Investment

Shackleton Rover is conceived as a lightweight lunar expedition designed to deliver meaningful scientific, technological, and strategic outcomes at comparatively low cost. The mission will demonstrate how a carefully targeted robotic exploration mission could provide substantial national capability, and open the door to the lunar economy, without the scale or expense of flagship programmes.

We estimate the required investment to be £25 million across the 2029/2030 funding period. This represents exceptional value for money in exchange for the advances in national capability, scientific return, and strategic presence.

We concluded our Requirements Definition Meeting on 2 October 2026. These requirements will now be used to create a detailed schedule and budget for the mission, to build confidence in our estimates. This process will be managed by our Organising Committee, and conclude before the end of the year.

Separately, we will take advice on financial structuring.

Our plan is that, in early 2027, will be in a position to hold an Industry Day. This will provide an opportunity for sectoral leaders to engage with our mission.