NASA has selected 9 companies to study commercial Martian exploration services

NASA announced the selection of nine companies that will perform a total of 12 feasibility studies on Martian exploration services. These are detailed studies on how to transport material to the surface and manage communications with the Red Planet in the future.

Collaboration with private companies for the exploration of Mars is an approach that had already emerged as a possible NASA strategy several months ago. After having replicated for lunar exploration what was done for Earth orbit over the past twenty years, NASA has decided to do it for Mars too.

Initially, a request for proposal was made on January 29, in which NASA asked industries to share ideas for Mars exploration. Now the Agency has selected 9 companies, for a total of 12 projects, which will receive funding between 200 thousand and 300 thousand dollars.

The study will last 12 weeks, with a deadline in August. NASA will subsequently release a summary study by the end of 2024. With these 12 feasibility studies, NASA will then be able to decide in the coming years which ones to choose for the actual construction, and in which direction to go to explore Mars.

These funds will be used to carry out a more precise feasibility study on the 12 projects. Many of these projects are adaptations of assets and ideas already in development for the Moon. This is precisely the Moon to Mars approach that NASA designed for Artemis.

The 12 projects

Delivery and hosting services for small payloads

• Lockheed Martin Corporation, Littleton, Colorado — Adaptation of a craft for lunar exploration (probably Orion ed.)
• Impulse Space, Inc., Redondo Beach, California — Adaptation of a near-Earth orbital transfer vehicle (a space tug)
• Firefly Aerospace, Cedar Park, Texas — Adaptation of a craft for lunar exploration (probably the blue ghost lander ed.).

Delivery and hosting services for large payloads

• United Launch Services (ULA), LLC, Centennial, Colorado — modification of a cryogenic upper stage used near Earth.
• Blue Origin, LLC, Kent, Washington — Adaptation of a craft used for Earth and Moon orbit.
• Astrobotic Technology, Inc., Pittsburgh — modification of a lander for lunar exploration.

Mars Surface Imaging Services

• Albedo Space Corporation, Broomfield, Colorado — Adaptation of an imaging satellite used in low Earth orbit.
• Redwire Space, Inc., Littleton, Colorado — Modification of a commercial imaging satellite used in low Earth orbit.
• Astrobotic Technology, Inc. — Modification of a lunar exploration lander to include imaging for Mars.

Next generation relay services

• Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX), Hawthorne, California — Adaptation of communications satellites into Earth orbit (probably Starlink ed.) for Mars.
• Lockheed Martin Corporation — Provides communications relay services via a modified Martian orbiter.
• Blue Origin, LLC — Provides communications relay services via a satellite used for the vicinity of the Earth and Moon.

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