Swiss government provides six million Swiss francs for two space projects
Bern - The Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education, and Research is providing six million Swiss francs in funding for two space projects. One will see the ETH Zurich, Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences, Maxon, and ANYbotics develop a walking robot for lunar exploration. The other, conducted by s2a systems, EPFL, and the University of Bern, is developing optics for the Zimmerwald Observatory.
(CONNECT) The Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER) is providing a total of six million Swiss francs for two space projects. With the funding, the Swiss government aims to strengthen the international positioning of Swiss universities and industry players in space research, according to a statement from the EAER. The support comes from the national funding program MARVIS (Multidisciplinary Advanced Research Ventures in Space), which is a government tool for supporting national research and development activities in space.
The first project aims to develop a walking robot, MoonWalker, for lunar exploration. The project is being conducted by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and OST – Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences in collaboration with the Zurich-based robotics company ANYbotics and the drive technology specialist Maxon International from Sachseln in the Swiss canton of Obwalden. The MoonWalker should be able to reach difficult-to-access locations such as craters and caves.
“This project positions the Swiss partners well for potential European Space Agency (ESA) missions and represents an investment by Switzerland in the pioneering field of robotics research,” writes the EAER. The project will receive around 3.1 million Swiss francs in federal funding for the period from 2026 to 2029.
Just under three million Swiss francs is being invested in the second project, TESSA (Technologies to Enhance Space Situational Awareness), run by the University of Bern and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). Together with the company s2a systems from Val Terbi in the Swiss canton of Jura, they aim to develop an adaptive optical system for the Zimmerwald Observatory that detects objects in near-Earth orbit with even greater precision than before. Among other things, these innovative techniques for determining location and position make it easier to identify space debris, contributing to safer use of outer space. ce/mm