery to Intuitive Machines on 29 August 2024.; 2022
Timeline	first funding not in public sources (Phase B complete by December 2019; developed first for Luna 27); first flight test Rosetta/Philae (Ptolemy, the lab's predecessor; date not in the sources used); PITMS on Peregrine, 2024-01-08; selected 2022 (CLPS flight agreed with NASA); CP-22 task order 2024-08-29; launch 2027 (ESA; NASA); landing not in public sources
On the Moon	not yet flown
FO	none

Flights before the Moon

• Earth orbit or deep space: Ptolemy mass spectrometer on ESA's Rosetta comet lander Philae, built by The Open University with RAL Space, not in the sources used (Rosetta mission). The Open University's earlier mass spectrometer, which made the first in-situ measurements of volatiles and organics on comet 67P. ESA says PROSPECT draws on Rosetta's Ptolemy and its SD2 drill. Same lab as ProSPA; an earlier instrument, not PROSPECT's.

"The EMS had direct heritage from the Ptolemy mass spectrometer that made the first in situ measurements of volatiles and organics on comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko with the Rosetta lander, Philae"
— NTRS 20240012926, page 6

"Prospect is being developed using the experience gained through the Rosetta mission including both the SD2 drill and Ptolemy instrument suite"
— ESA - Prospect – searching for water at the lunar poles

• Earth orbit or deep space: PITMS (formerly the PROSPECT Ion-Trap Mass Spectrometer) on Astrobotic's Peregrine Mission One; its mass spectrometer was built by The Open University under ESA contract, 2024-01-08. A version of PROSPECT's ion-trap mass spectrometer. Peregrine did not land, but PITMS ran for 8.5 hours in space and took about 80 spectra. ESA says this showed the instrument could survive and operate in space; the PITMS team calls it an early flight pathfinder for PROSPECT's similar instrument. One of PROSPECT's two spectrometers, not the drill or ovens.

"A version of Prospect’s ion-trap mass spectrometer (PITMS) already flew onboard the first CLPS mission Peregrine 1"
— ESA - Prospect – searching for water at the lunar poles

"The PITMS EMS also provided an early flight pathfinder for the ongoing development of a similar instrument for the PROSPECT mission"
— NTRS 20240012926, page 6

"The Peregrine Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer (PITMS) (formerly named PROSPECT Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer)"
— NTRS 20240012926

"which is based on the mass spectrometer that the same team built for the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta mission"
— NASA Science Experiments to be Delivered to Moon by Commercial Landers - NASA

Heritage hardware

• design heritage and ground tests: ESA also cites the ExoMars drill and Beagle-2's instruments. The ProSEED development model drilled and sampled lunar simulant with rock inclusions and up to about 12 wt% water in ambient, cold and thermal-vacuum tests at the University of Padova in December 2019, and delivered samples to dummy ovens; ESA calls the outcome positive.

"the ExoMars drill and Beagle-2 instrumentation"
— ESA - Prospect – searching for water at the lunar poles

"A plan of tests of the ProSEED De-"
— hou.usra.edu: 2367.pdf

"The outcome of drill tests was positive"
— hou.usra.edu: 2367.pdf

Funding before the lunar flight

• ESA's Exploration Envelope Programme (E3P); the UK Space Agency supported The Open University's long-running mass spectrometer development. Amounts not public. Foreign funding: no SBIR or USAspending record applies. NASA pays only the delivery, inside the CP-22 task order. (ESA E3P; UK Space Agency; not in public sources (Phase B finished by end of 2019)): amount not in public sources

"Prospect is part of ESA’s Exploration Envelope Programme (E3P)"
— ESA - Prospect – searching for water at the lunar poles

"The EMS team at The Open University acknowledges the support of UK Space Agency for the financial and strategic support that has underpinned the technology development over a sustained period."
— NTRS 20240012926, acknowledgements (PITMS paper)

How it got onto CLPS

"Current development is for flight on the"
— hou.usra.edu: 2367.pdf, 2020: Luna 27

"With the recent ESA Council decision to cease all cooperation with Russia on the Luna missions"
— CO Meeting Organizer EPSC2022, EPSC 2022

"This opportunity was already agreed and in place with NASA at the beginning of 2022."
— CO Meeting Organizer EPSC2022

"As the package is the same for CLPS, this progress is not lost"
— CO Meeting Organizer EPSC2022

"Intuitive Machines of Houston will receive $116.9 million to deliver six NASA payloads"
— NASA Awards Intuitive Machines Lunar South Pole Research Delivery - NASA, 29 Aug 2024

On the Moon

Manifested on IM-4 near the South Pole (ESA gives about 84.5 S, 31.5 E). ESA expects 5 to 10 days of operations and about eight samples.

"Prospect is expected to operate for between 5 and 10 Earth days"
— ESA - Prospect – searching for water at the lunar poles

"Number of samples: ~8 samples"
— ESA - Prospect – searching for water at the lunar poles

FO's role

Grade: none. No FO project, flight or report names PROSPECT, ProSEED, ProSPA, Leonardo or The Open University. It is a European partner payload; FO's calls are for US entities, so none was expected. Its flight lineage is Rosetta's Ptolemy and the PITMS flight on Peregrine, neither of which FO flew (the study's PITMS record grades FO 'none'). FO has flown other drills and regolith samplers by other teams; same topic only. The study's earlier traceback grade (none found) stands.

"International partner payload delivered under NASA's CLPS order. Nothing in the FO sources."
— earlier finding of this study (not a public source)

Who built it

"This suite is led by ESA (European Space Agency)."
— NASA Awards Intuitive Machines Lunar South Pole Research Delivery - NASA

"in Italy are the Prime Contractor developing Prospect and are also the technical lead of the drilling and sampling system (ProSEED)."
— ESA - Prospect – searching for water at the lunar poles, Leonardo

"in the UK lead the development of the ProSPA instrumentation suite"
— ESA - Prospect – searching for water at the lunar poles, The Open University

Moon Base need

"that could provide water, oxygen, fuel, and building materials"
— CLPS CP-22 Science - NASA Science

"There are no ground truth measurements that characterize shallow bulk water ice on the lunar"
— Moon to Mars knowledge base: DN-007 L: In situ measurements of the horizontal and vertical distribution, abundance, and physical makeup of shallow bulk water ice

"Volatile abundance to at least 1 m depth, with a 0.1 wt% detection limit."
— Moon to Mars knowledge base: DN-013 L: In situ measurements of the composition, distribution, and abundance of volatiles in the near-surface lunar south pole

"Demonstrate the potential of in-situ resource utilisation (ISRU) for future exploration by extracting oxygen from lunar regolith."
— ESA - Prospect – searching for water at the lunar poles

"box with a date range: Phase 1 "Now through 2028""
— Moon to Mars knowledge base: Moon Base phases

Open questions

• ESA's and the UK's spending on PROSPECT: not in public sources.
• When ESA and NASA signed the CP-22 arrangement for PROSPECT: the sources say only that a CLPS flight was agreed at the beginning of 2022.
• Have PROSPECT's flight units been delivered to Intuitive Machines? Not in the sources read.
• Has sample transfer from drill to ovens been tested in reduced gravity? Not in the sources read.