NASA sparked a race to develop the data pipeline to Mars

For decades, NASA has built and tested its deportation orbits and the spacecraft to transfer valuable data to Earth. Now the agency turns into a service to buy a service, just like it for launch and transfer the astronaut.

This PIVOT sparked a race, as the main competitors have developed ways to keep Mars tasks online. What is at stake is not a single contract: it’s a database for Mars.

This new approach, which will mix NASA assets and commercial infrastructure, will gradually replace the patching network on which the agency depends today. In general, this is done by the two orbits such as Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and MAVEN that picks up data from Rovers and Landers and transports them to the giant antennas of the deep space network on Earth.

NASA’s relay spacecraft is still in good health, but it was not supposed to be the permanent spine. the The last review of the agency In the tasks of the planets, the crucial role of MAven calls as a deportation and provides steps to keep it available in the early thirties of the last century. But in the end, this device will decompose.

At the same time, NASA, which runs DSN, is looking for solutions to increase these elderly assets. The goal, according to the measurement of the application for offers in July and today, is to create an inter -operating market as it can be one NASA from many customers instead of the operator.

The current demand is specifically dedicated to ability studies, not the purchase of instant devices. The ASK is two parts: “The Moon Line” between the moon and the earth and the Mars connections from one side to the tip of the transmission of data from the roof, through the orbit of Mars, and the operations centers on Earth.

It is a tremendous challenge. Any structure must deal with the vast distance between the Earth, the moon and Mars, the long cumin, the periodic solar overlap and the Earth’s vision windows, and high requirements for tolerant systems of errors. That is why NASA requires plans, to measure how the industry can solve these puzzles, rather than immediately jumping to purchases.

Although Techcrunch cannot confirm companies that offer concept proposals, a handful has already mocked their place in the race.

Blue origin Just uncover the niqab The orbit of the wireless and wireless communications based on the blue ring platform, is placed as a maneuvering and high -performance spacecraft to support NASA’s missions to Mars as soon as it is 2028. Rockket Lab promoted the concept of Orbiter Mars Telecom Orbiter, What the company says It is an essential element in its proposed structure for the campaign to return the sample of Mars.

In 2024, NASA’s Mars Explorement Program Separately funded 12 short commercial services studiesIncluding three studies of sequence services from the next generation, to Spacex, Lockheed Martin, and Blue Orige. The SPACEX proposal is likely to be a “satellite adaptation to Mars” satellite, derived from the online satellite constellation.

The long -term target is to convert the agency’s exploration agenda to the agency from the tasks of pure science into a permanent human presence on the moon, and eventually on Mars.