Darpa (US Agency for Advanced Research Defense Projects) is looking for a private company that will build a spacecraft for orbit of the moon and water search.
Application program That Darpa published on April 14 describes a plan for the LASSO (monthly test through a small satellite orbit), with the aim of developing a system of one or more affordable satellites.
Hope is that for four or less years the spacecraft of Lasso will copy the entire surface Month – As it circles in a very low orbit.
Currently, the Moon Orbiters usually fly at least 62 miles (100 kilometers) above the lunar surface, Darpa writes, due to the lunar mass concentration, or masconwhich can be messed up with gravity and affect the flight of the spacecraft near the surface.
However, Darpa He wants the spacecraft of Lasso Orbit on the moon low 6.2 miles (10 km). “The space aircraft in the orbit should be made updates of the path to correct instability and prevent the space aircraft from affecting the field,” the program of the program wrote.
The low orbit will help the spaceship to find areas on the surface of the moon that have more than 5% water concentration in soil stains covering 1.5 square kilometers (4 square km) or less. The goal is to search the areas “Great enough is high enough confidence to justify the cost and energy needed to take it,” Darpa wrote.
Part of the program includes an economic study comparing water costs delivered to the land with costs Lunar source water. Darpa also wants the space ship Lasso to increase the ability of the United States in “space consciousness (SSA) “for future missions that may require” stressful orbital conditions “and satellite maneuvering.
The Lasso mission is aligned with NASA and Darpa’s general 10-year study of lunar architecturewhich scientists work on a series of technologies to help ease and establish a future lunar economy.
“Lasso will benefit from Darpa, and at the end of the USSF [the U.S. Space Force]By establishing new technologies that can offer increased maneuvering and SSA, at the same time supporting commercial space capabilities and NASA missions by identifying the existence of proven water reserves, “the Agency wrote.
The deadline for registering abstracts is May 27.
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