NASA Opens the Door to Commercial Moon Landing, including Two Colorado Companies
ÌýFrom Colorado Public Radio - ColoradoÌýMatters:ÌýTwo Colorado companies are getting into the delivery business.ÌýNot the two-day delivery kind, more like the 238,900-mileÌýouter spaceÌýkind.ÌýNASA isÌýÌýto take their experiments to the lunar surface. Two of the nine approved bidders are Lockheed Martin andÌý.ÌýÌýis a well-known industry titan, while Deep Space Systems is a Littleton-based company with just 65 employees.
The "Commercial Lunar Payload Services" contracts are part of President Donald Trump'sÌý.ÌýThe increased traffic to the moon will also practice technology and techniques needed to bring large vehicles and astronauts to Mars.
"Mars is very, very hard to get to," saidÌýÂ鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØBoulder ProfessorÌýJack Burns, who alsoÌýserved on President Trump's transition team for NASA. "The Moon, on the other hand, is nearby. It's only three days away, and the technologies are in hand to begin developing it and toÌýlearn how to live and work on an alien, hostile body."