Close Menu
Ztoog
    What's Hot
    Science

    Astronomers are using a new supernova to search for alien signals

    The Future

    The ‘PS5 Pro Enhanced’ label could mean constant 60fps and ray-tracing

    The Future

    5 Key Elements of Professional Web Design That Every Business Should Consider

    Important Pages:
    • About Us
    • Contact us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest
    Ztoog
    • Home
    • The Future

      JD Vance and President Trump’s Sons Hype Bitcoin at Las Vegas Conference

      AI may already be shrinking entry-level jobs in tech, new research suggests

      Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answer and Help for May 26 #449

      LiberNovo Omni: The World’s First Dynamic Ergonomic Chair

      Common Security Mistakes Made By Businesses and How to Avoid Them

    • Technology

      Gemini in Google Drive can now help you skip watching that painfully long Zoom meeting

      Apple iPhone exports from China to the US fall 76% as India output surges

      Today’s NYT Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for May 26, #1437

      5 Skills Kids (and Adults) Need in an AI World – O’Reilly

      How To Come Back After A Layoff

    • Gadgets

      8 Best Vegan Meal Delivery Services and Kits (2025), Tested and Reviewed

      Google Home is getting deeper Gemini integration and a new widget

      Google Announces AI Ultra Subscription Plan With Premium Features

      Google shows off Android XR-based glasses, announces Warby Parker team-up

      The market’s down, but this OpenAI for the stock market can help you trade up

    • Mobile

      Microsoft is done being subtle – this new tool screams “upgrade now”

      Wallpaper Wednesday: Android wallpapers 2025-05-28

      Google can make smart glasses accessible with Warby Parker, Gentle Monster deals

      vivo T4 Ultra specs leak

      Forget screens: more details emerge on the mysterious Jony Ive + OpenAI device

    • Science

      Do we have free will? Quantum experiments may soon reveal the answer

      Was Planet Nine exiled from the solar system as a baby?

      How farmers can help rescue water-loving birds

      A trip to the farm where loofahs grow on vines

      AI Is Eating Data Center Power Demand—and It’s Only Getting Worse

    • AI

      The AI Hype Index: College students are hooked on ChatGPT

      Learning how to predict rare kinds of failures | Ztoog

      Anthropic’s new hybrid AI model can work on tasks autonomously for hours at a time

      AI learns how vision and sound are connected, without human intervention | Ztoog

      How AI is introducing errors into courtrooms

    • Crypto

      GameStop bought $500 million of bitcoin

      CoinW Teams Up with Superteam Europe to Conclude Solana Hackathon and Accelerate Web3 Innovation in Europe

      Ethereum Net Flows Turn Negative As Bulls Push For $3,500

      Bitcoin’s Power Compared To Nuclear Reactor By Brazilian Business Leader

      Senate advances GENIUS Act after cloture vote passes

    Ztoog
    Home » For the first time NASA has asked industry about private missions to Mars
    Technology

    For the first time NASA has asked industry about private missions to Mars

    Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp
    For the first time NASA has asked industry about private missions to Mars
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest WhatsApp

    Enlarge / NASA is all in favour of whether or not private corporations have the proper stuff for Mars.

    NASA

    NASA is beginning to take its first steps towards opening a industrial pathway to Mars.

    This week the house company’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory issued a brand new solicitation to industry titled, “Exploring Mars Together: Commercial Services Studies.” This is a request for proposals from the US house industry to inform NASA how they’d full one in every of 4 private missions to Mars, together with delivering small satellites into orbit or offering imaging companies round the purple planet.

    “The Mars Exploration Program Draft Plan by way of the subsequent twenty years would make the most of extra frequent decrease value missions to obtain compelling science and exploration for a bigger neighborhood,” the doc states. “To understand the objectives of the plan, authorities and US industry would accomplice to leverage present and rising Earth and lunar merchandise and industrial companies to considerably decrease the general value and speed up management in deep house exploration.”

    Design reference missions

    NASA can pay proposers $200,000 for a research of one in every of the reference missions, or $300,000 for a most of two research. The house company stated it intends to award “a number of” contract awards.

    In its 496-page solicitation, NASA outlines 4 “design reference missions” that corporations can bid on. Basically, the house company is asking corporations how they’d go about fulfilling these duties. Here are the 4 “reference” missions that corporations can bid on:

    • Smaller payload supply and internet hosting: Carry and ship Mars Exploration Program-provided payloads, together with doable deployed cubesats, and function in Mars orbit. Payload mass is up to 20 kg.
    • Larger payload supply and internet hosting: Carry and ship to Mars orbit a number of separable spacecraft, and optionally present companies for a number of hosted payloads, for an combination buyer mass of 1,250 kg.
    • Electro-optical imaging companies: Provide sensor and orbital spacecraft platform for imaging companies at Mars for 2 years. Imaging could be utilized in assist of observational science investigations, touchdown web site choice and hazard evaluation, change detection, and monitoring and planning for floor property.
    • Next-generation relay companies: Provide communications relay companies between Mars and Earth for floor and orbital property for 4 years.

    So what, precisely, is happening right here?

    In current years NASA has been evolving from ‘proudly owning’ all of the rockets and spacecraft that it makes use of to discover the Solar System to a extra services-based mannequin. A primary instance of that is the Commercial Crew Program. NASA doesn’t personal SpaceX’s Crew Dragon automobile. Rather it supplied a few of the funding wanted to develop the spacecraft, after which buys flights as wanted for its astronauts. SpaceX, in the meantime, owns and operates Crew Dragon and might fly private missions, such because it did with Inspiration4.

    Advertisement

    CLPS, however for Mars?

    The house company has prolonged this method to the Moon with the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, by which it buys lunar landings as a service from corporations like Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines, and Firefly. In return for accepting a better threat of failure (as in the current Astrobotic mission), NASA will get two huge perks: a a lot cheaper price and an more and more vibrant industrial house industry. The aim, ultimately, is to find a way to leverage the decrease prices of economic house to permit NASA to do extra science and exploration.

    With this new solicitation NASA is, for the first time, extending this industrial method to Mars. In that sense, this request for proposals is critical, despite the fact that the greenback quantities concerned are small.

    The elephant in the room when it comes to industrial Mars exploration is SpaceX’s Starship rocket, which is being designed and examined expressly for the goal of someday opening up the settlement of Mars. Ars explored the potential of Starship, and the way some scientists have been all in favour of seeing it used on Mars, in a function article a few years in the past.

    Casting a large web

    However, it’s clear on this solicitation that NASA is searching for a broad array of potential contributors. Sizing the payloads as small as 20 kg opens the door to numerous suppliers, and the imaging companies could be engaging to corporations already doing this in low-Earth orbit, reminiscent of Planet.

    “I’m curious to see if this request brings many new gamers to the desk, or if the distinctive challenges of Mars mixed with the low industrial worth will solely entice the identified gamers in the purple planet,” Tanya Harrison, a Mars scientists who co-founded the Earth and Planetary Institute of Canada, instructed Ars.

    This method has the potential for NASA to each take a look at the waters for industrial house at Mars whereas additionally offering some potential replacements for its growing older fleet there. For instance, the company’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been at the purple planet since 2006, offering an array of features, together with high-resolution imaging and relaying communications again to Earth from the floor. NASA is all in favour of whether or not industrial suppliers would possibly change a few of this performance.

    It does appear notable that NASA, at this time, shouldn’t be searching for a industrial lander for Mars. This could also be a bit too formidable at this time and sure would restrict the potential variety of bidders to only a handful, reminiscent of SpaceX and Lockheed Martin.

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp

    Related Posts

    Technology

    Gemini in Google Drive can now help you skip watching that painfully long Zoom meeting

    Technology

    Apple iPhone exports from China to the US fall 76% as India output surges

    Technology

    Today’s NYT Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for May 26, #1437

    Technology

    5 Skills Kids (and Adults) Need in an AI World – O’Reilly

    Technology

    How To Come Back After A Layoff

    Technology

    Are Democrats fumbling a golden opportunity?

    Technology

    Crypto elite increasingly worried about their personal safety

    Technology

    Deep dive on the evolution of Microsoft's relationship with OpenAI, from its $1B investment in 2019 through Copilot rollouts and ChatGPT's launch to present day (Bloomberg)

    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    Follow Us
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    • Instagram
    Top Posts
    The Future

    AI may already be shrinking entry-level jobs in tech, new research suggests

    If and when AI will begin changing human labor has been the topic of quite…

    Technology

    Battle Over Electric Vehicles Is Central to Auto Strike

    A battle between Detroit carmakers and the United Auto Workers union, which escalated on Friday…

    The Future

    [Great Deal] GoPro discounts its top of the line Hero 11 camera

    (*11*) The GoPro Hero 11 is a wonderful piece of equipment with an enormous vary…

    Gadgets

    Apple plans to split iPhone 18 launch into two phases in 2026

    Apple is planning to split the launch of the iPhone 18, anticipated in 2026, by…

    Mobile

    iPhone 15 vs Samsung Galaxy S23

    An Apple lover’s new favourite  The iPhone 15 gives compelling upgrades over the iPhone 14,…

    Our Picks
    Crypto

    Why Is Bitcoin Price Trading Sideways? 3 Key Factors

    Technology

    A look at US hospitals using sometimes flawed AI-based diagnosis tools, as some clinicians say they feel pressure from administrations to defer to the algorithm (Lisa Bannon/Wall Street Journal)

    Science

    These Mining Companies Are Ready to Raid the Seabed

    Categories
    • AI (1,492)
    • Crypto (1,753)
    • Gadgets (1,804)
    • Mobile (1,850)
    • Science (1,865)
    • Technology (1,801)
    • The Future (1,647)
    Most Popular
    Gadgets

    Save $48 on this pen with a hidden camera for a limited time

    Technology

    Switching to a Flip Phone Helped Me Cut Down on My Smartphone Addiction

    Mobile

    OnePlus OxygenOS 13.1 rollout adds cellular sharing, app switching, and more

    Ztoog
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest
    • Home
    • About Us
    • Contact us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions
    © 2025 Ztoog.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.