SDU to the Moon: Danish-led space mission to map the Moon’s surface
A consortium of Danish partners, led by the University of Copenhagen (KU), is set to carry out Denmark’s first-ever lunar mission. The mission will map the Moon’s surface in unprecedented detail, paving the way for safer landings and the future establishment of lunar bases.
The Moon’s surface is covered in fine dust, gravel, large rock fragments, and craters larger than the Danish island of Funen. Yet despite centuries of observation with telescopes, satellites, and the naked eye, our detailed knowledge of the Moon’s surface remains surprisingly limited.
That is about to change. The Moon’s rugged terrain will soon become far more familiar with the launch of the first Danish-led lunar mission, known as the Máni mission. The project moves forward after the European Space Agency (ESA) approved a number of new missions, including the Danish proposal.
The mission will be led by Jens Frydenvang, Associate Professor at the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen. He explains:
“With this decision, the largest Danish satellite mission ever is on its way to becoming a reality. This is the first time Denmark will lead an ESA mission, and the first time a Danish-led satellite will leave Earth orbit. Now the journey truly begins—it’s where things get really exciting.”
A Danish Collaboration
Researchers from the University of Copenhagen’s Globe Institute, the Niels Bohr Institute, and the Department of Computer Science will lead the mission and handle the processing of the data generated by Máni.
The project brings together a wide range of academic and industrial partners. These include the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Aalborg University, Aarhus University, the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), the Danish company Space Inventor, the Polish Academy of Sciences (Polska Akademia Nauk), and the French university Université Paris-Saclay. Space Inventor serves as the mission’s primary industrial partner and will be responsible for building the satellite and integrating instruments and components supplied by industrial partners in Poland, the Netherlands, and Slovenia.
SDU will contribute with expertise in research communication, astrodynamics, and spacecraft telemetry and communications. Students will also take part in related research projects, and machine learning algorithms will be developed to automatically identify rocks and craters in the surface images transmitted back to Earth.
Assistant Professor of Physics, Tobias Cornelius Hinse from SDU’s Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy says:
“At SDU and within the SDU Galaxy network, we are extremely excited about this project. We look forward to developing the science and technology needed to realize the mission by 2029. Much of this work will build on experience gained through smaller satellite missions at SDU, starting in 2026 already.”
SDU Galaxy is a network that brings together space-interested researchers and students at the University of Southern Denmark.
The Máni mission is scheduled for launch in 2029.
The Mission
The Máni mission is a lunar satellite mission designed to map the Moon’s surface using high-resolution imagery and to generate detailed 3D maps of the lunar terrain. The satellite will orbit above the Moon’s north and south poles—key regions for future plans to return astronauts to the Moon. In addition, the mission will study how light is reflected from specific areas of the Moon used to observe Earth’s reflectivity, known as Earthshine. These measurements will contribute to a better understanding of how Earth’s climate may evolve over time.