- NASA entered into a public-private partnership with Relativity Space to develop and deliver a payload suite of atmospheric instruments to Mars in 2028.
- The project is part of the Aeolus mission to measure environmental aspects of the planet for safer landings.
- The data from the mission will be used to develop new tools to advance Mars research.
NASA revealed Tuesday that it is teaming up with Relativity Space to provide tools and machinery to study Mars on site by 2028.
Under the public-private partnership, Relativity Space will lend its spacecraft to carry NASA’s Aeolus atmospheric science mission payload and other instruments to Mars by 2028. It is funded through the space agency’s first six‑year reimbursable Space Act Agreement. The goal of the Aeolus mission is to make crewed and uncrewed Mars landings safer through better environmental knowledge.
“By pairing NASA’s world‑class instruments with commercial innovation and investment, we can deliver more science, more often, and reduce the time it takes to get essential data into the hands of researchers preparing for future human missions to Mars,” said Jared Isaacman, NASA Administrator and Wash100 awardee.
NASA will be represented by officials such as keynote Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2026 Air and Space Summit on July 30. Register here to immerse in a network of public and private sector experts exchanging ideas on how to address challenges and stay at the forefront of the air and space industry.
What Are the Responsibilities of NASA and Relativity Space?
The payload will be designed and built at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California. The agency committed to support Aeolus instruments operations for one Martian year, using the measurements to develop products and a data-processing pipeline for further applications in Mars science. Aside from providing the spacecraft, Relativity Space will be in charge of rocket and cruise operations and maintenance.
What Is Included in NASA’s Aeolus?
Aeolus is composed of four instruments developed by NASA: the doppler wind and temperature sounder, the thermal limb sounder, the surface radiometric sensor package, the wide‑field context camera for capturing global atmospheric photos.
The DWTS‑Ozone was built in collaboration with aerospace company GATS, and will gauge wind and temperature from the surface of Mars up to about 37 miles. Xiomas Technologies, a small aerospace imaging enterprise, helped develop the thermal limb sounder. The TLS tracks dust and water‑ice clouds as well as vertical temperature profiles. The surface radiometric sensor package created in-house at the agency will also measure dust and cloud in addition to surface energy balance.
