WASHINGTON — NASA expects to have a greater understanding by this summer season of potential industrial partnerships to help future Mars science missions.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory issued a request for proposals Jan. 29 for “industrial service research” for future robotic Mars mission ideas. The research, with a price of $200,000 or $300,000, can be carried out over 12 weeks.
The research are meant to look at 4 particular design reference missions to discover industrial alternatives to help Mars exploration: supply of small payloads of as much as 20 kilograms to Mars orbit, supply of huge payloads of as much as 1,250 kilograms to Mars orbit, providers to offer high-resolution imaging of the Martian floor and communications relay providers between Mars and Earth.
The research are linked to a draft technique for future Mars exploration that NASA launched practically a yr in the past. That “Exploring Mars Collectively” technique outlined future robotic missions that NASA would ship to Mars after the Mars Pattern Return program. That included, NASA stated on the time, alternatives for industrial partnerships in further to standard NASA-led missions.
“We’re actually to see what the industrial sector can present from a industrial standpoint,” stated Eric Ianson, director of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, throughout a presentation on the March 4 assembly of the company’s Planetary Science Advisory Committee. “We’re desiring to make a number of picks for these research to evaluate price, feasibility and technological maturity of potential providers at Mars.”
Proposals have been as a consequence of JPL Feb. 27, and Ianson stated that the company was evaluating them with a purpose of creating awards in April. That will enable outcomes of the research to be revealed “a while in the summertime,” he stated.
A few of the research are meant to look at how partnerships might tackle looming gaps in NASA’s Mars infrastructure. “Our Mars relay community is getting older and we’re involved about having the ability to preserve the aptitude of offering information relay again to Earth from the Martian floor,” he stated. These providers are at the moment offered by science orbiters which were in service properly past their prime missions.
The identical is true for high-resolution imaging at the moment offered by the HiRISE digicam on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been at Mars for practically 20 years. “We’d like to search out out what else trade could possibly do on this space.”
The research would tackle not simply the technical feasibility of these proposed missions but additionally their industrial viability. Ianson cited information relay as a chief instance of that. “Is there an curiosity within the industrial sector in having the ability to present providers associated to comm relay at Mars, and in that case, what would that price, what wouldn’t it appear like, how would we develop that public-private partnership?”
The query of business viability was on the minds of committee members, who drew parallels to NASA’s Industrial Lunar Payload Companies (CLPS) effort. They questioned if there can be enough non-NASA curiosity in such missions to make industrial partnerships work.
“Mars might have some similarities, it could have some variations” from CLPS, he stated. One of many objectives of the research is to see how a public-private partnership may very well be structured “such that it’s helpful to each side.”
“I’d watch out about referring to it as ‘Mars CLPS,’” he added, noting that the research received’t cowl touchdown payloads on Mars. “I feel we’re a great distance away from that.”
“We’re not speaking about simply taking CLPS and transferring it to Mars,” stated Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s planetary science division, on the assembly. “It’s a unique enterprise mannequin. However, the thought of a service method is one thing that’s value exploring.”
In parallel to the industrial research, NASA is working to refine the Exploring Mars Collectively technique it rolled out final yr. That technique has existed primarily in charts and shows, Ianson stated. “We’ve obtained numerous feedback from the neighborhood. We’re folding them into the plan,” he stated, with a proper written model of the technique to be accomplished this summer season.