Three of the chosen companies Aerojet, Northrop and Whittinghill are assigned to do the research on the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV).
This mission of NASA’s is to help NASA develop a new model that can promote high-priority science goals.
Lockheed Martin, which built the spacecraft that had a successful landing on Mars, will be involved in "rapid mission design studies for Mars Sample Return," according to NASA.
The task of creating the proposal for the "High TRL (Technology Readiness Level) MAV (Mars Ascent Vehicle)" has been given to Northrop Grumman.
Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman were the two companies with strategic partnerships they had managed to develop the solid-fueled Mars Ascent Vehicle for NASA's existing Mars Sample Return mission.
Image of Mars captured by NASA’s Viking 1 orbiter (Photo- NASA)
On June 7, NASA announced it has chosen a proposal for seven companies that are going to conduct 90-day studies on NASA's one of the most complex missions, the Mars Sample Return (MSR) program. These studies aim to speed up and reduce the cost of transmitting the samples for this mission.
The seven companies that are selected for this mission are Aerojet Rocketdyne, Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Quantum Space, SpaceX and Whittinghill Aerospace, having award that is worth up to $1.5 million each. The space agency stated that up to $11 billion will be spent on the mission's studies.
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Eric Ianson, director of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, has said that the public-private partnership is beneficial for NASA, and now is the right time for NASA to explore this, as this could support Mars missions in the future.
NASA, in the proposal's request, mentioned their requirement, which includes goals of reducing the overall cost of MSR and peak annual spending, but offered no specific metrics, including a set target for speeding up the delivery of samples. The agency is ensuring about their requirement of wanting the companies to offer the proposed designs that are realistic rather than concepts intended to hit a specific cost or schedule target.
Three of the chosen companies Aerojet, Northrop and Whittinghill are assigned to do the research on the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV). All these companies were selected based on their responses to US industry requests on Jan 29. This mission of NASA’s is to help NASA develop a new model that can promote high-priority science goals.
Lockheed Martin, which built the spacecraft that had a successful landing on Mars, will be involved in "rapid mission design studies for Mars Sample Return," according to NASA. The task of creating the proposal for the "High TRL (Technology Readiness Level) MAV (Mars Ascent Vehicle)" has been given to Northrop Grumman.
Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman were the two companies with strategic partnerships they had managed to develop the solid-fueled Mars Ascent Vehicle for NASA's existing Mars Sample Return mission.
