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For decades, NASA built and flew its own relay orbiters and spacecraft to ferry valuable data back to Earth. Now the agency is shifting to buying connectivity as a service, much like it does for launch and astronaut transport.

That pivot has sparked a race, with major contenders pitching ways to keep Mars missions online. What’s at stake isn’t a single contract: it’s the data pipe to Mars.

This new approach, which will mix NASA assets and commercial infrastructure, would gradually replace the patchwork relay network the agency relies on today. Generally, that works by orbiters like Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and MAVEN that pick up data from rovers and landers and transmit it to the Deep Space Network’s (DSN) giant antennas on Earth.

NASA’s relay spacecraft are still healthy, but they were never meant to be a permanent backbone. The agency’s latest senior review on planetary missions calls out MAVEN’s critical role as a relay and provides steps to keep it available into the early 2030s. But eventually, this hardware will decay.   

At the same time, NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program, which manages the DSN, is looking for solutions to augment these aging assets. The aim, according to an RFP released in July and due today, is to create an interoperable marketplace where NASA can be one of many customers instead of the owner-operator.

The current request is specifically for capability studies, not immediate hardware buys. The ask is twofold: a “lunar trunkline” between the moon and Earth and end-to-end Mars communications that move data from assets on the surface, through Mars orbit, and to operations centers on Earth.

It’s a formidable challenge. Any architecture must contend with the vast distance between Earth and the moon and Mars, long latency, periodic solar interference and Earth visibility windows, and high requirements for fault-tolerant systems. That’s why NASA is asking for plans, to gauge how industry might solve these puzzles, rather than immediately jumping to procurement.

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While TechCrunch can’t confirm which companies are submitting concept proposals, a handful have already staked their place in the race.

Blue Origin just unveiled a Mars Telecommunications Orbiter built on its Blue Ring platform, pitched as maneuverable, high-performance spacecraft to support NASA missions to Mars as soon as 2028. Rocket Lab has touted its own Mars telecom orbiter concept, which the company says is a core element of its proposed architecture for the Mars Sample Return campaign.

In 2024, NASA’s Mars Exploration Program separately funded 12 short commercial services studies, including a trio of studies for next-gen relay services, to SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, and Blue Origin. SpaceX’s proposal to “adapt Earth-orbit communication satellites for Mars” will likely be derived from its Starlink internet satellite constellation.  

The long-term goal is to transform the agency’s planetary exploration agenda from pure-science missions to a permanent human presence on the moon and, eventually, on Mars.