[ad_1]
WASHINGTON – NASA has awarded prizes to four companies worth an exact $ 25,001 to obtain lunar samples, as part of the agency’s effort to set a precedent for the ownership and use of resources space.
NASA announced on December 3 that it had awarded awards to ispace Europe, ispace Japan, Lunar Outpost and Masten Space System for collecting small amounts of lunar samples. The companies will be tasked with flying missions to the moon and demonstrating that they have collected the material through images and other data. NASA will then appropriate the materials.
The agency announced the initiative in September, stressing that the rewards are less about the samples themselves and more about the ability to mine and use lunar resources. “What we are trying to do is make sure that there is a standard of behavior that says resources can be extracted and that we do so in a manner consistent with the Outer Space Treaty.” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a Sept. 10 speech.
NASA officials reiterated the point during a call with reporters about the awards. “We want to explicitly demonstrate that you can extract and use resources, and that we will conduct these activities in full compliance with the Outer Space Treaty,” said Mike Gold, Acting Associate Administrator for International and Inter-Agency Relations . “This is the precedent that is important to create.”
NASA received 22 proposals. Phil McAlister, director of commercial spaceflight at NASA Headquarters, said the agency used a “technically acceptable lowest price” approach to evaluate the proposals, first determining whether or not the proposal was feasible. and met the agency’s requirements. He said 14 of the 22 proposals were rejected either for technical issues or for costs exceeding the agency’s limit.
NASA then selected the proposals, starting with the cheapest, until it hit its budget. This meant that NASA picked a proposal, by Colorado-based Lunar Outpost, that offered to sell NASA lunar hardware for $ 1.
“Lunar Outpost chose to bid $ 1 as a nominal amount,” said Justin Cyrus, CEO of Lunar Outpost. News. “A $ 1 offer was to show this contract as Lunar Outpost’s contribution to space resources to help establish a legal and procedural framework.
Lunar Outpost is developing a rover called MAPP that will fly to the moon on another company’s lander. While NASA said Lunar Outpost will fly on Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander at the moon’s south pole in 2023, Cyrus said his company is also in talks with Intuitive Machines, Lockheed Martin and Masten about the flight over. the lunar landers of these companies. This mission, he said, will be paid for by flying payloads onto the rover from other unidentified customers.
Japanese lunar lander developer ispace has received awards of $ 5,000 for its Japanese and European business units for separate lunar landing missions, one to Lacus Somniorum in 2022 and the other to the South Pole in 2023.
“For ispace, this collaboration with NASA in two regions where we operate shows the positive dynamics of our development as a company operating internationally,” said Takeshi Hakamada, managing director of ispace, in a statement. “For the space industry, as well as the potential of all industries on Earth, this marks the start of a cislunar economy where economic value can be created on the moon, outside of Earth – but for the benefit of the world. ‘Earth economy.’
Masten Space Systems received the biggest prize, $ 15,000, for a mission to the lunar south pole in 2023. The company was awarded a CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) contract from NASA earlier this year for a landing mission which will carry nine scientific and technological payloads. .
“When In Doubt: The Lasting Impact of Today’s News That NASA Is Buying Lunar Dirt From Masten Is To Eliminate The Uncertainty And Risks That Make Economic Activity Beyond Earth Too Much risky to act, ”society tweeted. “The purchase of today’s lunar regolith is modest measured in dollars, but monumental measured in terms of impact on releasing the value of space for humanity.”
The two ispace companies were among four outside the United States that submitted proposals. “We actually saw an advantage for other countries in this activity,” McAlister said, supporting broader policy goals. Luxembourg, where ispace Europe is headquartered, has a law that grants companies rights to the space resources they extract, based on a law passed by the United States in 2015. Japan is considering similar legislation .
NASA has not planned how it will collect or use the samples these companies collect. “While much will depend on where the initial human exploration activities take place, there is certainly a strong possibility, especially for the activities taking place in the South Pole, that we will indeed be able to collect the samples for analysis, ”Gold said. .
The awards are organized such that NASA pays companies 10% at the time of award, an additional 10% at launch, and the remaining 80% after the sample is collected. This structure is valid even for the price of $ 1 from Lunar Outpost. “Is NASA going to cut a check for 10 cents?” The answer is yes, ”McAlister said. “Yes, the shipping cost will be more than the check, which is pretty amazing.”
[ad_2]
Source link