NASA Awards 14 Companies $370Mln For Moon Operations Technology

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th October, 2020) NASA selected more than a dozen companies to develop technology to sustain US Moon operations, Administrator Jim Bridenstine said at a virtual consortium on Wednesday.

"Together, NASA and industry are building up an array of mission-ready capabilities to support a sustainable presence on the Moon and future human missions to Mars," Bridenstine said. "These types of companies and capability they've developed are going to be transformational for how we explore space."

The awards totaled $370 million, about $270 of which will go to four companies that are developing cryogenic fluid management technologies needed for rocket fuel: one small business, Eta Space, plus three corporate giants, Lockheed Martin, SpaceX and the United Launch Alliance (ULA), NASA said in a press release.

Ten of the selections will support the development and demonstration of technologies including the separation of lunar ice into oxygen and hydrogen for rocket fuel plus oxygen to sustain human life, as well as power generation, energy storage and communications, the release said.

Bridenstine said NASA plans the first human lunar settlement in 2028, four years after a scheduled visit to the Moon's south pole by two American astronauts in 2024.