These aren't contracts. They are NASA's approval for these companies to bid on various sorts of cargo flights to the Moon. NASA anticipates dozens of these flights with varying payloads and purposes to support their Artemis program returning humans to the Moon.
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/new-c...is-program
The five companies selected include two very small "new space" startups:
Tyvak Nanosatellite Systems in Irvine California. I believe that this company has so far concentrated on little cubesats, but they apparently plan a lunar lander similar in size to that little Israeli lander. From the looks of it this is a little thing only able to carry small scientific payloads.
Ceres Robotics in Palo Alto California. This company has so far concentrated on small robotic rovers designed to crawl around the Moon doing scientific work like doing chemical analyses and looking for water ice. I'm not sure if they plan their own lander to deliver it, or whether they will hitch a ride on another company's lander. But given the nature of this NASA announcement, which is about delivering stuff to the Moon, they may indeed be planning a lander.
The next two companies aren't such small and speculative long-shots, they are larger established companies planning bigger and more capable hardware. But their proposals still look kind of modest, sort of like a replay of the 1960's Apollo-era vision.
One is Sierra Nevada Corporation of Louisville Colorado. They have a lander that from the looks of it, looks like a repurposed rocket upper stage. But unclear how much cargo it can carry.
The other is Blue Origin of Kent Washington. This one is offering NASA Jeff Bezos' Blue Moon lander. It looks to have similar capability to the Apollo lander and can apparently carry a mass similar to the Apollo ascent module. That translates to a decent one-way cargo capacity.
And finally one in an entirely different 21st century class. NASA has approved SpaceX to bid on NASA Lunar supply flights offering its Starship (BFR) vehicle. This thing promises to be reusable and be able to deliver something like 100 tons (per flight!) to the Moon. That could mean several large long-range pressurized rovers like the ones Toyota and JAXA are working on, large Moon-base building materials, power plants and big heavy things that will be necessary to a real permanent Moon settlement. It's riskier than the preceeding two and it's more questionable whether this one will ever really happen. But if it does, NASA obviously wants to be up at the front of the customer line.
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/new-c...is-program
The five companies selected include two very small "new space" startups:
Tyvak Nanosatellite Systems in Irvine California. I believe that this company has so far concentrated on little cubesats, but they apparently plan a lunar lander similar in size to that little Israeli lander. From the looks of it this is a little thing only able to carry small scientific payloads.
Ceres Robotics in Palo Alto California. This company has so far concentrated on small robotic rovers designed to crawl around the Moon doing scientific work like doing chemical analyses and looking for water ice. I'm not sure if they plan their own lander to deliver it, or whether they will hitch a ride on another company's lander. But given the nature of this NASA announcement, which is about delivering stuff to the Moon, they may indeed be planning a lander.
The next two companies aren't such small and speculative long-shots, they are larger established companies planning bigger and more capable hardware. But their proposals still look kind of modest, sort of like a replay of the 1960's Apollo-era vision.
One is Sierra Nevada Corporation of Louisville Colorado. They have a lander that from the looks of it, looks like a repurposed rocket upper stage. But unclear how much cargo it can carry.
The other is Blue Origin of Kent Washington. This one is offering NASA Jeff Bezos' Blue Moon lander. It looks to have similar capability to the Apollo lander and can apparently carry a mass similar to the Apollo ascent module. That translates to a decent one-way cargo capacity.
And finally one in an entirely different 21st century class. NASA has approved SpaceX to bid on NASA Lunar supply flights offering its Starship (BFR) vehicle. This thing promises to be reusable and be able to deliver something like 100 tons (per flight!) to the Moon. That could mean several large long-range pressurized rovers like the ones Toyota and JAXA are working on, large Moon-base building materials, power plants and big heavy things that will be necessary to a real permanent Moon settlement. It's riskier than the preceeding two and it's more questionable whether this one will ever really happen. But if it does, NASA obviously wants to be up at the front of the customer line.