NASA doc outlines collection of lunar rover corporations

WASHINGTON — NASA paperwork present how the company balanced value, capabilities and expertise in its collection of three corporations to proceed work on an Artemis lunar rover.

NASA chosen proposals led by Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost and Venturi Astrolab for its Lunar Terrain Car (LTV) Companies program April 3. Every firm acquired a activity order to fund design work main as much as a preliminary design assessment.

The company supplied few particulars about why it chosen these three corporations on the time of the announcement, declining to even disclose the variety of corporations that submitted proposals. Nonetheless, it revealed extra specifics in a supply choice assertion revealed April 9.

The doc confirmed listings in procurement databases that 9 corporations submitted LTV proposals. The assertion mentioned that NASA deemed three proposals, from automotive expertise firm 3Sixty Levels, house robotics firm GITAI and an organization recognized solely as ORBIT, as unacceptable and weren’t evaluated.

The analysis then dominated out proposals from Astrobotic, Blue Origin and Leidos, however didn’t specify why these proposals did not make the minimize. Astrobotic and Blue Origin had not disclosed plans to compete for an LTV contract, however Leidos did announce its plans a 12 months in the past, working with companions that included racing firm NASCAR.

NASA requested up to date proposals from Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost and Astrolab, which the company evaluated intimately earlier than electing to award contracts to all three corporations based mostly on a mixture of worth, previous efficiency and a mixture of technical and administration elements referred to as mission suitability.

Intuitive Machines had the bottom general worth, at $1.692 billion, but additionally the bottom mission suitability rating of 724 out of 1,000. NASA praised the proposal for “a novel kind of removable trailer structure” that might be used with the rover, one thing the corporate didn’t emphasize in its announcement of the award. Nonetheless, that trailer additionally created a weak spot cited by the proposal as a result of, of the location of the rover’s robotic arm, “it will likely be tough or unimaginable to assemble pristine samples with the trailer linked.”

Lunar Outpost fell within the center by way of each worth, $1.727 billion, and mission suitability rating, 863. The evaluation cited as a major energy “a sophisticated expertise for power storage that may be a affordable and possible method to significantly exceed the car efficiency necessities whereas assembly battery security necessities.” The proposal didn’t elaborate on that expertise, however the Lunar Outpost staff consists of Common Motors, which is offering battery expertise based mostly on what it has been growing for its electrical automobiles.

Astrolab had the very best mission suitability rating of 905 but additionally the very best worth, $1.928 billion. Amongst its strengths was a proposal to co-manifest the rover on the Starship lander for Artemis 4, one mission sooner than NASA expects the LTV to be out there. The rover can even navigate steeper slopes than NASA requires and the corporate general included “a number of exceedances of required minimal necessities.”

The assertion, although, raised questions on Astrolab’s potential to hold out the work. “Based mostly on the Astrolab Workforce’s efficiency document, there’s a Low stage of confidence that the Offeror will efficiently carry out the required effort,” NASA said. Each Intuitive Machines and Lunar Outpost, corporations whose groups embody corporations similar to Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, had “Reasonable” ranges of confidence.

Nonetheless, Vanessa Wyche, director of the Johnson Area Middle and the supply choice official for the contract, concluded within the assertion that the previous efficiency data of all three corporations “offers me confidence that the groups are succesful and possess the mandatory expertise to carry out the work beneath the LTVS contract.”

She in the end permitted giving contracts to all three corporations, concluding that the upper costs supplied by Astrolab and Lunar Outpost had been offset by their increased mission suitability scores. NASA, although, at the moment plans to pick out solely one of many corporations for a activity order to develop and reveal its rover after completion of the preliminary design opinions.

That method is opposite to different companies agreements, the place NASA has sought to have no less than two corporations offering capabilities. “A few of it comes down to only budgets. We’ve constrained budgets on the company that we now have to stay inside,” mentioned Chris Hansen, deputy supervisor of NASA’s Extravehicular Exercise and Human Floor Mobility program, throughout an April 11 briefing on the 39^th Area Symposium.

“We preserve competitors so far as we are able to into that,” he mentioned, arguing that NASA’s method to the LTV program offers the company “higher assurance that we are able to keep inside the budgets that we’re given to perform our mission.”

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