Crew members conduct a simulated survey at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah. (Mars Society Photo)What’s the best route to the Red Planet? Hundreds of people are converging on Seattle this week to consider that question at the annual convention of the Mars Society. And the answer may come, at least in part, from an array of tech startups.“The route to get to Mars is commercial,” James Burk, the nonprofit advocacy group’s executive director, told GeekWire. “The new-space sector is critically important to Mars exploration, both robotic and human.”Burk said the Mars Society’s 27th annual convention is expected to bring at least 250 to 300 people to the University of Washington starting on Thursday. “We’ve offered it for free to students at U Dub,” he said.Dozens of sessions are planned, focusing on topics ranging from NASA’s Mars exploration strategy to private-sector concepts for Mars settlements. There’ll also be an update on the society’s plans to establish a Mars Technology Institute, potentially in the Pacific Northwest

An artist’s conception shows Gravitics’ space station module in orbit. (Gravitics Illustration)Marysville, Wash.-based Gravitics says it has won a $125 million contract from Axiom Space to provide a pressurized spacecraft for Axiom’s yet-to-be-launched commercial space station.The hardware would play a utility role by providing a variety of support services for Axiom Station.Axiom Station’s first space module is being built by Thales Alenia Space. That habitation module would be attached to the International Space Station in the 2026 time frame, and when it’s time for the ISS to be retired, Axiom plans to detach its hardware to serve as a standalone orbital outpost.Gravitics would help Axiom build out its orbital infrastructure. The startup, founded in 2021, offers a product line of space modules ranging in diameter from 3 meters (10 feet) to a Starship-sized 8 meters (26 feet). Its deal with Axiom points the way toward an ecosystem for building and operating commercial space stations.“Axiom Space and Gravitics are working together to develop space infrastructure to enable a sustainable global space economy in low-Earth orbit,” Matt Ondler, president of Axiom Space, said today in a news release.Gravitics conducts a test firing for its propulsion system at its Marysville facility. (Gravitics Photo)Gravitics CEO Colin Doughan said his company aims to provide spacecraft for a variety of customers

Space station module developer Gravitics scored a $1.7 million contract from the U.S. Space Force to develop orbital platforms to enable responsive space missions.The contract is part of a larger push from the Force to procure space capabilities — like launch, satellite payload integration, and even satellite operations — from private industry on timelines that have been previously unheard of. The initiative is called tactically responsive space, or TacRS, and it’s already resulted in record-breaking missions: Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket left the pad just 27 hours after it received its launch notice from the Space Force under its TacRS contract last year.While Gravitics was unable to provide more details as to the exact concept of operations, startup co-founder and CMO Mike DeRosa did clarify in an email that the company is not putting a module on a rocket for a tactically responsive launch. Instead, the mission is related to developing “platforms to enable a new kind of tactically responsive space mission,” he said.The $1.7 million contract was awarded by SpaceWERX in partnership with Space Systems Command’s Space Safari Program Office. In a statement, Space Safari’s director of operations Lt Col Jason Altenhofen, said Gravitics’ module “offers an unconventional and potentially game-changing solution for TacRS.”“As we look into the future, the innovative use of commercial technologies will be an important aspect to solving some of our toughest challenges,” he said.Gravitics will be working with several other companies under the contract, including Rocket Lab, True Anomaly, Space Exploration Engineering and Eta Space. While there are scant concrete details about how the firms will work together, the company said the partners will “assist in refining mission architecture, developing use-case specific outfitting, and developing flight hardware.”Rocket Lab and True Anomaly were awarded separate responsive space contracts for a mission called Victus Haze earlier this month