In a bid to fortify the technology essential for its Artemis program and subsequent Mars missions, NASA has announced the awarding of nearly $1.5 million to various entities. This grant will enable advancements in specific technological areas that are considered critical for exploration of the Moon and Mars.

NASA has awarded nearly $1.5 million to academic, non-profit, and business organizations to advance state-of-the-art technology that will play a key role in the agency's return to the Moon under Artemis,

Mars exploration has been always been the exclusive purview of national space agencies, but NASA is trying to change that, awarding a dozen research tasks to private companies as a prelude to commercial support for future missions to the Red Planet.