FINANCIAL – NASA seeks new partners to help tell the story of human exploration on the Moon

FINANCIAL – NASA is looking for new partners to help the agency tell the story of human exploration on the Moon with the Artemis programs in ways that engage, excite and inspire a worldwide audience. By the end of this decade, NASA will explore more of the lunar surface than ever and establish a sustainable human presence with Artemis in preparation for future human missions to Mars.

The agency issued a Announcement for proposals calling for the presentation of potential partnerships to visually bring the public to travel in new ways, starting with a trip around the moon with astronauts on the Artemis II mission, scheduled for 2023. Proposals must be submitted by 11:59 pm EST on December 11, 2020.

“We are looking for partners to use advanced technologies, imaging applications and approaches that go beyond our standard coverage on NASA TV,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “We want to capture Apollo’s amazement for a new generation: the Artemis generation. Just as people were glued to the TV 50 years ago when astronauts took their first steps on the moon, we want to take people with them into this new era of exploration. “

Spacecraft are routinely equipped with NASA cameras for technical and operational support, such as solar panel inspection, and footage from these cameras is usually used to complement mission coverage on NASA television. This announcement primarily focuses on proposals that include potential innovative technologies or hardware, such as cameras or other equipment that a partner could fly on a mission to augment existing NASA imagery.

Examples could include hardware such as 360-degree field of view camera systems, virtual reality, advanced image compression to improve image quality over bandwidth-limited communication links; unique storytelling and distribution methods, 4K and Ultra HD camera systems, robotic “third person” views, crew portable camera systems, image stabilization, small portable cameras or other concepts that provide more immersive images or offer a personalized viewing experience.

NASA welcomes responses from broadcasters, studios, the aerospace industry, academic institutions, nonprofits and others, as well as multi-entity collaborations for creative proposals to help capture or use NASA’s live or recorded images to help tell the story. history of the exploration of the Moon.

Presentations should outline the proposed public engagement project, the potential to improve public understanding of the Artemis program, distribution mechanisms to reach a broad audience, the support required by NASA in the form of existing media or access to facilities and personal and a description of any unique video, hardware, software, or related audio or imaging technology that a partner may seek to place on or in the NASA Orion spacecraft or other NASA equipment, facilities or infrastructure.

Proposals for storytelling collaborations to reach large portions of audiences or new audiences using ground-based footage or imagery and which do not require partner-supplied equipment, can be submitted through NASA standard film and television collaboration process.

NASA’s Artemis I mission is an unmanned test flight that will launch Orion on the agency’s Space Launch System rocket to orbit the Moon and return to Earth. On Artemis II, Orion will transport a crew of astronauts around the moon and back, and Artemis III will land the first woman and the next man on the lunar surface. Subsequent missions will explore multiple parts of the Moon and test the technologies and procedures required for human exploration of Mars.