COLORADO SPRINGS (Sputnik) – Moon village – a product of international collaboration among spacefaring nations – already exists in contracts and remains an open concept, European Space Agency (ESA) Director-General Jan Woerner told Sputnik.
“It is not a project of ESA, everybody is invited,” Woerner said. “It is just an open concept and we are collecting institutions worldwide participating in that. It’s not a settlement for astronauts or cosmonauts.”
Woerner explained that the open concept means countries or entities who seek to send rovers or astronauts to the Moon, or otherwise explore the Moon, are all invited to be part of moon village.
“They are all invited to participate. So [moon village] is an umbrella for many different activities, but with joined forces worldwide without any national fences, without any national walls, it is an open concept to cooperate,” he said.
Woerner noted that the moon village is in a phase where some entities are offering transportation to the Moon, others are offering a rover and energy distribution on the Moon, while some are offering communications.
“Therefore, if there is a specific thing a company would like to offer, they should offer it,” he said.
Woerner made the comments on the margins of the annual 34th Space Symposium in the US state of Colorado.
The event brings together representatives of the world’s space agencies, commercial space businesses as well as military, national security and intelligence organizations to discuss and plan the future of space exploration.
Woerner said two moon village-related agreements were signed during the events.
“One agreement was [signed] between ESA and two British institutions concerning telecommunication to the surface of the moon,” Woerner revealed. “Another agreement was between these companies and an American company that is delivering a rover to the surface of the Moon.
Therefore, the moon village already exists in contracts, Woerner added.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
