SoylentNews

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for takyon

NASA opens the floodgates for firms with planetary ambitions - SpaceNews.com

This article originally appeared in the Dec. 17, 2018 issue of SpaceNews magazine.

When NASA revealed the names of nine companies eligible for contracts to deliver payloads to the moon on robotic landers, it set off a flurry of activity among firms with related technology.

"Going back to the moon with commercial technology opens the floodgates," said Grant Anderson, president, chief executive and co-founder of Paragon Space Development Corp., a thermal control technology specialist and Moon Express teammate for NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.

NASA's recent moon missions have been few and far between, Anderson said. Companies competed for roles in a multibillion-dollar lunar exploration campaigns and if not chosen waited many years for another opportunity. Instead, CLPS offers firms a chance to bid for firm fixed-price task orders worth as much as $2.6 billion over a decade. Tasks include integration of NASA payloads onto commercial vehicles, transportation of payloads to the moon, delivery of scientific data obtained by commercial instruments and return of lunar samples to Earth.

In late November, NASA selected nine companies to participate in CLPS: Astrobotic Technology, Deep Space Systems, Draper, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, Lockheed Martin, Masten Space Systems, Moon Express and Orbit Beyond. Each of those firms is forming partnerships with additional companies, including many pairings not yet announced.

"All of the sudden there are opportunities for anyone," said Kris Zacny, vice president and director for Honeybee Robotics Exploration Technology Group, which develops scientific instruments and in-situ resource utilization technology.

"CLPS has the potential to be a great program," said Michael Sims, Ceres Robotics Inc. founder and chief executive, who established the Montara, California, company in 2017 after spending 21 years at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "We go from a couple of companies in the U.S. to nine companies viable to do work on the moon."

Original Submission