In March, NASA will send a formal request to aerospace companies to develop and build the spacecraft.
According to the agency representative, NASA is open to suggestions from both private companies - SpaceX, Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin and Boeing, - and from state space agencies.
At the same time, NASA will accelerate the CLPS program ondelivery of scientific equipment to the moon on small spacecraft. The goal of the project is to study the lunar soil for the presence of water in it, which is necessary for colonizers to drink and grow plants.
Earlier it was reported that NASA is organizing a newmission to explore space. The SPHEREx space spectrograph will scan outer space in the vicinity of the Milky Way in the optical and near infrared range in search of traces of life.