Europe's participation in the mission received final approval at a meeting of ministers in December 2016. European Space Agency (ESA) will contribute with the development of a new type of automated landing system,[7] and will also be providing the 'PROSPECT' package, consisting of a drill (ProSEED), sample handling, and an analysis package (ProSPA).[8][9][10] The percussion drill is designed to go down to 2 m (6 ft 7 in) and collect cemented ice samples for an onboard miniaturised laboratory called ProSPA.[5][8] The scientific payload consists of fifteen instruments.[11]
The lander mission was announced in November 2014 by Russia,[12] and its launch is planned for 2028.[1]
Science payload
The lander will feature 15 science instruments that will analyse the regolith, plasma in the exosphere, dust, and seismic activity.[13]
The European Space Agency payloads under collaboration with Russia was planned to fly Package for Resource Observation and in-Situ Prospecting for Exploration, Commercial exploitation and Transportation (PROSPECT) program's ProSEED lunar sampling drill, ProSPA chemical laboratory and volatile analysis package and Exospheric Mass Spectrometer L-band (EMS-L) high-performance communications payload on this mission,[14][15] but the ProSEED and ProSPA will now fly on a NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services mission in 2025 and the EMS-L will now fly on JAXA/ISRO's LUPEX lunar rover mission in 2026[16][17] due to continued international collaboration being thrown into doubt by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and related sanctions on Russia.[18][19]
The notional instrument payload includes:
ADRON-LR, active neutron and gamma-ray analysis of regolith
^ ab"PROSPECTing the Moon"(PDF). European Space Agency (ESA). 18 May 2015. Archived from the original(PDF) on 28 September 2015. Retrieved 16 October 2015.