NASA Backs 12 Innovative Studies to Enhance Mars Exploration

NASA has enlisted nine U.S. companies to conduct 12 studies on applying commercial services to Mars science missions. These studies, focusing on areas like payload delivery and communications, aim to establish a new paradigm for cost-effective, frequent Mars missions through public-private partnerships.

Nine U.S. companies have been selected by NASA to perform a total of 12 concept studies of how commercial services can be applied to enable science missions to Mars. Each awardee will receive between $200,000 and $300,000 to produce a detailed report on potential services — including payload delivery, communications relay, surface imaging, and payload hosting — that could support future missions to the Red Planet.