Space.com by Mike Wall 5/2/2024
The concept studies could end up aiding NASA's Mars science missions down the road.NASA has selected nine companies to develop concepts that could aid agency science missions to Mars down the road.
The agency is awarding each company between $200,000 and $300,000 for this early-stage work, with the goal of making robotic Mars exploration more efficient and more productive.
"We're in an exciting new era of space exploration, with rapid growth of commercial interest and capabilities," Eric Ianson, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, said in a statement on Wednesday (May 1), when the awards were announced.
"Now is the right time for NASA to begin looking at how public-private partnerships could support science at Mars in the coming decades," he added.
This idea is not new. NASA already does something similar with its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, or CLPS, which has sent agency science gear toward the moon on two private landers.
One of those landers — Intuitive Machines' Nova-C spacecraft, named Odysseus — made it to the lunar surface safely, acing its touchdown this past February. The other one, Astrobotic's Peregrine lander, suffered an anomaly shortly after its January launch and failed to reach the moon as planned.
More:
https://www.space.com/nasa-picks-nine-companies-mars-mission-ideas
