Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin space venture is working on a landing system that could put astronauts on the moon by 2024 – but it will also keep open its options for delivering a ton of cargo to the lunar surface a year earlier.
Steve Squires, chief scientist at Blue Origin, outlined the current status of plans to deliver cargo like the Amazon to the moon today during a virtual symposium presented by the University of Washington and Washington’s Space Policy and Research Center.
The idea is not entirely new: just before President Donald Trump formally took office, Blue Origin launched its Blue Moon cargo lender concept with the Trump administration in early 2017. And a Blue Origin executive mentioned the 2023 date for cargo landing more than two years ago during the Seattle-Area Space Conference.
But Squares ‘comments confirmed that the 2023 mission, which will provide an initial test of technology for the crude landing system, is still part of Bezos’ grand vision to create a sustainable human presence on the moon. Bezos told me in 2018, “We should go back to the moon, and stay this time.”
So far there is no indication that NASA has placed an order for cargo delivery, but Squares said the 2024 crew is targeting a location not far from the site chosen for landing if eventually moved forward.
“NASA is talking about Artemis base camp building from our initial first foot on the lunar surface.” “And there is an opportunity to start doing this. In 2023, this lander can deliver 1000 kilograms, a whole metric ton of cargo to the surface. Some of these cargo emergency supplies, tools, spare parts, NASA can have a rover for the crew driving around if ready in time. “
It could set the stage not only for a planned landing in 2024, but also for a follow-up mission. “Of these, we are envisaged delivering a large crew to the lunar surface and delivering cargo to the lunar surface to increase that permanent presence,” Squires said.
Blue Origin is working with industry partners – including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper – to develop a system that can land astronauts on the moon and bring them on their way from the lunar surface into space. The crew-capable landing system does not require the Lehed Kahid Martin, which manufactures the ascending module.
For its value, SpaceX and Dynatics are also working on lunar landing systems, and Gwynn Shotwell, president of SpaceX, has spoken of sending a woven starship cargo mission to the moon by 2022.
Skiers, who joined Blue Origin last year, are well acquainted with what is needed for off-earth robotic landings. During his time at Cornell University, he served as chief investigator for NASA’s Spirit and Endurance rover mission to Mars.
Today Square noted that Narsa Artemis is working on several robotic probes to test the technologies needed for lunar missions. One such probe is the VIPR rover, which is scheduled to launch in the lunar South Pole in late 2022 or late 2023. Viper will evaluate the potential of water ice ract vane that can be used as a resource for lunar operations.
More from the Spark Symposium: Satellite warfare can lead to ‘mutually assured destruction’
Skyyer said the technology demonstration, which targets the extraction and use of lunar water, is “a very active field of research right now” for NASA and its partners. But he said more innovations would be needed to support a sustainable human presence on the moon.
“When you talk about what you’re going to build on the lunar surface, I think the most urgent need is for landing and launch pads that will make flight operations safer in a place where there are people and infrastructure.” Said.
Without such pads, rocket-powered touchdowns and takeoffs could cause lunar rocks and mud to explode everywhere, Square said.
Shirley Dyke, head of the Resilient Extra-Terrestrial Habitats Institute at Parudu University, said lunar land, also known as regolith, could be used as building material on the moon. But she said that first a wide gap of knowledge has to be filled.
“We don’t have that much information about Regolith,” Dyke said. “We know the basic properties and basic themes, I must say, but what we don’t know is the variable – a range of different possible materials when you go around different places on the moon.”
Dyke said lunar builders will have to find an alternative to at least one of the basic components used in earth-style construction.
He said, ‘Here on earth is this magical material called Portland cement.’ “And it doesn’t exist on the moon.”
