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An operator, equipped with a spacesuit, tablet and a geological instrument for rock identification, carried out a simulated moon walk in the LUNA facility. Under realistic lighting, this was the first experiment to test the ergonomics of the scientific instruments for analyzing the mineralogical and chemical composition of the regolith

From March 6th to 7th, 2025, the German Space Operations Center (GSOC), the European Astronaut Center (EAC) and the Microgravity User Support Center (MUSC) conducted a successful test campaign with the Pistol Grip Tool (PGT), providing valuable insights for future lunar missions.

Among other interesting developments in space research and technology, LUNA was also an important part of the Space Day 2025 on 28 March 2025 in Cologne: The Analogue Facility was presented on several talks on the main stage and in the lecture rooms, and impressive images from the first campaigns

The Resilience lander, operated by the Japanese company ispace, carries a small Luxembourg-built rover called Tenacious – and although this rover is already en route to the Moon, it recently visited our LUNA Analog Facility in Cologne.

With the NASA Project Artemis well on its way to implement the first human colony on the lunar surface, Lunar exploration and colonisation are no longer a distant dream. At the unique LUNA training facility recently inaugurated at the DLR site in Cologne, astronauts, companies and space-oriented research entities have

On 6 February, we installed a broadband seismometer in LUNA and started operations. The seismometer is located on the floor of the hall under the regolith layer and will provide continuous data on the level of seismic background noise in the hall as well as on typical signals from the

The development of the LUNA Dust Lab has largely been completed, with the successful emplacement of 20t of anorthositic material provided to us bespoke from Greenland by the company LUMINA. This completes the main feature of the dust lab.

Golden packages on the Moon? Not exactly. This is no extraterrestrial gift depot, but a cutting-edge project in the LUNA hall. Here, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) has been researching how payload boxes, sensors, rovers and astronauts can connect to form an integrated network.

The uppermost meter(s) of the lunar subsurface potentially hold significant resources, like water ice, or lava tubes as possible shelters, that are crucial for a sustainable human presence on the Moon. While these depths are accessible to human and robotic exploration, the first step is knowing where to explore. Geophysical

The week of 11th of November 2024 marked the start of external user campaigns in LUNA, with two teams and MUSC (DLR’s Microgravity User Support Center) working together on measuring seismic vibrations. One team from ISAE-SUPAERO (Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace) in Toulouse, France, was testing geophones for