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Bottom up: the lunar south pole, seen in a composite image. Credit: NASA

Plans being drawn up by the European Space Agency (ESA) to send a robotic expedition to the south pole of the Moon to celebrate the millennium have received a cool response from the agency's Space Science Advisory Committee (SSAC).

The Euromoon project was chosen from two ‘millennium’ ideas presented to ESA's council last December. The other idea — the Star of Tolerance, a pair of orbiting balloons that would reflect sunlight back to Earth — was vetoed because of complaints that it would pollute the sky.

Euromoon was dreamed up by Wubbo Ockels, a former astronaut who now works at ESA's technology development centre, ESTEC, in the Netherlands. The mission would place a lander on the rim of the large Aitken crater at the lunar south pole.

The perpetual sunlight at that point — known as the Peak of Eternal Light — could provide constant solar power to the lander. Robots would gather samples from the crater, which is thought by some to contain ice.

The mission is ambitious, as a space vehicle would have to land with great precision on an area no larger than 100 metres square. Costs would be kept down to around ECU300 million (US$342 million) by using off-the-shelf technologies and a small team of young scientists. The plan assumes support from ESA's own technological and operational facilities.

Euromoon, which is already registered as a trademark, must seek private sponsorship as ESA is unlikely to use its own funds. The SSAC was asked to help develop a science programme for the mission. But at a meeting last week the panel expressed concern about the burden it would place on its overstretched budget, and the fact that the mission has not passed through the standard peer-review processes.

The committee has asked its solar systems science working group for further advice. If the mission is to be launched in time for the astronomical millennium — which starts in 2001, rather than 2000 — Euromoon must secure financing quickly.

European space industries have indicated willingness to provide resources for the project. But a major bid has yet to be launched to persuade other industries to inject cash in return for vaguely defined commercial gains and advertising prospects.