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NASA seeks firms to design, demonstrate 'Astronaut Moon landers' for future Artemis missions

NASA's Artemis program aims to accomplish several firsts, including sending a suite of new scientific equipment for research.

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NASA seeks firms to design, demonstrate 'Astronaut Moon landers' for future Artemis missions
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As NASA moves toward establishing a regular schedule of Moon landings, it is soliciting suggestions for the design and testing of sustainable lunar rovers. In order to conduct long-term scientific research and exploration, NASA plans to send people back to the Moon through Artemis missions, with the first woman and first person of colour among them.

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NASA's Human Landing System Sustaining Lunar Development request lays out the agency's expectations of businesses hoping to build and demonstrate manned Moon landers. Through these efforts, numerous businesses will be able to provide regular Moon landing services after the Artemis III mission, which is not expected to occur until 2025.

Successful bidders will be expected to demonstrate both an unmanned and manned lunar landing. Any lander system used in the crewed demonstration mission must first get NASA certification that it satisfies the agency's standards.

“Work done under this solicitation, in addition to current lander development and studies taking place, will help build the foundation for long-term deep space exploration,” said Lisa Watson-Morgan, program manager for the Human Landing System Program at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “Partnering with American companies to do that work now allows us to leverage NASA’s knowledge and expertise to encourage technological innovations for a sustained presence at the Moon.”

NASA issued a draught solicitation on March 31 and invited firms to provide input in order to design a vital part of the agency's Artemis architecture for human exploration. This feedback has been integrated into the final request for proposals. In addition, NASA held a virtual industry day in April to offer an overview of the request and provide businesses a chance to ask questions and provide feedback.

Both an uncrewed and a crewed lunar landing demonstration are included in NASA's current contract with SpaceX for the Artemis III mission, which will be humanity's first return to the Moon in more over 50 years. Option B of this contract will be exercised by the agency, and the company will be asked to improve upon the current design of the Artemis III Starship Human Landing System in order to fulfil a more extensive set of requirements for sustaining missions on the Moon and performing a second crewed demonstration landing.

Constant improvements to the lander are being made at the same time to ensure that it can dock with Gateway for personnel transfer, house a larger crew, and bring more mass to the lunar surface, all of which are requirements for NASA's long-term, recurrent access to the moon.

NASA's Artemis programme aims to accomplish several firsts, including sending a suite of new scientific equipment and technological demonstrations to the Moon for research, sending the first woman and the first person of colour to the Moon, and more. The agency will make use of the knowledge and tools gained via Artemis in order to be ready for the next big step: transporting humans to Mars.

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