NASA Awards Contracts
For Design Study Of Lunar Landing Craft
(17 March 2008) NASA's Constellation
Program has selected five space-related companies to receive contract awards
for a 210-day study to independently evaluate NASA's in-house design concept
for a lunar lander that will deliver four astronauts to the surface of the moon
by 2020.
The awards total approximately US$ 1.5 million, with a
maximum individual award of US$ 350,000. The study recommendations will be used
to increase the technical maturity of the existing design in preparation for
the development of vehicle requirements.
The Constellation Program is
building NASA's next generation fleet of spacecraft -- including the Ares I and
Ares V rockets, the Orion crew capsule and the Altair lunar lander -- to send
humans beyond low Earth orbit and back to the moon. NASA plans to establish a
human outpost on the moon through a successive series of lunar
missions.
"These studies will provide valuable input for developing a
sound set of requirements for the Altair lunar lander," said Jeff Hanley, the
Constellation Program manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
"Industry collaboration will provide insight for our planning and early design
efforts for the spacecraft."
The selected companies are Andrews Space of
Seattle, The Boeing Co. of Houston, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company of
Denver, Northrop Grumman Corporation of El Segundo, Calif., and Odyssey Space
Research of Houston.
The companies will evaluate the current in-house
design, propose safety improvements and recommend industry-government
partnering arrangements.
The Constellation Program is based at Johnson
and manages the Altair Project for NASA's Exploration Systems Mission
Directorate, Washington.
(source: NASA)
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