Archive for June, 2022

 

Credit: NASA/Institute of Biomedical Problems

 

A 5-member international crew is wrapping up 240 days in conditions that simulate the work of a real space expedition on a lunar orbital station and the surface of the Moon.

Called the Scientific International Research In Unique terrestrial Station (SIRIUS), dozens of experiments were carried out related to preparation for further space exploration by humans.

Credit: Institute of Biomedical Problems

 

SIRIUS-21 has been underway at the Moscow-based Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. SIRIUS is supported by the NASA Human Research Program.

The crew (three men and two women) includes Russian, American and Arab participants.

Sirius-21 crew members.
Credit: Institute of Biomedical Problems

Isolation study

On July 3, 2022, the SIRIUS-21 space experiment is to be completed. The mission began November 4, 2021.

This 240-day isolation study included simulating a voyage to the Moon.

During the experiment that mimicked a flight to the Moon, there were a number of problems expeditionary space crews faced, such as:

  • sensory deprivation, monotony, limited social contacts, limited living space and managed habitat
  • factors of autonomous interplanetary flight, including limiting the resources of the expedition and extravehicular activities on the planet’s surface
  • professional activities of the crew (docking of transport ships, landing of the lunar module, control of robotic equipment)
  • communication delay up to 5 minutes one way

An unexpected emergency

The mission began with a crew of six but one person had to exit the study early in the mission for medical reasons, with the remaining five completing the mission this Sunday.

At the time IBMP released a statement as it was a Russian crew member.

“On the Mission Day 33, a real emergency situation took place – one of the crew members, Ekaterina Karyakina, received a minor arm injury during exercise on the working model of a multifunctional weight training machine. Being in close cooperation with the ground support services, the crew provided E. Karyakina with the necessary medical assistance and helped with providing diagnostic measures.”

Given expert medical advice, the management of the SIRIUS Project decided to withdraw Karyakina from the experimental facility. Implementation of the scientific program for the SIRIUS-21 240-day Isolation Experiment continued in full.

Exploration stresses

Credit: Institute of Biomedical Problems

SIRIUS analog missions assist NASA in gaining knowledge about the physiological and psychological “exploration stresses” of remoteness and confinement in humans – all in preparation for sustained Artemis expeditions to the Moon and on-the-horizon flight of crews to Mars.

Credit: Institute of Biomedical Problems

Composition of the crew includes a crew commander, flight engineer, a doctor and researchers.

The activities of the crew during the experiment are based on the basic provisions of the Code of Professional Ethics of Cosmonauts of the Russian Federation and the Code of Conduct for the International Space Station crew.

Credit: Inmarsat

A worrisome new report finds that people are unaware about the benefits of using space, and a majority view space as a threat, with space junk and climate change main concerns.

The newly-released society snapshot took in 20,000 respondents across 11 countries.

Unveiled by Inmarsat, a global, mobile satellite communications provider, the report signals that people have a low understanding of the size and richness of the work being done in space today.

Credit: Inmarsat

Underappreciated and misunderstood

Rajeev Suri, CEO of Inmarsat, said in a statement: “This report should be a wake-up call for our industry. Space appears to be underappreciated and misunderstood in the real-world. In many respects, the knowledge we possess as a society is inaccurate and incomplete.”

The Inmarsat report — “What on Earth is the value of space?” — found that those aged 65 and above, who were teenagers when humans first walked on the Moon, are more optimistic and hopeful than Gen-Z. They are more likely to associate space with research and exploration, rockets, and satellites – with their understanding of space more rooted in science than science-fiction.

Report findings

Other findings of the report include:

  • People’s ambitions for space center around tackling major challenges on Earth – finding new energy sources, essential resources, and helping solve climate change. However, this does not yet counteract our fears – as 97 per cent of the global population feel space is a threat.
  • One in 9 people are “terrified” of what could happen in space – with space junk and collisions in orbit (47 per cent), pollution (39 per cent), and damaging the Earth’s atmosphere (35 per cent) seen as the top threats. Older people are more worried about space junk, while younger generations fear the environmental impact most.
  • Only a quarter of the public (23 per cent) said they feel space exploration is “important.” Almost half (46 per cent) consider satellites when thinking of space, while 37 per cent think of expeditions to the Moon and Mars, 21 per cent think of aliens, and almost 1 in 10 think of Star Wars (9 per cent). Fewer than 1 in 10 people globally think of communications and connectivity.
  • The research highlights a small core of people globally who are aware of the potential for space to answer many of the world’s challenges. For example, 7% of respondents said that space can alleviate poverty. While another 7% thought space can support the goal of producing enough food to feed our growing population. 11% imagined space will have a role in researching and finding cures for diseases like cancer.

Credit: Inmarsat

Global respondents

Touted as the largest independent global representative consumer survey of attitudes towards space included 20,000 respondents (18-65+ years of age) across the UK (3,000), US (2,000), Brazil (2,000), Canada (2,000), Germany (2,000), Australia (2,000), China (2,000), India (2,000), South Korea (1,000), Japan (1,000) and UAE (1,000).

Credit: Inmarsat

 

 

The study was conducted by Yonder Consulting in April 2022 on behalf of Inmarsat.

 

 

 

 

To view the full report — “What on Earth is the value of space?” — go to:

https://www.inmarsat.com/en/insights/corporate/2022/value-of-space.html

China’s Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter.
Credit: CNSA

China’s Tianwen-1 Mars mission has completed all of its “preset” scientific tasks.

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) stated on Wednesday that the orbiter has obtained medium-definition images of the entire planet, marking the completion of its scientific goals.

Tianwen-1 orbiter imagery is being used to create a global mosaic of the Red Planet. Shown here is Ascraeus Mons imaged by the orbiter’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Camera.
Credit: CNSA

Credit: CNSA

Credit: CNSA

Credit: CNSA

CNSA said that orbiter will continue to carry out extended remote-sensing operations and technological tests.

Several new orbiter images were released by CNSA.

Dormant rover

In the meantime, the Zhurong Mars rover, now in dormant mode since mid-May, is expected to resume its duties in December, when the weather on the Red Planet is more favorable.

China’s Zhurong rover.
Credit: CNSA

Zhurong has wheeled nearly 1.2 miles (2,000 meters) across its Utopia Planitia exploration zone.

According to the CNSA, the 13 scientific instruments on the orbiter and the rover have transmitted nearly 1,040 gigabytes of raw data back to Earth.

The Tianwen-1 Mars mission — comprised of an orbiter, lander, and rover — was launched on July 23, 2020, slipping into orbit in February of last year.

Credit: Asteroid Day Live

The Asteroid Foundation’s annual Asteroid Day LIVE program returns in person Thursday, June 30, 2022 at 11:00 Central European Time (CET). Astronauts, experts and science communicators from across the world will converge on Luxembourg to discuss the importance of asteroid research, missions, and advances in space-based technologies.

The four-hour-long program promises to vividly bring the solar system’s smallest worlds to life for audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

Credit: Asteroid Day Live

Seven panel discussions will tell the full story of asteroids; from the formation of the Solar System, 4.6 billion years ago, to the scientific work taking place today, and our future prospects as we begin to imagine ways to utilize the resources asteroids contain. Also spotlighted is how can we defend Earth if and when we spot a threatening asteroid.

Asteroid Day is held on June 30 each year to mark the date of Earth’s largest asteroid impact in recorded history: the Tunguska, Siberia event.

Credit: SES

Connections

Asteroid Day’s Luxembourg-based partners Broadcasting Center Europe (BCE) and SES will make Asteroid Day TV available for millions to tune in via SES satellite.

 

For more details on Asteroid Day LIVE, visit

https://asteroidday.org/asteroid-day-live

Join in the Asteroid Day conversation on Social Media:

Hashtags: #AsteroidDay #AsteroidDayLIVE #AsteroidDayTV #Luxembourg

Website: https://asteroidday.org/

Twitter: @asteroidday

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/asteroidday

Facebook: www.facebook.com/AsteroidDay

YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/asteroidday

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asteroidday

Curiosity Mast Camera (Mastcam) Left photo acquired on Sol 3512, June 23, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3514 duties.

“Drill success!” reports Ken Herkenhoff, a planetary geologist at USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona. “Our first drill attempt since last November was successful!”

The new drill hole is surrounded by drill tailings as expected. This is one of several times in Curiosity’s mission, Herkenhoff adds, that drilling had to be re-designed to overcome an anomaly, again requiring lots of careful planning and testing using nearly identical drill hardware at JPL. “Kudos to the anomaly resolution team and thanks for all the good work that enabled the capability to drill again!”

Drilling is required to acquire samples of rock and deliver them to the laboratory instruments, the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite and Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction/X-Ray Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin) inside the rover.

“So this is a day of celebration for the MSL science team,” Herkenhoff notes.

Curiosity Mast Camera (Mastcam) Right image taken on Sol 3512, June 23, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Portion characterization

“But before any sample can be delivered to CheMin or SAM, we have to see the results of the drill sample portion characterization that was planned last Wednesday,” Herkenhoff explains. “These results will not be relayed to Earth in time for planning Sols 3514 through 3516, so this weekend’s plan includes many remote sensing and environmental observations, including more Mastcam and Navcam images of the terrain east and west of the rover at various times of day to improve the sampling of observational geometries needed to constrain the photometric behavior of the surface materials.”

Curiosity Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 3513, June 24, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL

Such photometric observations are useful in determining the scattering properties and roughness of the rocks, soil and dust on the surface.

Sedimentary structures

Curiosity’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) will also be busy, with the Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) rasters planned on each sol, of targets “Magna Brava” (local bedrock), “Rio Uraricoera” (a vein), and “Wiapri” (a dark rock).

Mastcam will document the LIBS spots on each of these targets, Herkenhoff adds, and on the morning of Sol 3514 will acquire a 12×2 stereo mosaic extending the coverage of sedimentary structures at Marbura Hill and a multispectral observation of disturbed soil at “Kamana.” That afternoon, Navcam and Mastcam will examine the properties of dust in the atmosphere and Mastcam will acquire two more stereo mosaics, of “Amacuro” and “Deepdale.”

Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3513, June 24, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Dust, dust devils and clouds

On Sol 3515, Mastcam and Navcam will measure the amount of dust in the atmosphere and Navcam will search for dust devils and clouds more extensively than usual, as additional time and power are available this weekend.

Navcam will search for clouds before dawn and Mastcam will measure the amount of dust above the rover later the next morning. Navcam will search again for clouds and dust devils later that sol.

“The rover will wake up before dawn again on Sol 3517 to allow Navcam to search for clouds,” Herkenhoff reports. “Later than morning, Mastcam and Navcam will measure atmospheric dust content before Navcam searches for clouds one more time.”

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this view of layered, flaky rocks believed to have formed in an ancient streambed or small pond. The six images that make up this mosaic were captured using Curiosity’s Mast Camera, or Mastcam, on June 2, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) and Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) will also monitor the environmental conditions through the weekend plan.

“So MSL [Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity] will be busy,” Herkenhoff concludes, “while we wait for news of the sample portion characterization!”

As always, dates of planned rover activities are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.

Credit: Boeing/Inside Outer Space Screengrab

 

That Earth-circling U.S. military X-37B robotic space drone is closing in on a new long-duration record.

The Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-6) is also called USSF-7 for the U.S. Space Force, and was launched on May 17, 2020 by an Atlas-V 501 booster and is winging past 770 days.

Flight of a previous record-holder was OTV-5 that spent nearly 780 days on-orbit.

Encapsulated X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle for U.S. Space Force-7 mission, now in Earth orbit.
Credit: Boeing

Onboard experiments

While the Boeing-built robotic space plane’s on-orbit primary agenda is classified, some of its onboard experiments were discussed pre-launch.

One experiment onboard the space plane is from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), an investigation into transforming solar power into radio frequency microwave energy. The experiment itself is called the Photovoltaic Radio-frequency Antenna Module, PRAM for short.

X-37B handout.
Credit: Boeing

Along with toting NRL’s PRAM into Earth orbit, the X-37B also deployed the FalconSat-8, a small satellite developed by the U.S. Air Force Academy and sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory to conduct several experiments on orbit.

In addition, two NASA experiments are tucked onboard the space plane to study the effects of the space environment on a materials sample plate and seeds used to grow food.

 

 

 

OTV-6 is the first to use a service module to host experiments. The service module is an attachment to the aft of the vehicle that allows additional experimental payload capability to be carried to orbit.

The U.S. Air Force’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle 4 is seen after landing at NASA ‘s Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida on May 7, 2017.
Credit: U.S. Air Force courtesy photo

Earlier flights

Here’s a roster of X-37B missions showing the increasing duration of flight time.

OTV-1: launched on April 22, 2010 and landed on December 3, 2010, spending over 224 days on orbit.

OTV-2: launched on March 5, 2011 and landed on June 16, 2012, spending over 468 days on orbit.

OTV-3: launched on December 11, 2012 and landed on October 17, 2014, spending over 674 days on-orbit.

OTV-4: launched on May 20, 2015 and landed on May 7, 2015, spending nearly 718 days on-orbit.

OTV-5: launched on September 7, 2017 and landed on October 27, 2019, spending nearly 780 days on-orbit.

As to when and where OTV-6 will return to a wheels-stopped landing is anybody’s guess.

OTV-1, OTV-2, and OTV-3 missions landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, while the OTV-4 and OTV-5 missions landed at Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

Post-landing of OTV-5 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility.
Courtesy Photo 45th Space Wing Public Affairs

Overseeing operations

The X-37B program is flown under the auspices of a U.S. Space Force unit called Delta 9, established and activated July 24, 2020.

In a description of Delta 9, current as of September 2020:

“Delta 9 Detachment 1 oversees operations of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, an experimental program designed to demonstrate technologies for a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform for the U.S. Space Force,” according to a fact sheet issued by Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado.

Delta 9 unit emblem.
Credit: U.S. Space Force

“The mission of Delta 9 is to prepare, present, and project assigned and attached forces for the purpose of conducting protect and defend operations and providing national decision authorities with response options to deter and, when necessary, defeat orbital threats,” the fact sheet explains. “Additionally, Delta 9 supports Space Domain Awareness by conducting space-based battlespace characterization operations and also conducts on-orbit experimentation and technology demonstrations for the U.S. Space Force.”

Vehicle features

Boeing, as the space plane maker, notes that the vehicle features many elements that mark a first use in space, including:

  • Avionics designed to automate all de-orbit and landing functions.
  • Flight controls and brakes using all electro-mechanical actuation; no hydraulics on board.
  • Built using a lighter composite structure, rather than traditional aluminum.
  • New generation of high-temperature wing leading-edge tiles and toughened uni-piece fibrous refractory oxidation-resistant ceramic (TUFROC) tiles.
  • Advanced conformal reusable insulation (CRI) blankets.
  • Toughened uni-piece fibrous insulation (TUFI) impregnated silica tiles.

Air Force X-37B space plane.
Credit: Boeing

According to a Boeing fact sheet, “the X-37B is one of the world’s newest and most advanced re-entry spacecraft, designed to operate in low-earth orbit, 150 to 500 miles above the Earth. The vehicle is the first since the Space Shuttle with the ability to return experiments to Earth for further inspection and analysis. This United States Air Force unmanned space vehicle explores reusable vehicle technologies that support long-term space objectives.”

At first designed to fly 270 days per mission, Boeing adds that “the X-37B has set progressive records for time on orbit during each of its five previous missions.”

Credit: Kevin Fetter

 

 

 

Go to this June 25, 2022 video of OTV-6 flying overhead, taken by Canadian skywatcher Kevin Fetter. “Nice to have a clear sky again, after a few cloudy one’s,” he says.

Video at: https://youtu.be/WbpLxDxVDS8

CAPSTONE over the Moon’s North Pole. After arrival at its cis-lunar destination, CAPSTONE will begin its 6-month-long primary mission. The mission will validate a near rectilinear halo orbit’s characteristics by demonstrating how to enter into and operate in the orbit.
Illustration credit: NASA/Daniel Rutter

 

NASA’s CAPSTONE CubeSat mission is set for its Moon-bound departure to demonstrate a unique orbit for future NASA Artemis missions.

Liftoff from the Rocket Lab launch facility in Mahia, New Zealand atop the firm’s Electron booster is now set for Tuesday, June 28, 2022. CAPSTONE launch broadcast coverage from New Zealand starts at 5:00 a.m. EDT. Instantaneous launch opportunity is at 5:55 a.m. EDT.

Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket sits on the pad at the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand for wet dress rehearsal ahead of the CAPSTONE launch.
Credit: Rocket Lab

 

The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Equipment (long space-speak for CAPSTONE) is to head for cislunar space – the orbital area near and around the Moon – and demonstrate an innovative spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation technology.

Orion spacecraft pulls up to Gateway.
Credit: NASA

Gateway outpost

The destination for this microwave oven-size CubeSat is a near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO), the orbit of choice planned for Gateway, the multipurpose outpost for long-term lunar missions as part of NASA’s Artemis program.

The Gateway in lunar orbit is where astronauts will transfer between the Orion piloted spacecraft and the lander on regular Artemis missions.

Gateway will remain in orbit for more than a decade. In that time it provides a place to live and work, and support long-term science and human exploration on and around the Moon.

CAPSTONE team members install solar panels onto the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment – at Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems Inc. in Irvine, California.
Credits: NASA/Dominic Hart

Key players

CAPSTONE is commercially owned and operated by Advanced Space in Westminster, Colorado, on behalf of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.

Other key players for CAPSTONE include:

  • Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc., a Terran Orbital Corporation: Spacecraft design, development and implementation, hardware manufacturing, assembly, testing and mission operations support.
  • Stellar Exploration: Propulsion subsystem provider.
  • Space Dynamics Lab (SDL): Iris radio and navigation firmware provider.
  • Orion Space Solutions (formerly Astra): Chip Scale Atomic Clock (CSAC) hardware provider necessary for the 1-way ranging experiment.
  • Tethers Unlimited, Inc.: Cross Link radio provider.

Six days after launch, the Rocket Lab Photon upper stage will release CAPSTONE into space for the first portion of the spacecraft’s solo flight.

After a four-month journey to the Moon, CAPSTONE will test the dynamics of the NRHO for at least six months.

Live launch coverage will begin at 5 a.m. Eastern on NASA Television, at: https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive

Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

Late last year, sky watchers reported that a rocket body was heading towards a lunar collision, destined to make its demise on the Moon.

On March 4, 2022 that hardware smacked into the Moon near Hertzsprung crater.

Now thanks to the sharp-shooting NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft, the results of that grand slam have been spotted: a double crater roughly 92-feet (28 meters) wide in the longest dimension.

Double-dipping

“The double crater was unexpected and may indicate that the rocket body had large masses at each end,” reports Mark Robinson, the principal investigator for LRO’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC, at Arizona State University in Tempe.

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).
Credit: NASA/GSFC

“Typically a spent rocket has mass concentrated at the motor end; the rest of the rocket stage mainly consists of an empty fuel tank. Since the origin of the rocket body remains uncertain, the double nature of the crater may help to indicate its identity,” Robinson adds.

No other rocket body impacts on the Moon created double craters.

Craters formed by impacts of the Apollo S-IVB stages: crater diameters range from 35 to 40 meters in the longest dimension.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

 

Apollo upper stage craters

The four Apollo SIV-B craters that struck the Moon were somewhat irregular in outline (Apollos 13, 14, 15, 17) and were substantially larger than each of the double craters.

The maximum width of 95 feet (29 meters) of the double crater of the mystery rocket body was near that of the S-IVBs, Robinson reports.

 

Artist’s impression of DSCOVR on the way to L1 atop its Falcon 9 upper stage in 2015.
Credit: SpaceX

Miss and hit predictions

First thought to be a SpaceX upper stage, it was later tagged by Bill Gray of Project Pluto as a leftover from China’s Chang’e 5-T1 lunar mission in 2014.

Gray says that before the actual March 4 impact he had computed a prediction for the impact location, as had the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

Those predictions differed by about 5 miles (8 kilometers) “which didn’t really surprise either off us,” Gray says in an email. “Their position was close enough to mine, and mine to theirs, to be consistent with the data we had.”

The actual impact location was uncertain, mainly because last observations were made about four weeks before impact. “After that, the object was too close to the Sun in the sky to be able to point a telescope at it.” Gray added. “The telescopic observations were of good quality and gave us an excellent idea of what the trajectory was at that time.”

Gray noted that the problem was that spacecraft and space junk are gently pushed by sunlight, in a way that depends on how the objects are oriented as they tumble end over end. It’s a small push, he said, but over the four weeks, observers knew it could push the object miles one way or the other,  in a poorly-determined direction. 

Read the rest of this entry »

This illustration shows a concept for multiple robots that would team up to ferry to Earth samples collected from the Mars surface by NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA is pressing ahead on the agency’s long-sought robotic Holy Grail mission – rocketing back to Earth pieces of Mars. This fast-paced, multi-billion dollar endeavor is dedicated to hauling back planetary particulars from the Red Planet to our world in the early 2030’s.

A Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign is now being orchestrated by NASA and the European Space Agency, a multi-spacecraft enterprise that’s already underway as NASA’s Perseverance rover wheels away on the Red Planet at Jezero Crater. It is busily gathering choice specimens for eventual conveyance to Earth.

Perseverance rover deposits select rock and soil samples in sealed tubes on Mars’s surface for future missions to retrieve and bring back to Earth for detailed study.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

While having our planet on the receiving end of aeon-aged Mars memorabilia, plausibly containing Martian life, that viewpoint is deemed “low risk” in terms of ecological and public safety. But that risk is not zero.

 

 

 

Go to my new Scientific American story – “Controversy Grows Over whether Mars Samples Endanger Earth” – at:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/controversy-grows-over-whether-mars-samples-endanger-earth/

Credit: NASA

 

NASA’s Artemis return to the Moon program has gotten a power boost – in the form of a lunar fission surface power system.

NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) have chosen three design concept proposals for a fission surface power system design that could be ready to launch by the end of the decade for a demonstration outing on the Moon.

A trio of awards have been issued by the Department of Energy and NASA. One of those selected was IX, a joint venture between Intuitive Machines and X-energy, a contract to conduct a one-year study to mature the design of a Fission Surface Power (FSP) solution that will deliver at least 40 kWe power flight system to the Moon by 2028.
Credit: Intuitive Machines

Contract awards

The contracts call for initial design concepts for a 40-kilowatt (kWe) class fission power system planned to last at least 10 years in the lunar environment.

The Phase 1, 12-month contracts were awarded to:

  • Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Maryland – The company will partner with BWXT and Creare.
  • Westinghouse of Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania – The company will partner with Aerojet Rocketdyne.
  • IX of Houston, Texas, a joint venture of Intuitive Machines and X-Energy – The company will partner with Maxar and Boeing.

Battelle Energy Alliance, the managing and operating contractor for Idaho National Laboratory, led the Request for Proposal development, evaluation, and procurement sponsored by NASA.