Close Menu
Ztoog
    What's Hot
    AI

    Google DeepMind Introduces Direct Reward Fine-Tuning (DRaFT): An Effective Artificial Intelligence Method for Fine-Tuning Diffusion Models to Maximize Differentiable Reward Functions

    Gadgets

    Airbnb bans creepy surveillance cameras inside rentals starting April 30

    Mobile

    Supposed render of Motorola’s Razr Plus 2024 looks familiar

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

      How I Turn Unstructured PDFs into Revenue-Ready Spreadsheets

      Is it the best tool for 2025?

      The clocks that helped define time from London’s Royal Observatory

      Summer Movies Are Here, and So Are the New Popcorn Buckets

      India-Pak conflict: Pak appoints ISI chief, appointment comes in backdrop of the Pahalgam attack

    • Technology

      Ensure Hard Work Is Recognized With These 3 Steps

      Cicada map 2025: Where will Brood XIV cicadas emerge this spring?

      Is Duolingo the face of an AI jobs crisis?

      The US DOD transfers its AI-based Open Price Exploration for National Security program to nonprofit Critical Minerals Forum to boost Western supply deals (Ernest Scheyder/Reuters)

      The more Google kills Fitbit, the more I want a Fitbit Sense 3

    • Gadgets

      Maono Caster G1 Neo & PD200X Review: Budget Streaming Gear for Aspiring Creators

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

      Upgrade your desk to Starfleet status with this $95 USB-C hub

      37 Best Graduation Gift Ideas (2025): For College Grads

      Backblaze responds to claims of “sham accounting,” customer backups at risk

    • Mobile

      Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge promo materials leak

      What are people doing with those free T-Mobile lines? Way more than you’d expect

      Samsung doesn’t want budget Galaxy phones to use exclusive AI features

      COROS’s charging adapter is a neat solution to the smartwatch charging cable problem

      Fortnite said to return to the US iOS App Store next week following court verdict

    • Science

      Failed Soviet probe will soon crash to Earth – and we don’t know where

      Trump administration cuts off all future federal funding to Harvard

      Does kissing spread gluten? New research offers a clue.

      Why Balcony Solar Panels Haven’t Taken Off in the US

      ‘Dark photon’ theory of light aims to tear up a century of physics

    • AI

      How to build a better AI benchmark

      Q&A: A roadmap for revolutionizing health care through data-driven innovation | Ztoog

      This data set helps researchers spot harmful stereotypes in LLMs

      Making AI models more trustworthy for high-stakes settings | Ztoog

      The AI Hype Index: AI agent cyberattacks, racing robots, and musical models

    • Crypto

      ‘The Big Short’ Coming For Bitcoin? Why BTC Will Clear $110,000

      Bitcoin Holds Above $95K Despite Weak Blockchain Activity — Analytics Firm Explains Why

      eToro eyes US IPO launch as early as next week amid easing concerns over Trump’s tariffs

      Cardano ‘Looks Dope,’ Analyst Predicts Big Move Soon

      Speak at Ztoog Disrupt 2025: Applications now open

    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

    Ensure Hard Work Is Recognized With These 3 Steps

    Technology

    Cicada map 2025: Where will Brood XIV cicadas emerge this spring?

    Technology

    Is Duolingo the face of an AI jobs crisis?

    Technology

    The US DOD transfers its AI-based Open Price Exploration for National Security program to nonprofit Critical Minerals Forum to boost Western supply deals (Ernest Scheyder/Reuters)

    Technology

    The more Google kills Fitbit, the more I want a Fitbit Sense 3

    Technology

    Sorry Shoppers, Amazon Says Tariff Cost Feature ‘Is Not Going to Happen’

    Technology

    Vibe Coding, Vibe Checking, and Vibe Blogging – O’Reilly

    Technology

    Robot Videos: Cargo Robots, Robot Marathons, and More

    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    Follow Us
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    • Instagram
    Top Posts
    Mobile

    New Windows on Arm x86 emulator Prism, tested

    With the subsequent main replace to Windows 11, Microsoft has promised some efficiency enhancements on…

    The Future

    Samsung launches 2 new Galaxy Watches with the Galaxy Watch6 and Galaxy Watch6 Classic

    Samsung´s newest unpacked occasion, it introduced 2 new Galaxy Watches that are coming down below…

    Crypto

    Ethereum ETF Race Gets Hotter As SEC Receives 11 Filings In One Week

    The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been flooded with many purposes for…

    Technology

    PUBG maker reveals upcoming Sims-like game with realistic Unreal Engine 5 graphics

    (*5*) to look ahead to: The Sims 4 is nearly a decade outdated, and no…

    AI

    Best 10+ AI Tools For Designers (2023)

    Kive is an AI-powered software supposed to make it easy for designers to arrange their…

    Our Picks
    Science

    Fermilab: Muons are still behaving oddly, which could break particle physics

    The Future

    Netflix Scam 2023: Hackers try stealing users’ payment details; Here’s how to stay safe

    Technology

    Pakistan’s election is both chaotic and predictable

    Categories
    • AI (1,482)
    • Crypto (1,744)
    • Gadgets (1,796)
    • Mobile (1,839)
    • Science (1,853)
    • Technology (1,789)
    • The Future (1,635)
    Most Popular
    The Future

    Fitbit Versa 4 Review 2022: A Basic Smartwatch With Long-Lasting Battery

    Technology

    Video Friday: Spot Levels Up

    Technology

    2024 election: How death threats influence Republicans to follow Trump

    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.