NASA Announces Selections for Lunar Comms, Network Studies

NASA has selected Intuitive Machines of Houston and Aalyria Technologies Inc. of Livermore, California, to perform capability studies with the goal of advancing space communications and exploration technologies. These studies will allow NASA to gain insights into industry capabilities and innovations to facilitate NASA partnerships with commercial communications and navigation providers.

The awards, under the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships-2 (Next STEP-2) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) Appendix Q, are firm fixed-price milestone-based contracts.

Intuitive Machines is awarded $647,600 — Study Area No. 1, Lunar User Terminals and Network Orchestration — to conduct state-of-the-art studies and demonstrations for a dual-purpose navigation and communication lunar surface user terminal. The terminal will support lunar surface exploration planning and ensure interoperability with future LunaNet compatible service providers working in partnership with NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), and other space agencies.

Aalyria Technologies is awarded $393,004 — Study Area No. 2, Network Orchestration and Management System (NOMS) — to provide NASA with insights on advanced Network Orchestration and Management Systems that effectively address NASA’s need to integrate into multiple commercial and government communication service providers supporting the Near Space Network.

NASA’s Near Space Network is managed by the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, under the direction of the agency’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program office within the Space Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The Near Space Network provides NASA missions with robust communications services through an interoperable architecture composed of a mixture of existing NASA and commercial services.

“These awards are part of NASA’s continuing effort to build commercial partnerships to help support increasingly sophisticated and high-demand space missions,” said Greg Heckler, new capability lead for the SCaN Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Seamless interoperability across networks, from here on Earth to cislunar space, is an essential element of SCaN’s emerging ‘one network’ approach. These awards will move us one step closer to realizing that future.”

The innovative studies delivered by industry through the Next Space Technologies for Exploration (NextSTEP) – 2 Omnibus Broad Agency Announcement vehicle bolster the agency’s goal to create a reliable, robust, and cost-effective set of commercial services in which NASA is one of many customers.

Learn more about the NextSTEP public-private partnership model at:

https://www.nasa.gov/nextstep

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Jeremy Eggers
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
757-824-2958
jeremy.l.eggers@nasa.gov