Scientists from the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków, the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, and Spacive will conduct a series of tests on a space excavator as part of ESA’s prestigious parabolic flight campaign. 

Polish scientists and engineers will take part in ESA 88th parabolic flight campaign, carried out in cooperation with the French company Novespace. The tests will be conducted in November, in the unique conditions of a parabolic flight, i.e., imitating conditions of reduced gravity, which will enable unique experiments to be carried out in conditions analogous to lunar gravity. The interactions between mechanical devices and lunar regolith will be tested. 

The flight will take place over the Atlantic Ocean. The main objective of the mission is to verify the technology for extracting lunar regolith, an element essential for space missions based on the concept of In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). 

According to the CBK PAN, Polish scientific institutions are intensively developing regolith extraction technologies. The DIGGER project, carried out by the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences (CBK PAN) in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA), plays a special role here. As part of the project, a Rotary Clamshell Excavator (RCE) device was developed – a mechanical regolith sampler that has achieved a technology readiness level (TRL) of 6. This means that the device is a functional prototype that has undergone environmental testing (e.g., launch vibrations, dust, temperature), but has not yet been tested under actual lunar gravity conditions — hence the need for parabolic flight experiments.