LASSO
Benchmark Space Systems offered DARPA a mission architecture called Sapphire for the LASSO lunar orbiter program. Credit: Benchmark Space Systems

WASHINGTON — The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded contracts to three companies to study concepts for a lunar mission to search for water ice in very low orbits.

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Jeff Foust writes about space policy, commercial space, and related topics for SpaceNews. He earned a Ph.D. in planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree with honors in geophysics and planetary science...