Terrae Novae

Terrae Novae (Latin for 'New Worlds'), also referred to as the European Exploration Envelope Programme (E3P) and the Human and Robotic Exploration programme, is an optional initiative of the European Space Agency (ESA). It handles the development and operation of human spaceflight and associated robotic exploration missions aimed at three space destinations: Low Earth orbit (LEO), the Moon, and Mars.

The programme began in 2016 as E3P, following a 2014 ESA ministerial council resolution that outlined a European exploration strategy targeting LEO, the Moon, and Mars. E3P consolidated all of ESA’s exploration activities for these destinations into a single framework, taking over from the earlier Aurora programme and incorporating the ExoMars programme along with ESA’s long-term goals for human spaceflight. It was renamed Terrae Novae in 2021, and in 2022 the agency released the detailed "Terrae Novae 2030+ Strategy Roadmap". That same year, the ESA ministerial council approved €2.7 billion for the programme’s next phase, which includes the Argonaut, a large robotic lunar lander. In 2023, the programme issued a call for proposals for small missions focused on lunar exploration.

During the 2020s, Terrae Novae began developing two major space infrastructure projects for long-term, sustainable robotic exploration of the Moon and Mars. The Argonaut landers are designed to deliver heavy payloads to the lunar surface. The LightShip interplanetary space tugs, equipped with solar electric propulsion, will transport other spacecraft to Mars and later serve as communication, navigation, and weather satellites as part of the MARCONI constellation in high Mars orbit. Separately, the optional Advanced Research in Telecommunication Systems (ARTES) programme—not part of Terrae Novae—began developing the Moonlight Initiative, which aims to place a constellation of communication and navigation satellites around the Moon.

As of 2025, Terrae Novae includes Europe’s contribution to the International Space Station (ISS), with European astronauts joining both long-term ISS expeditions and short commercial missions; the European Service Module (ESM) for NASA’s lunar Orion spacecraft; and the uncrewed Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), an astrobiology-focused mission studying Mars’ atmosphere. The programme is also developing numerous future missions, spacecraft, and technologies. At the ESA