At least three Central Massachusetts companies will help NASA land astronauts on the moon in five years with the goal of getting to Mars.
The agency said Tuesday afternoon it is investing $45 million in 363 proposals from small businesses and research institutions across 41 states to help with those future missions and some of those inventions are coming from the Greater Worcester area.
In Worcester, startup advanced materials firm Multiscale Systems has been chosen to develop landing systems, crash-landing protection systems and materials for habitable spaces. According to the company’s website, Multiscale Systems is located in a temporary office space in Boston provided by MassChallenge, but is planning to move its office and manufacturing facilities to Worcester later this year.
Busek, a Natick manufacturer of high performance propulsion based electronics and other systems for space, is building a semi-autonomous teleoperated welding robot for surfaces in space. The product will be an adaptation of a previous system the company made.
The same company is being chosen to develop a high-impulse, precision pointing attitude-control actuator evolved from proven electrospray propulsion technology, according to NASA documents made public Tuesday.
Incom USA, a Charlton manufacturer of glass and polymer microstructures, is proposing to build components for space-based imaging systems.
NASA’s Moon to Mars mission seeks to send astronauts to the moon in five years to establish a sustainable presence to be duplicated on Mars with manned missions to the Red Planet starting in 2030.
