NASA HAS SPARKED A RACE TO DEVELOP THE DATA PIPELINE TO MARS

Summary from the TLDR newsletter

NASA's relay spacecraft are still healthy, but they were never meant to be permanent. The agency's Space Communications and Navigation program is looking for solutions to augment these aging assets. It aims to create an interoperable marketplace where NASA can be one of many customers instead of the owner-operator. The program has requested capability studies for a 'lunar trunkline' between the Moon and Earth and end-to-end Mars communications that move data from assets on the surface, through Mars orbit, and to operations centers on Earth.