Commercial Lunar Payload Services
NASA wants to send robots to the Moon to help with future astronaut missions. They started a program called CLPS to pay companies to do this. These robots will go to the Moon's south pole to look for water and other useful things, do science, and test new ideas for using what we find on the Moon.
NASA will pay a set price for everything needed to send their science things to the Moon and back. This includes the rockets, the landers to go to the Moon, and the vehicles to come back to Earth. So far, NASA has planned eight trips with companies. But, two of these trips had problems because one company lost its contract and another went out of business.
A long time ago, NASA started thinking about how to use things from the Moon for their missions. They decided to send small science tools to the Moon to learn more. In 2018, NASA stopped a project about a Moon rover, but then they said they would still explore the Moon with the help of companies. That's when they first talked about the CLPS program. They then asked companies who were interested to send their ideas, and later that year, they asked formally for companies to send their plans to go to the Moon.
People have been looking at the stars for a very long time. Space exploration is when we use special technology to study and travel to places outside Earth. Scientists called astronomers use big tools like telescopes to see stars and planets. Sometimes robots go into space to explore, and sometimes people do.
A long time ago, people made better rockets that could go really high up into space. Countries started to send things into space to learn more and to show that they were powerful. Two countries, the Soviet Union and the United States, were competing in what was called the "Space Race." They wanted to be the best at exploring space.
The first thing humans sent into space to go around Earth was called Sputnik 1, and it was made by the Soviet Union. It was sent up in 1957. The United States sent people to the Moon for the first time in 1969 with a mission called Apollo 11. The Soviet Union had many firsts in space. They sent the first living thing into space, had the first person fly in space, the first spacewalk, and even made the first space station. All of this happened between 1957 and 1971. People were very excited to learn about space and to explore new places.
Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships
NASA has a special program called NextSTEP. It helps make new space travel ideas with the help of companies. These ideas help people travel farther in space, to places like the area around the moon and beyond.
NextSTEP started in 2014 when NASA asked American companies to share their plans. Again in 2016, NASA looked for more ideas. The goal is to help companies grow while also helping NASA explore space more. One day, the things made from NextSTEP could be used in big space projects, like building a space station near the moon or a spaceship for long trips.
In 2015, NASA chose some partners from the NextSTEP program. These partners worked on special space engines and living spaces for astronauts in space. They also worked on tiny space satellites. NASA gave money to these projects, up to a few million dollars each year. This is helping to make new technology for exploring deep space.