WASHINGTON — NASA has selected nine companies to perform feasibility studies of commercial approaches to deliver spacecraft to Mars and provide services there.
The agency announced May 1 the selection of the companies for its “Exploring Mars Together: Commercial Services Studies” program. The nine companies received 12 awards; three of the companies received two each while the other six received a single award.
The contracts, valued at between $200,000 and $300,000 per company, are for 12-week studies to explore four topic areas where commercial services could augment NASA’s broader Mars exploration program: delivery of small spacecraft or hosted payloads to Mars orbit, delivery of large spacecraft or hosted payloads to Mars orbit, Mars imaging services and Mars communication relay services.
For delivery of small spacecraft or hosted payloads, NASA selected Firefly Aerospace, Impulse Space and Lockheed Martin. Firefly and Lockheed each proposed modifying a lunar spacecraft for use at Mars while Impulse Space would adapt a version of a space tug developed for operating in Earth orbit.
For delivery of large spacecraft or hosted payloads, NASA selected Astrobotic, Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance. Astrobotic would modify a lunar lander and Blue Origin would offer a version of its Blue Ring spacecraft, while ULA would adapt an upper stage.
NASA selected Albedo Space, Astrobotic and Redwire for imaging services studies. Albedo will study a version of the spacecraft it is developing to provide high-resolution Earth images, Astrobotic a version of its lunar lander equipped with an imaging payload and Redwire a modified commercial Earth imaging spacecraft.
Blue Origin, Lockheed and SpaceX won awards to study communications relay systems at Mars. Blue Origin would again use a version of Blue Ring, while Lockheed would use a modified Mars orbiter and SpaceX a version of an Earth orbit communications satellite, presumably from its…
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