Firms to Detail Mars Transport Plans

Washington Post 09/13/04
author: Brad Grimes
Copyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved

Eleven contractors, including Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda and Orbital Science Corp. of Dulles, are meeting todaywith NASA officials to present ideas for developing the transportation systems that will carry humans once again to the moon and eventually to Mars.

The companies won NASA contracts Sept. 1 to help develop the architecture for Project Constellation, NASA's ambitious program to fulfill President Bush's vision for space exploration. The president's directive, issued Jan. 14, calls for returning Americans to the moon by 2020 in preparation for a landing on Mars.

Lockheed Martin, Orbital Science and six of the other companies won concept exploration and refinement contracts worth up to $6 million each. The other six are Andrews Space Inc. of Seattle; Boeing Co. of Chicago; Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Inc. of Cambridge, Mass.; Northrop Grumman Corp. of Los Angeles; Schafer Corp. of Chelmsford, Mass.; and Transformation Space Corp. of Menlo Park, Calif.

Three smaller contracts for up to $2 million each went to: Raytheon Co. of Waltham, Mass.; Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego; and Spacehab Corp. of Webster, Tex.

All 11 companies will develop ideas for the systems architecture required to send astronauts into space, including human and robotic space transportation systems, launch vehicles, and related in-space and lunar infrastructure. The companies with larger contracts also will sketch out a crew exploration vehicle, the first transportation system in Project Constellation's architecture.