LightShip (spacecraft)

LightShip is a proposed class of uncrewed interplanetary spacecraft under development by the European Space Agency (ESA) that will serve as a space tug[1][2] for transporting payloads to Mars and provide communication, navigation, and weather monitoring services from a high Mars orbit. It will use its onboard solar electric propulsion to transport other spacecraft to vicinity of Mars and after the payload separates, LightShip will move to a high orbit of nearly 6000 km above the surface to form part of the Mars Communication and Navigation Infrastructure (MARCONI).[3][4][5][6]

It is named after a lightship—a ship that acts as a lighthouse.[3] ESA specifically cites the East Goodwin lightship whose captain sent the first radio distress signal using Guglielmo Marconi's wireless technology in 1899.[3][7]

If approved, the first LightShip mission will take place in 2032. Subsequent launch windows open in 2035 and 2037.[3]

The first mission of LightShip will deliver a Mars surface-imaging orbiter called SpotLight. Its primary payload will be high resolution and medium-resolution context cameras. SpotLight will separate from LightShip-1 during the interplanetary cruise and enter Martian orbit using its own propulsion. LightShip-1 will then enter into its own operational orbit to demonstrate its MARCONI communications and navigation systems.[5][8][9]

• List of European Space Agency programmes and missions
• Lightvessel stations of Great Britain

This article about one or more spacecraft of a European multinational organisation is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information.

• v
• t
• e