Space News by Jeff Foust — September 7, 2017
NASA is preparing to release a solicitation for the commercial transportation of payloads to the lunar surface, the latest step in the agency’s efforts to help promote the development of commercial lunar landers.
In testimony Sept. 7 at a House space subcommittee hearing on private lunar exploration, Jason Crusan, director of advanced exploration systems at NASA, said the agency was developing a call for proposals for such services after evaluating the results from a request for information (RFI) earlier in the year.
“What we are now looking at doing is actually buying landed delivery services in the next fiscal year, of actually buying the first ability to land small payloads,” he said. “We’re preparing for the solicitation as we speak.”
That solicitation, he said, is being informed by responses the agency received from an RFI it issued in early May. That RFI sought details from companies about their ability to deliver “instruments, experiments, or other payloads” through the next decade to support NASA’s science, exploration and technology development needs.
That upcoming solicitation, Crusan said, would allow NASA to buy transportation for small instruments and technology demonstration payloads. “This is a sign of our growing confidence in the commercial industry,” he said, “and managing risk without getting too large or too costly a payload for us on their maiden flights.”
The upcoming solicitation is the latest step in a long-running, but low-key, effort by NASA to support the development of commercial lunar transportation systems. In 2014, NASA awarded Space Act Agreements to three companies developing lunar landers under the Lunar Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown (CATALYST) program, providing in-kind support to their efforts.
Two of those companies say they’re ready to start launching lunar lander missions, for NASA and other customers, as soon as next year.
More:
http://spacenews.com/nasa-preparing-call-for-proposals-for-commercial-lunar-landers/
