NASA has chosen 16 academic teams to further their deep-space exploration proposals as part of the agency’s Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) program.
NASA said Tuesday that the teams will develop their concepts that fall under five themes involving lunar surface habitation, Mars ascent vehicles, Venus flyby missions, lunar sample analysis, International Space Station activities and human missions to the dwarf planet Ceres.
Representatives from Lockheed Martin, SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Blue Origin and Boeing were among the industry experts that helped select the participating teams.
The teams will receive a “modest development stipend” to support concept development activities while the top two groups will secure $6,000 to present their proposals at the 2021 ASCEND conference in Nov. 2021 according to NASA.
All teams must present their developed concepts during the 2021 RASC-AL Forum which will be held virtually in June. RASC-AL is a NASA-sponsored event that falls under the management of the National Institute of Aerospace.