The former Google CEO acquired the space company last year.
NASA has teamed up with Relativity Space, whose CEO is former Google chief Eric Schmidt, for a Martian orbiter mission called Aeolus. Similar to its partnerships with SpaceX and other private companies, NASA will rely on Relativity Space to deliver its payloads to their final destinations. Schmidt’s company will provide the spacecraft, rockets and cruise operations to deliver the agency’s science instruments to the Red Planet. They are expected to launch sometime in 2028.
The agency says Aeolus will build on all previous missions that have studied the Martian atmosphere, including the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Odyssey, and the MAVEN mission, which was recently declared dead after six months without contact. Aeolus will carry four complementary science instruments to Mars that will provide “the first integrated, daily, global view of Mars’ winds, temperatures, dust and clouds.”
The first is the Doppler Wind and Temperature Sounder (DWTS‑Ozone) which will measure wind and temperature profiles. It also has a Thermal Limb Sounder (TLS) that will provide vertical temperature profiles and observations of dust and water-ice clouds. Meanwhile, the Surface Radiometric Sensor Package (SuRSeP) will measure surface energy balance, dust and cloud properties. Finally, the Wide-Field Context Camera (WFCC) will capture global images of atmospheric activity every day. They will be designed and built by scientists at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California.
NASA explained that by knowing more about Mars’ dust, winds, temperatures and seasonal atmospheric behavior, we can reduce the risks of future landings on the planet, whether crewed or non-crewed. The agency and other private space companies can use the data collected by this project to fine-tune the entry, descent and landing systems of future spacecraft.
Aeolus will serve as a proof of concept for future missions in the company’s Interplanetary Sciences Program. At present, the company has not yet provided technical details about the spacecraft and rocket that will be used for the mission. It still has to prove whether it can accomplish such a massive mission. Schmidt acquired Relativity Space in March 2025. A few months later, he confirmed that Ars Technica He took a controlling interest in the company with the goal of placing data centers in orbit.
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