NASA gives $44 million to private companies for new space technologies

NASA’s “Tipping Point”
awards will help United Launch Alliance develop its
next-generation Vulcan rocket.

United
Launch Alliance/YouTube

• NASA just awarded six
  private companies a total of $44 million.
• The agency’s “Tipping Point” program is intended to
  help the commercial space industry push next-generation
  technologies over the finish line.
• The projects awarded funding include new moon-landing
  systems and a method to recover expensive rocket
  engines.

NASA is doling out a total of $44 million in awards among six
private companies, including Jeff Bezos’ secretive rocket
company, Blue
Origin.

The new contracts are part of the agency’s third “Tipping Point” competition and
an ongoing push to commercialize space. The goal of the awards is
to help companies take what NASA sees as exciting,
almost-ready-to-debut devices and “tip” them over the finish line
into commercial markets.

The money covers 10 distinct projects, including ways for robots
to land on and explore the moon, a next-generation fuel cell to
power deep-space missions, a deep-space propulsion system, and an
inflatable shell that may one day help land people on Mars.

“These key technologies will support NASA’s science and human
exploration missions in the future,” NASA Administrator Jim
Bridenstine said in
a press release.

The biggest winner of the competition was United Launch Alliance,
formed by Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The aerospace company
(which is about to launch NASA’s
Parker Solar Probe to “touch”
the sun) scooped up $13.9 million. Blue Origin, meanwhile, walked
away with $13 million in contracts.

Here’s a quick look at the projects NASA picked:

The companies that won NASA ‘Tipping Point’ awards and how much

Astrobotic Technology, Inc.

• Project: “Stand-Alone Sensor for High
  Precision Planetary Landing” ($10 million)
  What it is: A “low-cost, reliable,
  high-performance, stand-alone” system to help Astrobotic, a
  former team in the Google Lunar X Prize competition
  (which ended
  without a winner), continue its work to land a commercial
  lunar spacecraft on the moon and perhaps elsewhere in the solar
  system.

Blue Origin

• Project: “Advancing Sensor Suites to Enable
  Landing Anywhere on the Lunar Surface” ($3 million)
  What it is: “This project will mature critical
  technologies that enable precision and soft landing on the
  moon,” Blue Origin says, such as detection systems for terrain
  and altitude. “The resulting sensor suite will enable precision
  landing anywhere on the lunar surface.”
• Project: “Cryogenic Fluid Management-Enhanced
  Integrated Propulsion Testing for Robust Lander Services” ($10
  million)
  What it is: A propulsion system powered by
  ultra-cold liquid fuels for landing a robot on the moon.

Frontier Aerospace Corporation

• Project: “Flight Qualification of the DSE,
  MON-25 MMH Rocket Engine” ($1.9 million)
  What it is: A crucial test of a deep-space
  rocket that may help Astrobotic land its probe on the moon.

Paragon Space Development Coporation

• Project: “Cryogenic Encapsulating Launch
  Shroud and Insulated Upper Stage” ($1.6 million)
  What it is: A way to insulate a rocket’s
  ultra-cold cryogenic fuel tanks and protect them “from
  meteoroids and debris” in space.

Space Systems/Loral, LLC

• Project: “High Efficiency 6kW Dual Mode
  Electric Propulsion Engine for Broad Mission Applications” ($2
  million)
  What it is: A new ion-powered engine that will
  provide “faster, more efficient, propulsive capabilities for
  future NASA missions.”
• Project: “In-Space Xenon Transfer for
  Satellite, Servicer and Exploration Vehicle Replenishment and
  Life Extension” ($2 million)
  What it is: A way to replenish xenon fuel in
  satellites, helping them stay in orbit longer.

United Launch Alliance

• 
  
  An
  illustration of an inflatable shield that could help spacecraft
  safely return to Earth, Mars, or other worlds with
  atmospheres.
  
  NASA
  
  
  

  Project: “Cryogenic Fluid Management
  Technology Demonstration” ($2 million)
  What it is: A way to keep an upper-stage
  rocket’s cryogenic fuel from boiling into a gas in space. The
  system would allow the rocket to remain capable of firing up
  weeks or months after launch, enabling unique deep-space
  missions. It would also help prevent explosions, which
  generate
  dangerous space debris.

• Project: “Integrated Vehicle Fluids Flight
  Demonstration” ($10 million)
  What it is: This system aims to use liquid
  hydrogen and oxygen, which are normally used just for
  propulsion. Extra fluid might be used to pressurize fuel tanks,
  generate electricity, propel a mission through space, and
  ultimately reduce the need for additional systems (e.g.
  batteries) that take up precious weight. This might better
  enable long-duration space missions, perhaps to the moon.
• Project: “Mid-Air Retrieval Demonstration”
  ($1.9 million)
  What it is: This may be a way to recover (and
  reuse) rocket engines and other expensive parts after they fly
  to space. A big inflatable aeroshell would unfurl and protect
  the part during atmospheric reentry. Once the payload reaches
  air that’s dense enough, parachutes would further slow descent.
  Then a powerful helicopter would swoop in to snag the
  parachutes and the rocket parts.

Both awards to Bezos’ aerospace company appear to be related to
work that will help Blue Origin drop a “Blue Moon” lander on the
lunar surface in 2023, as GeekWire wrote in July.

ULA, meanwhile, is working on a new and partly reusable
rocket system called Vulcan that may enable it to compete
with SpaceX. Parts of that system appear to be included in NASA’s
Tipping Point awards.