Ein nicht öffentliches Dokument enthüllt, dass der Wissenschaft bei der nächsten Marsmission möglicherweise keine Priorität eingeräumt wird | Aus irgendeinem Grund hat die NASA beschlossen, ihre Mars-Orbiter-Ziele nicht öffentlich bekannt zu geben.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/02/a-non-public-document-reveals-that-science-may-not-be-prioritized-on-next-mars-mission/
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>The US space agency has released a “pre-solicitation” for what is expected to be a hotly contested contract to develop a spacecraft to orbit Mars and relay communications from the red planet back to Earth.
>Ars covered the intrigue surrounding the spacecraft in late January, which was initiated by US Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, as part of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” legislation in the summer of 2025. The bill provided $700 million for NASA to develop the orbiter and specified funding had to be awarded “not later than fiscal year 2026,” which ends September 30, 2026. This legislation was seemingly crafted by Cruz’s office to favor a single contractor, Rocket Lab. However, multiple sources have told Ars it was poorly written and therefore the competition is more open than intended.
>The pre-solicitation released this week is not a request for proposals from industry—it states that a draft Request for Proposals is forthcoming. Rather, it seeks feedback from industry and interested stakeholders about an “objectives and requirements” document that outlines the goals of the Mars mission.
>This 24-page objectives and requirements document was not publicly released, and it is listed as “controlled” on the government procurement website. However, according to a copy obtained by Ars, there are four top-level objectives outlined in the document:
>* Provide communication and data exchange between assets in the Mars vicinity, the Mars surface, and Earth anticipated to operate at Mars through 2035.
>* Provide Doppler, range, and time transfer to support positioning, navigation, and timing for assets anticipated to operate at Mars through 2035.
>* Provide communications services to existing operational missions.
>* Provide communications, Doppler, range, and time transfer services to the Entry, Descent, and Landing demonstration missions anticipated to operate at Mars through 2035.
>NASA also has changed the name of the spacecraft: What once was known as the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter is now called the Mars Telecommunications Network. (Note: After publication of this article, NASA made the document public.)
My thoroughly uneducated guess is that this potential orbiter is going to be a core part of the groundwork for a potential manned mission to Mars.
It’s called ‘Mars Telecommunications Network.’ Which seems to align well with its goals. It looks like the plan is to set up enough infrastructure to help other missions land on Mars without crashing, which would save weight on future missions.
The title makes it seem like we’re just going to prove we can. The article says they’re setting up a comm network that will serve missions out to 2035
Of course not the United States has shifted to command and conquer style. If anything efforts from ours will be military in nature I mean what other the reason are we gonna go there? We can’t even figure out how to go back to the moon properly or give NASA the proper budget to do anything that’s asked of it.