Space News reports, “NASA has awarded a contract to Rocket Lab to study alternative concepts for Mars Sample Return (MSR), joining several other efforts to improve the cost and schedule of the program. Rocket Lab said Oct. 7 that it received a contract to study what it called ‘a simplified, end-to-end mission concept’ for MSR that would deliver samples being collected by the Perseverance rover to Earth for a ‘fraction’ of currently projected costs, estimated to be as high as $11 billion, and several years earlier than 2040.”
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Tag: NASA Selects
NASA Selects Five Universities for ISS Experiments
ExecutiveGov reports that NASA “has selected five universities to design research experiments that will take place on the International Space Station.” Each awardee “will receive approximately $100,000 to formulate these experiments under the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research or EPSCoR program.” The awardees are: Montana State University, New Mexico State University, the University of Delaware, the University of Idaho, and the University of Nebraska.
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Blue Origin to Land NASA’s Ice-hunting VIPER Rover on Moon in 2027
SPACE reports, “VIPER has officially come back from the dead. The NASA moon robot, whose name is short for ‘Volatiles Investigating Polar Explorer Rover,’ will hitch a ride to the lunar surface with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin in late 2027, agency officials announced this afternoon.”
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