Sunday, November 25, 2012

Nasa Seeks Proposals For Commercial Mars Data Relay Satellites
NASA has issued a Enticement for Actuality (RFI) to dig the opportunity of through trade Mars-orbiting satellites to produce telecommunications capabilities for approaching robotic missions to the Red The human race. "We are looking to distribute declare in the exploration of Mars to welcome new models for government and trade partnerships," understood John Grunsfeld, ally manager of NASA's Science Administration Directorate at the agency's foundation in Washington. "Depending on the put a stop to, the new model could be a requisite lock in approaching science missions and the trend for humans to Mars."

The RFI details realistic new fixed models that would honor NASA acerbic to receive services from a trade evade provider, which would own and team one or choice language transmit orbiters. The solicitation is loosen to all types of organizations as well as U.S. production, universities, nonprofits, NASA centers, and federally funded research and encouragement centers, in addition to U.S. government and international organizations.

NASA is interested in exploring alteration models to stick and expand its Mars' communications transmit road and rail network to dodging a communications gap in the 2020s. The RFI encourages new imaginings for resourceful approaches that produce transmit services for living wage landers, as well as pretty on the road to recovery communications analysis.

One realistic area for increase is laser or optical communications. NASA to all intents and purposes demonstrated laser communications technology in October 2013 as a result of its Astral Consider and Tidy Environment Voyager (LADEE) task. LADEE prepared history through a pulsed laser glimmer to forward data over 239,000 miles from the moon to Warren at a record-breaking download rate of 622 megabits-per-second (Mbps).

Mars landers and rovers at this point forward their science data and other information to Warren either by a press flat language pass on or via orbiting satellites provisional as transmit stations. The press flat pass on is imperfectly thin being of tuft, room, and stiltedness boundary on the rovers. To slang these boundary, NASA's Mars Hunt Program at this point uses transmit radios on its Mars science orbiters. The spacecraft buoy up high-gain antennas and better stiltedness transmitters that produce very high-rate, energy-efficient family involving orbiters and terminate missions as the obiters entry permit overhead.

NASA at this point is involved two Mars science orbiters as a result of transmit capabilities -- Odyssey, launched in 2001, and the Mars Investigation Orbiter (MRO), launched in 2005. These spacecraft enable language family from the Scarcity and Unscramble rovers on Mars' terminate. This gate request live on as a result of the Sept. 21 put back of the Mars Consider and Flighty Protest (MAVEN) spacecraft, and the 2016 put back of the European Momentary failure Agency's ExoMars/Trace Gas Orbiter.

"This Mars transmit document has been favorably winning in conveyance the science and productiveness data returned from the Martian terminate over the past decade," understood Lisa May, foundation program secretarial for Mars Hunt Program in Washington.

In the role of NASA has launched science orbiters to Mars on a continuous pulse, the current document has been speed spicy. Quiet, NASA has no payable Mars science orbiters after MAVEN arrives on the Red The human race in the fall. This creates the want to identify resourceful options to understand continuity of reliable, high-performance telecommunications transmit services for the approaching.

"Looking previously, we want to religiously assay the opportunity of the commercialization of Mars communications services," understood May. "This request attempt advantages to NASA, seeing that moreover conveyance amicable return-on-investment to the evade provider."

The RFI is for ideas and information purposes precisely. It is not to be construed as a devotion by the government to enter into a contractual finding the middle ground, nor request the government pay for information solicited.

Credit: NASA


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