NASA chooses 9 companies for Mars Exploration Program concept studies
By: CHINTAN
May 1 (UPI) -- Officials with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will pay nine companies between $200,000 and $300,000
"We're in an exciting new era of space exploration, with rapid growth of commercial interest and capabilities, Eric Ianson
"Now is the right time for NASA to begin looking a how public-private partnerships could support science at Mars in the coming decades," Ianson said.
NASA chose Lockheed Martin to adapt a lunar-exploration spacecraft, Impulse Space to adapt an Earth-vicinity orbital transfer vehicle and Firefly Aerospace to adapt a lunar-exploration spacecraft.
Those three companies will help NASA develop small payload delivery and hosting services.
Albedo Space Corp. will adapt a low-Earth-orbit imaging satellite, and Redwire Space will modify a commercial imaging spacecraft.
SpaceX will adapt Earth-orbit communication satellites for Mars, and Lockheed Martin will modify a Mars orbiter to act as a communications relay service.
Those technological developments will support NASA's next-generation relay services for the Mars Exploration Program.
The dozen studies will take about 12 weeks to complete and are slated to end in August. NASA will publish a summary of each study later this year.