Bezos and Couluris said Blue Origin is already working on technologies enabling long-term storage of the ultracold liquid oxygen and hydrogen propellants. In between surface sorties, the lander can simply remain in the near rectilinear halo orbit at or near Gateway while awaiting follow-on missions. or 30 metric tons to the surface to form the foundation of habitats and other permanent infrastructure." "This vehicle also can be configured for a cargo landing mission able to carry up to 20 metric tons in a round trip. "That will be the first mission that we fly as part of Artemis 5. "The first is a crew configuration that will be able to land four astronauts anywhere on the surface of the moon, day or night," Couluris said. The Blue Moon can be configured in two versions. But Blue Origin plans multiple test flights ahead of the rehearsal using less capable versions of the lander to test specific systems. The NASA contract calls for an unpiloted dress rehearsal descent from Gateway and landing near the south pole before astronauts float aboard during the Artemis 5 mission for the first piloted landing. SpaceX is developing a variant of its Starship spacecraft, seen here in an artist's rendering, for NASA's initial Artemis moon landings. From there, the Blue Moon will carry the crew to the lunar surface, bringing them back up to Gateway and Orion after a stay of up to 30 days. The lander will dock at the Gateway station where four Artemis astronauts, launched aboard an Orion capsule by NASA's Space Launch System rocket, will be waiting. Lockheed Martin's "cis-lunar transporter" spacecraft will carry propellants from low-Earth orbit to the moon where it will link up with the Blue Moon lander in the NRHO, fueling it for its eventual descent to the surface. The Blue Moon architecture calls for a New Glenn rocket to launch the lander into the elliptical "near rectilinear halo orbit," or NRHO, that NASA is using for its planned Gateway lunar space station. A port on the side of the crew compartment will enable rovers to dock with the lander, allowing astronauts to move from one vehicle to another without having to first venture outside. A short stairway will provide easy access to the surface.Ī squat liquid oxygen tank and larger hydrogen tank will be positioned atop the crew cabin, along with radiator panels and solar arrays. The spacecraft's crew compartment, capable of supporting four astronauts for up to 30 days, will sit atop four landing legs and rocket motors. The fully reusable Blue Moon lander will stand about 52 feet tall, fitting inside the 23-foot-wide nose cone of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket. It's not yet clear when that variant might fly. Last November, SpaceX won an additional $1.1 billion to develop an upgraded version of its lander, one capable of longer stays to support "sustained" exploration. The company and another team lost out to SpaceX in 2021 when NASA awarded Elon Musk's company a $2.9 billion contract to build a variant of its Starship rocket for the initial Artemis 3 moon landing.īlue Origin protested the original award, delaying work on the Starship lander, but the company's efforts were unsuccessful. The contract award caps a long, occasionally contentious struggle by Blue Origin to join the Artemis program. The Blue Moon lander can carry four astronauts to and from the surface, allowing stays up to 30 days long. It helps NASA share the risk, the technical risk, and the financial risk to enable, at the end of the day, mission success." An artist's impression of Blue Origin's Artemis lander on the surface of the moon near the lunar south pole. It means that you have reliability, you have backups. "We want more competition," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. That flight will follow the initial Artemis 3 moon landing, using SpaceX's lander, in the 2025-26 timeframe. The contract requires Blue Origin to fly an unpiloted dress-rehearsal landing before astronauts float aboard and descend to the lunar surface during the Artemis 5 mission.
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