Commercial Lunar Payload Services

NASA has been planning the exploration and use of natural lunar resources for many years. A variety of exploration, science, and technology objectives that could be addressed by regularly sending instruments, experiments and other small payloads to the Moon have been identified by NASA.[3]

When the concept study on the Resource Prospector rover was cancelled in April 2018, NASA officials explained that lunar surface exploration will continue in the future, but using commercial lander services under a new CLPS program.[6][7] Later that April, NASA launched the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program as the first step in the solicitation for flights to the Moon.[3][4][8] In April 2018, CLPS issued a Draft Request for Proposal,[4] and in September 2018 the actual CLPS Request for Proposal was issued.[9] The text of the formal solicitation and selected contractors are here:[9]

On 29 November 2018, NASA announced the first nine companies that will be allowed to bid on contracts,[10] which are indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts with a combined maximum contract value of $2.6 billion during the next 10 years.[10] The first formal solicitation is expected sometime in 2019.

In February 2018 NASA issued a solicitation for Lunar Surface Instrument and Technology Payloads that may become CLPS customers. Proposals were due by November 2018 and January 17, 2019. NASA plans to make yearly calls for proposals.[11][12]

On May 31, 2019, NASA announced a list of awards, featuring Astrobotic, of Pittsburgh, Pa., $79.5 million; Intuitive Machines, of Houston, Texas, $77 million; and OrbitBeyond, $97 million; to launch their Moon landers.[5] However, Orbit Beyond dropped out of this contract in July 2019, but remains a contractor able to bid on future missions.[13]

On 18 November 2019, NASA added five new contractors to the group of companies who are eligible to bid to send large payloads to the surface of the moon with to the CLPS program: Blue Origin, Ceres Robotics, Sierra Nevada Corporation, SpaceX, and Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems.[14]

On 8 April 2020, it was announced that NASA had awarded the fourth (after Astrobotic's, Intuitive Machines' and OrbitBeyond's awards) CLPS contract for Masten Space Systems. The contract, worth US$ 75.9 million, is for Masten's XL-1 lunar lander to deliver payloads from NASA and other customers to the south pole of the Moon in late 2022. [15]

The lunar south pole region is of special interest because of the occurrence of water ice in permanently shadowed areas inside craters, near constant solar power at the crater rims, and abundant metals and oxygen in the regolith.[16][17]

The competitive nature of the CLPS program is expected to reduce the cost of lunar exploration, accelerate a robotic return to the Moon, sample return, resource prospecting in the south polar region, and promote innovation and growth of related commercial industries.[18] The payload development program is called Development and Advancement of Lunar Instrumentation (DALI), and the payload goals are exploration, in situ resource utilization (ISRU), and lunar science. The first instruments are expected to be selected by Summer 2019,[4] and the flight opportunities start in 2021.[18][4]

Multiple contracts will be issued, and the early payloads will likely be small because of the limited capacity of the initial commercial landers.[8] The first landers and rovers will be technology demonstrators on hardware such as precision landing/hazard avoidance, power generation (solar and RTGs), in situ resource utilization (ISRU), cryogenic fluid management, autonomous operations and sensing, and advanced avionics, mobility, mechanisms, and materials.[4] This program requires that only US launch vehicles can launch the spacecraft.[4] The mass of the landers and rovers can range from miniature to 1,000 kg (2,200 lb),[19] with a 500 kg (1,100 lb) lander targeted to launch in 2022.[18]

The Draft Request for Proposal's covering letter states that the contracts will last up to 10 years. As NASA's need to send payloads to the lunar surface (and other cislunar destination) arises it will issue Firm-Fixed Price 'task orders' that the approved prime contractors can bid for. A Scope Of Work will be issued with each task order. The CLPS proposals are being evaluated against five Technical Accessibility Standards.[4]

NASA is assuming a cost of one million dollars per kilogram delivered to the lunar surface. (This figure may be revised after a lunar landing when the actual costs are available.)[20]

Astrobotic Peregrine

Z-01 lander and rover

Nova-C lander by Intuitive Machines

The companies selected are considered "main contractors" that can sub-contract projects to other companies of their choice. The first companies granted the right to bid on CLPS contracts were chosen in 2018.[10][21][9]

On May 31, 2019, three of those were awarded lander contracts: Astrobotic Technology, Intuitive Machines, OrbitBeyond (displayed in bold).[5]

On July 29, 2019, NASA announced that it had granted OrbitBeyond's request to be released from this specific contract, citing "internal corporate challenges".[22]

In April 2020, NASA selects Masten Space Systems to deliver cargo to the Moon in 2022.[23][24]

The first batch of science payloads are being developed in NASA facilities, due to the short time available before the first planned flights. Subsequent selections include payloads provided by universities and industry. Calls for payloads are planned to be released each year for additional opportunities.

Orbit Beyond returned their task order (cancelling their mission) two months after award.[31]

• Slides from the Industrial Day on May 8, 2018