Photo: NASA

NASA has awarded Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) and SpaceLink separate contracts to study near-space communications that would support future Artemis missions to the Moon.  

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center announced the awards Oct. 12 under the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships-2 (NextSTEP-2) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) Appendix O. Both are firm fixed-price milestone-based contracts, and KSAT will receive $161,638 and SpaceLink will receive $189,881. 

It falls under NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program, which oversees the Deep Space Network and the Near Space Network. The recently awarded Communications Services Project (CSP) to replace the aging Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS), is also under the direction of SCaN. 

“This BAA selection furthers the agency’s commitment to commercializing direct-to-Earth space communications and navigation services and integrating a lunar relay to support Artemis missions to the Moon,” said Badri Younes, deputy associate administrator and program manager for NASA’s SCaN program.

The companies will help NASA and its stakeholders understand advancements in radio frequency compatibility testing that will lead to Near Space Network efficiencies. The studies should also address the challenges to integrating optical communications ground terminals into the Near Space Network and how software-defined radios and cloud computing assets can be integrated. 

SpaceLink CEO told Via Satellite that the study will demonstrate how high-speed data of 10 gigabits and above will be delivered across the ground segment of future space networks. The technical demonstration consists of an end-to-end test moving data from SpaceLink’s Mojave Gateway facility to NASA’s terrestrial network using Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure.  

“As NASA slowly migrates to commercial services they are going to have RF downlinks to the ground, but also optical links to the ground. They want to make sure that both RF and optical can interface seamlessly into their Near Space Network’s terrestrial network on the ground,” Bettinger said. “It’s important for [SpaceLink] because it will prove our capability, that we are compatible with NASA.”