![]() Astrobotic will handle cargo accommodations, Honeybee Robotics will provide cargo offloading capabilities and Boeing will contribute the docking system. Draper will provide guidance, navigation and control systems as well as training and simulation. There are several other members of what Blue Origin calls its “National Team” for the lander. That vehicle will refuel the lander, which is designed to be used on multiple lander missions. ![]() It will be able to transport up to 20 metric tons to the lunar surface and be able to return to lunar orbit, or 30 metric tons on one-way missions.īlue Origin is working with Lockheed Martin, which will build a “cislunar transporter” spacecraft, carrying propellant from low Earth orbit to the near-rectilinear halo orbit around the moon where the lander is located. “If you can make hydrogen storable, then you can do a number of things.” That includes, he said, extracting hydrogen and oxygen from lunar resources to fuel landers.īesides the version designed to carry astronauts, Blue Origin is planning a cargo version of the lander. “We want to make hydrogen a storable propellant,” he said. The company has been funding internally “zero-boiloff” technology for some time, such as a cryocooler that operates at a temperature of 20 kelvins. “This is a great example of the public-private partnership we have with NASA,” Couluris said. Keeping those cryogenic propellants from boiling off is a key enabling technology for Blue Moon. It has a dry mass of 16 metric tons, and more than 45 metric tons when filled with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants. The lander is 16 meters tall and designed to fit inside the seven-meter payload fairing of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket. The Blue Moon lander is a revised version of earlier designs released by the company. NASA officials at the briefing did not disclose the rationale for selecting Blue Origin over Dynetics, saying it will be released in a separate source selection statement. Artemis 5 will be the third crewed landing of the Artemis lunar exploration campaign, after the Artemis 3 and 4 missions that will use SpaceX’s Starship.īlue Origin was one of two bidders, with a team led by Dynetics submitting the other bid. The contract includes a demonstration landing on Artemis 5, currently scheduled for no earlier than late 2029, as well as an uncrewed test flight of the lander about one year earlier. John Couluris, Blue Origin program manager for the effort, said at the briefing that the company plans to invest “well north” of that amount to develop the lander. The value of the fixed-price award is $3.4 billion. ![]() WASHINGTON - NASA has selected Blue Origin to develop a lunar lander to transport astronauts on Artemis missions starting at the end of the decade.Īt an event at NASA Headquarters May 19, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced that the agency chose a team led by Blue Origin, with participation from Boeing, Draper and Lockheed Martin, among others, to develop a lander called Blue Moon that will join already under development by SpaceX to transport astronauts between the lunar Gateway and the surface of the moon. ![]()
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