In a continuing bid to set up permanent lunar settlements, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has awarded three grants, totaling $19.4 million, designed to fund solar power on the moon.
The three grants are going to three different companies:
. the Littleton, Colorado-based operations of Lockheed Martin receiving $6.2 million.
. Honeybee Robotics of Brooklyn is receiving $7 million in funding
. the Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology company, a robotics firm, has been awarded $6.2 million.
The companies are all working under the umbrella of the Moon under Artemis program, which is designed to land the first person of color and first woman on the Moon, through the utilization of innovative technologies.
“The prototypes developed by the companies,” said Niki Werkheiser in a statement, “will provide promising solutions for reliable power sources on the Moon, which are key to the success of almost anything we do on the surface.”
Werkheiser, the director of technology maturation at NASA, continued: “This exciting effort plays a critical role that will quite literally help power our Artemis exploration in the uniquely challenging environment of the Moon’s South Pole.”
The goal behind the work of the three companies is to build prototypes and perform environmental testing in order to deploy one of the systems near the Moon’s South Pole in the next seven years or so.
By Garry Boulard
