Jim Bridenstine, NASA administrator and Wash100 Award recipient, will deliver a keynote address during NASA’s Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium meeting, which will stream live on NASA Television and the agency’s website on Oct. 14th.
Bridenstine will address NASA’s Artemis program and announce the agency’s latest Tipping Point selections and their potential impact on sustainable lunar exploration.
The program will also develop a sustainable presence by approximately 2030. NASA will draw insights from the Moon experiments to prepare for human exploration of Mars. In Jan. 2020, NASA requested to develop partnerships to advance space technologies. The public-private partnerships are projected to advance commercial space capabilities that support future missions.
During the consortium, Jim Reuter, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), will contribute to the agency’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative. The initiative will also support lunar science activities under Artemis, leveraging expertise across academia, industry, nonprofits, and government to develop technologies and systems needed to explore the surface of the Moon in new ways.
In July 2019, NASA selected 13 companies that will work with the space agency’s centers to further develop space technologies for use in future lunar and Mars exploration missions. The companies will work with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Glenn Research Center, Langley Research Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, Johnson Space Center and Kennedy Space Center.
The agency the firms selected through the Announcement of Collaboration Opportunity will develop technologies across technology focus areas as part of Space Act Agreements: advanced communications, navigation and avionics; advanced materials; entry, descent and landing; in-space manufacturing and assembly; power; propulsion and other exploration technologies.
