Solar System Internet Pathfinder mission design at ESTEC

ESA’s Solar System Internet Pathfinder Node-1 is a proposed mission that would lay the groundwork for future optical communication links, space internetworking and autonomous deep space navigation.

As with other ambitious space programmes, the Moon is an excellent stepping stone before venturing further to Mars and across the Solar System. ESA’s SSI Node-1 is a central element of ASSIGN (Advancing Solar System Internet and GrouNd), a proposed programme at the ESA Council Meeting at Ministerial level (CM25) in November.

ASSIGN will aim at federating existing and planned networks into a secure and resilient interoperable network of networks - the Solar System Internet – for ESA’s missions as well as institutional and commercial ones, and fostering European industry competitiveness for its realisation and future exploitation.

Its primary objective of the mission is to demonstrate reliable, routine operations of an optical trunk link within lunar orbit. It would also serve as a testbed for the core technologies essential to realising the Solar System Internet.

The initial mission design was completed at ESA’s Concurrent Design Facility at ESTEC, defining a clear path forward for payload development.