Spartan Space is a French space company specializing in the development of habitation systems for extreme environments. Based in

Septèmes-les-Vallons Septèmes-les-Vallons (; ) is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France. It is located 10.7 km (6.5 mi) north from the centre of Marseille. Population See also *Communes of the Bouches-du-Rhône departmen ...

, France. It is among the inaugural laureates of the TECHTHEMOON initiative by

CNES CNES () is the French national space agency. Headquartered in central Paris, the agency is overseen by the ministries of the Armed Forces, Economy and Finance and Higher Education, Research and Innovation. It operates from the Toulouse Spac ...

. The company is known for developing the EUROHAB concept, a lunar remote base camp designed as a payload for a robotic lunar lander, and the development of a IVA

space suit A space suit (or spacesuit) is an environmental suit used for protection from the harsh environment of outer space, mainly from its vacuum as a highly specialized pressure suit, but also its temperature extremes, as well as radiation and ...

. __TOC__

History

Spartan Space was founded in January 2021 by Peter Weiss, a Franco-German

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

. The capital was increased in June 2021 by introducing several shareholders into the company, such as the architect Jacques Rougerie and the astronauts Jean-Francois Clervoy and Jean Jacques Favier. In September 2021, a full-scale model of the EUROHAB concept was unveiled at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Dubai. The company has won several development projects with the

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

and the French National Centre for Space Studies (

), and is involved in the development of the Lunar I-HAB, the European habitation module developed by

Thales Alenia Space Thales Alenia Space () is a joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (company), Leonardo (33%). The company is headquartered in Cannes, France. It provides space-based ...

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

. In 2023, the

French National Assembly The National Assembly (, ) is the lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral French Parliament under the French Fifth Republic, Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (France), Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known ...

exhibited a second mock-up of Eurohab at the

Palais Bourbon The Palais Bourbon () is the meeting place of the National Assembly, the lower legislative chamber of the French Parliament. It is in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, on the Rive Gauche of the Seine across from the Place de la Concorde. The offi ...

in Paris.

Eurohab

Eurohab is a concept for a lunar surface habitat developed by Spartan Space. The idea was initially developed by Peter Weiss and Jean Jacques Favier and received a prize from the Foundation Jacques Rougerie. Eurohab is based on an inflatable habitat that can be transported to the lunar surface by a robotic vehicle such as the ESA Argonaut Lander or the Nyx Lander of The Exploration Company. Automatically deployed at the lunar south pole, it serves as a remote base camp for a crew of astronauts in extravehicular activity. Spartan Space developed a first mock-up of the habitat, which was exhibited at IAC 2021 and the French Pavilion of the

Expo 2020 Expo 2020 () was a World Expo hosted in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022. Originally scheduled for 20 October 2020 to 10 April 2021, it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Ara ...

in Dubai. In 2022, the company performed tests with the system in the desert of

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city is the seat of the Abu Dhabi Central Capital District, the capital city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE's List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, second-most popu ...

. Air Liquide and the French CEA joined the concept to provide an energy management system based on flexible

solar cell A solar cell, also known as a photovoltaic cell (PV cell), is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by means of the photovoltaic effect.

s, regenerative

fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen fuel, hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most bat ...

s and a management system based on

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

. The same year the concept was presented to the

French senate The Senate (, ) is the upper house of the French Parliament, with the lower house being the National Assembly (France), National Assembly, the two houses constituting the legislature of France. It is made up of 348 senators (''sénateurs'' and ...

as potential French contribution to the

Artemis Program The Artemis program is a Exploration of the Moon, Moon exploration program led by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), formally established in 2017 via Space Policy Directive 1. The program's stated long-ter ...

during a public audition.

References

{{reflist Space technology