Almost $40 million in Moon to Mars Initiative grants awarded

Ten grant winners under the Demonstrator Program of the Moon to Mars Initiative, sharing in nearly $40 million in total support, have been announced, including Advanced Navigation, QuantX Labs and Fleet Space Technologies.

The program offers up to $10 million per project to help SMEs launch their products into space, helping “create new capability and build space heritage”.

Among grant winners announced on Wednesday were

• Fleet Space Technologies: $3,916,490 for a project titled Seismic Payload for Interplanetary Discovery, Exploration and Research;
• QuantX Labs: $3,725,160 for the Kairos-1 Mission, which will build a next-generation atomic clock and place it in orbit;
• Advanced Navigation: $5,272,805 for Project LUNA (Laser measurement Unit for Navigational Aid), which “will demonstrate the performance and capability of the mature Australian LiDAV technology, opening doors to integrate the technology to space transportation, infrastructure, and operations service providers”; and
• Enable Aerospace: $2,777,423 to support key project activities “to finalise the Universal Payload Racking System (UPRS) designs developed in the ASA co-funded Feasibility Study, engage the Australian manufacturing and supply chain to produce Flight hardware, complete Qualification testing of hardware for human rated space flight, to flight demonstrate the UPRS to Sierra Space and potential customers and to demonstrate EA’s capability to support Moon to Mars objectives.”

(A full list is available here)

Head of the Australian Space Agency Enrico Palermo said in a statement that, “‘These space projects will make a big impact, including to NASA’s Artemis Program. 

“They will develop capability and experience in mission launch and space operation activities.”

Picture: credit QuantX Labs

Further reading

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