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.

DARPA announced last year the Lunar Assay via Small Satellite Orbiter (LASSO) program. LASSO would demonstrate the ability to operate in a very low orbit around the moon while searching for locations on the moon that contain water ice at concentrations greater than 5%.

The mission, the agency stated, would test “sustained and advanced maneuverability” needed to maintain that low orbit, with applications elsewhere in cislunar space. The scientific data from the mission would support both NASA and commercial efforts to use lunar resources.