The ESA Moon Challenge is an International Student Contest that focuses on human-robotic partnership for lunar exploration. The European Space Agency invites Universities from across the world to participate in this challenge as part of the Symposium Moon 2020-2030: A new Era of Human and Robotic Exploration.
ESA challenges teams comprising University students from at least two continents to design a mission scenario and operational concept for ESA's HERACLES study, Human-Enhanced Robotic Architecture and Capabilities for Lunar Exploration and Science. The architecture framework defines a series of end-to-end missions to the lunar surface, and serves both as inspiration and as a set of primary constraints for the teams. In addition to a conceptual study of the architecture, teams must submit a simulation illustrating the operational activities on the lunar surface and its vicinity. Students have a free choice of visualisation methods and tools, such as CATIA, Kerbal Space Program, Blender or Celestia.