NASA starts commercial service studies for science missions to Mars

The U.S. companies will perform a total of 12 concept studies, and each will receive between $200,000 and $300,000 to produce a report on specific potential services, including payload delivery, communications relay, surface imaging, and payload hosting.

“We’re in an exciting new era of space exploration, with rapid growth of commercial interest and capabilities,” said Eric Ianson, director of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. “Now is the right time for NASA to begin looking at how public-private partnerships could support science at Mars in the coming decades.”

The study areas include “space tugs” to carry other spacecraft to Mars, spacecraft to host science instruments and cameras, and telecommunications relays. The nine companies are: Albedo Space Corporation, Astrobotic Technology, Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Impulse Space, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Redwire Space, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX), and United Launch Services (ULA).

Science missions

Nasa’s selected Mars Exploration Commercial Services studies are divided into four categories:

Small payload delivery and hosting services

Lockheed Martin Corporation, Littleton, Colorado — adapt a lunar-exploration spacecraft
Impulse Space, Inc., Redondo Beach, California — adapt an Earth-vicinity orbital transfer vehicle (space tug)
Firefly Aerospace, Cedar Park, Texas — adapt a lunar-exploration spacecraft

Large payload delivery and hosting services

United Launch Services (ULA), LLC, Centennial, Colorado — modify an Earth-vicinity cryogenic upper stage
Blue Origin, LLC, Kent, Washington — adapt an Earth- and lunar-vicinity spacecraft
Astrobotic Technology, Inc., Pittsburgh — modify a lunar-exploration spacecraft

Mars surface-imaging services

Albedo Space Corporation, Broomfield, Colorado — adapt a low Earth orbit imaging satellite
Redwire Space, Inc., Littleton, Colorado — modify a low Earth orbit commercial imaging spacecraft
Astrobotic Technology, Inc. — modify a lunar exploration spacecraft to include imaging

Next-generation relay services

Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX), Hawthorne, California — adapt Earth-orbit communication satellites for Mars
Lockheed Martin Corporation — provide communication relay services via a modified Mars orbiter
Blue Origin, LLC — provide communication relay services via an adapted Earth- and lunar-vicinity spacecraft

Process

The companies were selected from among those that responded to a Nasa request for proposals back in January 2024.

The 12-week studies are planned to conclude in August, says the agency, and a study summary will be released later in the year. “These studies could potentially lead to future requests for proposals but do not constitute a NASA commitment,” it added.

Note also that this series of studies for science missions is separate from concurrent industry proposals for Nasa’a Mars Sample Return campaign, to bring samples being collected by the agency’s Perseverance rover to Earth.

Image: NASA/USGS – A mosaic made up of more than 100 images captured by NASA’s Viking 1 orbiter, which operated around Mars from 1976 to 1980

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