NASA has selected Morehead State University (MSU) as one of the 12 Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP).

The partnership aims to advance concept studies and technology development projects in the areas of advanced propulsion, habitation and small satellites.

NASA's contract with MSU at $7.9 million is one of the biggest in the history of the university, said sources.

Dr. Ben Malphrus, MSU's Department of Earth and Space Sciences chair and Space Science Center director, said in a statement that they are very happy as well as excited about the opportunity.

This selection is a credit to the staff and students of the Space Science program who have worked determinedly on previous smallsat missions--5 to date--to ensure the success of these missions in Low Earth Orbit, he said.

The space agency stated that selected companies in these public-private partnerships will partner with NASA to develop the exploration capabilities necessary to enable commercial endeavors in space and human exploration to deep-space destinations Mars.

William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations at NASA headquarters, said commercial partners were selected for their technical ability to mature key technologies and seeing their commitment to the potential applications both for government and private sector uses.

"This work ultimately will inform the strategy to move human presence further into the solar system", he said.

It has been told that two small satellite mission (CubeSats) were selected. The selected satellites will potentially fly as secondary payload missions on the first flight of the Space Launch System, Exploration Mission-1. The missions have been scheduled to launch in 2017 or 2018.

Under this NASA NextSTEP program, Morehead State University and its partners will develop and build a 6U CubeSat designed to prospect for water ice and other lunar volatiles from a low-perigee lunar orbit flying only 100 km (62 miles) above the lunar surface.