NASA has selected 11 U.S. companies to develop technologies that could support long-term exploration on the Moon and in space for the benefit of all. The technologies range from lunar surface power systems to tools for in-space 3D printing, which will expand industry capabilities for a sustained human presence on the Moon through Artemis, as well as other NASA, government, and commercial missions.

"Partnering with the commercial space industry lets us at NASA harness the strength of American innovation and ingenuity," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

The projects, chosen under the agency’s sixth Tipping Point opportunity, will be funded jointly by NASA and the industry partners. The total expected NASA contribution to the partnerships is $150 million. Each company will contribute a minimum percentage – at least 10-25%, based on company size – of the total project cost. NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) will issue milestone-based funded Space Act Agreements lasting for up to four years.

The selected technologies support infrastructure and capabilities in space and at the Moon. Six of the selected companies are small businesses. The awarded companies, their projects, and the approximate value of NASA’s contribution are:

Astrobotic Technology of Pittsburgh, $34.6 million – LunaGrid-Lite: Demonstration of Tethered, Scalable Lunar Power Transmission
Big Metal Additive of Denver, $5.4 million – Improving Cost and Availability of Space Habitat Structures with Additive Manufacturing (large-scale 3-D printing of structures for living/working)
Blue Origin of Kent, Washington, $34.7 million – In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU)-Based Power on the Moon
Freedom Photonics of Santa Barbara, California, $1.6 million – Highly Efficient Watt-Class Direct Diode Lidar for Remote Sensing
Lockheed-Martin of Littleton, Colorado, $9.1 million – Joining Demonstrations In-Space
Redwire of Jacksonville, Florida, $12.9 million – Infrastructure Manufacturing with Lunar Regolith – Mason
Protoinnovations of Pittsburgh, $6.2 million – The Mobility Coordinator: An Onboard COTS (Commercial-Off-the-Shelf) Software Architecture for Sustainable, Safe, Efficient, and Effective Lunar Surface Mobility Operations
Psionic of Hampton, Virginia, $3.2 million – Validating No-Light Lunar Landing Technology that Reduces Risk, SWaP (Size, Weight, and Power), and Cost
United Launch Alliance of Centennial, Colorado, $25 million – ULA Vulcan Engine Reuse Scale Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator Technology Demonstration
Varda Space Industries of El Segundo, Kalifornia, $1.9 million – Conformal Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator Tech Transfer and Commercial Production
Zeno Power Systems of Washington, $15 million – A Universal Americium-241 Radioisotope Power Supply for Artemis


IMO, it would be nice to re-direct a lot of wasted funding and efforts on apparently falsely "green" spending in favor of encouraging more investment and actual productive work by companies and NASA on space technologies related to inhabiting and especially mining in space. It would seem reasonable that things like mining asteroids for metals and materials, et cetera would be a bigger boon to those companies' bottom lines as well as a far more productive use of their resources and personnel, plus less birds would die and less pollution from burying all the toxic waste from the nearly impossible to recycle solar trash and wind trash we currently put in landfills to pollute and corrupt our fragile water supply.

Regardless, it is at least a little encouraging to see NASA being partnered with more private, for-profit companies to extend the profit motive a little farther towards getting us diversified off just this one planet, hopefully sooner the better. After all, real estate and the desire for middle and lower-classes to own private property in many ways drove the last major human exploration period....just keep Mark Spain an the aggregators out of it and allow for small, independent and perpetually private ownership of space assets and territories. Look forward to more private and commercial for-profit companies to bring us more quickly into the age of space exploration and expansion of the human footprint.