NASA has triggered a race to develop the data pipeline in Mars

For decades, NASA has built and piloted its own relay and spacecraft orbits to transport valuable data on Earth. Now, the agency is purchasing connectivity as a service, a bit as for the launch and transport of astronauts.

This pivot triggered a race, the main contenders with means of keeping the Mars missions online. What is at stake is not a single contract: it is the data pipe for Mars.

This new approach, which will mix NASA assets and commercial infrastructure, would gradually replace the Patchwork relay network on which the agency is based today. Generally, this works by orbits like Mars Recognition Orbiter and Maven which collect the data from Rovers and Landers and transmit them to the giant antennas of the depth network (DSN) on Earth.

NASA relay spaceships are always healthy, but they have never been supposed to be a permanent backbone. THE Last main opinion of the agency On the planetary missions, calls the critical role of Maven as a relay and provides steps to keep it available in the early 2030s. But ultimately, this equipment will decompose.

At the same time, the Space Communications and Navigation (Scan) program of NASA, which manages the DSN, is looking for solutions to increase these aging assets. The objective, according to a DP published in July and due today, is to create an interoperable market where NASA can be one of the many customers instead of the owner-operator.

Current demand is specifically for capacity studies, not immediate material purchases. The demand is twofold: a “lunar line line” between the moon and the earth and the communications of March from start to finish which move the data from assets to the surface, via Mars Orbit and to the centers of operations on earth.

It’s a great challenge. Any architecture must face the vast distance between the earth and the moon and Mars, the long latency, the periodic windows of solar interference and the visibility of the earth, and high requirements for systems tolerant with breakdowns. This is why NASA requires plans, to assess how the industry could resolve these puzzles, rather than jumping immediately in supply.

Although Techcrunch cannot confirm which companies submit proposals for concepts, a handful have already put their place in the race.

Blue I just revealed A telecommunications orbiter Mars built on its Blue Ring platform, presented as high-performance high performance spaces to support NASA missions in March from 2028. Rocket Lab praised its own concept of Telecom Orbiter Mars, that the company says is a central element of its architecture proposed for the return campaign for Mars samples.

In 2024, the NASA March Exploration Program Funded separately 12 short commercial services studiesIncluding a study trio for new generation relay services, in SpaceX, Lockheed Martin and Blue Origin. SpaceX’s proposal to adapt communication satellites to terrestrial orbit for Mars “will probably be derived from its constellation of Internet Starlink satellite.

The long -term objective is to transform the planetary exploration program of the Pure Science Mission Agency into a permanent human presence on the Moon and, finally, on Mars.