Danish Aerospace Company A/S (DAC), Odense, has signed a contract with the European Space Agency ESA to develop and build a prototype of a new exercise device that can be used on a space station orbiting the Moon and eventually for Mars.

Lunar Gateway space station at the Moon. (Credit: NASA)

The Lunar Gateway is a new space station that NASA, ESA, Japan and Canada have agreed to develop.  NASA’s current plans envision launch and beginning initial operations of the Lunar Gateway in about 2028. The Gateway will orbit the Moon, where it will be visited by astronauts for 30 to 90 days at a time. The new exercise equipment can be used on other human Moon and Mars missions too.

This represents a big step forward for DAC, and the first time the company is seriously looking at moving further into space with its exercise equipment, after having supplied ESA and NASA with exercise- and medical monitoring equipment for more than three decades for the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS) programs.

DAC has signed the new Gateway Exercise Equipment study contract with ESA at the beginning of May.  Amentum Clean Energy from England will participate in the project as a subcontractor. Over the next six months, DAC’s sophisticated exercise technology will be refined further so the new exercise device can meet the unique requirements of the Lunar Gateway.  The new prototype will also include a new form of exercise -jumping - to help strengthen the astronauts' bones, muscles, and cardiovascular system while they are in space.

Longer stays in space are not possible without regular exercise to counteract the effects of weightlessness on bones, muscles and our cardiovascular system. Astronauts on the International Space Station today train, on average, two hours a day.  Astronauts, visiting the Lunar Gateway for 30-90 days at a time, will likely be expected to have similar exercise requirements.

Amentum Clean Energy’s contribution to the prototype study involves development of a vibration damping system that ensures vibrations from the astronauts' exercise do not propagate to the Lunar Gateway space station and disrupt systems and other research on board.

The Lunar Gateway will be launched in modules and assembled into orbit around the Moon, where it will serve as a communications hub, a scientific laboratory and a home for astronauts as part of NASA's Artemis program. The Lunar Gateway is an international collaborative project involving NASA, ESA, JAXA (the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency), CSA (the Canadian Space Agency) and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center from the United Arab Emirates. The Lunar Gateway will be the first space station far from Earth and much further out than where the ISS is orbiting today. The Lunar Gateway is expected to orbit the Moon in an elliptical orbit with a period of 7 days, and where the closest point to the Moon is 1,500 km above the Moon's North Pole and the farthest point is 70,000 km above the Moon's South Pole.  NASA’s plans for the Lunar Gateway envision it serving as a staging station for both robotic and manned exploration of the lunar surface, as well as a test bed for technologies for future manned missions to Mars.

"We are extremely proud that ESA has chosen Danish Aerospace Company to develop a prototype of the exercise equipment for the Lunar Gateway. This shows our extensive experience in this area, but it also offers a lot of new exciting challenges. The exercise equipment must be even more reliable than before, because it is much further away from home. For example, the electronics in the equipment must be able to withstand the much higher background radiation so far from Earth and still function, and the HALO module, where the astronauts will exercise, is much smaller than the modules on the ISS; so the exercise device we develop must be optimized even more. We are very much looking forward to contributing to this fascinating new area", says Thomas A. E. Andersen, CEO, DAC.

With on more than 30 years of experience in manufacturing highly reliable and accurate training equipment for the ESA and US space programs, Danish Aerospace Company A/S has in recent years developed several new advanced training devices, including the FERGO cycle ergometer (Flight ERGOmeter) produced for NASA and currently used on the ISS, as well as the E4D (Enhanced European Exploration Exercise Device) developed for ESA and expected to be launched to the ISS in the fall of 2025.

The HALO-habitation module for Lunar Gateway where the new exercise equipment will be installed and used. (Credit: NASA)

“I am sure that our vast experience with extremely reliable and creative space products has played a major role in securing this first Gateway exercise system contract with ESA. For more than three decades, DAC has supplied high-precision exercise equipment to the governmental space programs ESA and NASA, as well as to the private US space company Axiom Space. Denmark’s long participation in ESA’s manned space programs has helped pave the way for this contract,” continues DAC’s CEO Thomas A. E. Andersen.

 The Gateway Exercise Equipment study contract runs for approximately 6 months and has a total value for DAC of approximately EUR 580,000. (DKK 4.3 million).

 For further information:

Thomas A. E. Andersen, CEO, Danish Aerospace Company A/S

Cell phone: +45 40 29 41 62, Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.