NASA is looking for partnerships from the private sector to help them in advancing the development of efficient and cost-effective lunar lander capabilities which may pave the way of delivering cargo payloads to the moon's surface and starting commercial activities.
Members of the U.S private sectors are invited to submit their proposals to be part of the development of the Lunar Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown (Lunar CATALYST). The Space Act Agreements (SAA) that will be forged out of these partnerships could benefit the private sector immensely as NASA's contribution to the agreement will include lending the technical expertise of their staff, loans and access to equipment for the lander development and testing, as well as access to the NASA test center facilities.
A pre-proposal conference will be hosted by the space agency on Monday, Jan. 27. During the event, interested parties will have the opportunity to ask questions about the Lunar CATALYST. Proposals should be submitted by March 17 and the selected organizations will be announced by April. The SAAs, on the other hand, is expected to be finalized by May.
Greg Williams, NASA's deputy associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, said in a press release, "As NASA pursues an ambitious plan for humans to explore an asteroid and Mars, U.S. industry will create opportunities for NASA to advance new technologies on the moon."
"Our strategic investments in the innovations of our commercial partners have brought about successful commercial resupply of the International Space Station, to be followed in the coming years by commercial crew. Lunar CATALYST will help us advance our goals to reach farther destinations." he added.
The moon's close proximity to the Earth may help in sustaining space exploration and the natural satellite also has the potential to supply important resources like water and oxygen. Commercial lunar activities could be used to assist in exploration objectives such as sample collection, technology demonstrations, and geophysical network deployment.
