posted 03-02-2017 05:23 PM               

Please use this topic to discuss Blue Origin's proposed Blue Moon lunar lander to deliver gear for experiments, cargo and habitats by mid-2020, helping to enable "future human settlement" of the moon.

posted 03-02-2017 05:26 PM               

Blue Origin's proposal — dated Jan. 4 — doesn't involve flying humans, but rather is focused on a series of cargo missions. Those could deliver the equipment necessary to help establish a human colony on the moon — unlike the Apollo missions, in which the astronauts left "flags and footprints" and then came home.

...Blue Origin could perform the first lunar mission as early as July, 2020, Bezos wrote, but stressed that it could "only be done in partnership with NASA. Our liquid hydrogen expertise and experience with precision vertical landing offer the fastest path to a lunar lander mission. I'm excited about this and am ready to invest my own money alongside NASA to make it happen."

Last year, Blue Origin successfully launched and landed its suborbital rocket, the New Shepard, five times within less than a year, flying just past the 62-mile edge of space and then landing vertically on a landing pad at the company's West Texas facility.

That same technology could be used to land the Blue Moon vehicle on the lunar surface, the company said. Its white paper shows what looks like a modified New Shepard rocket, standing on the moon with an American flag, a NASA logo and Blue Origin's feather symbol.

The company said it plans to land its Blue Moon lunar lander at Shackleton Crater on the moon's south pole. The site has near continuous sunlight to provide power through the spacecraft's solar arrays. The company also chose to land there because of the "water ice in the perpetual shadow of the crater's deep crevices."

posted 03-03-2017 09:13 AM               

Blue Origin's New Shepard Team is the winner of Aviation Week's 60th Annual Space Laureate. New Shepard is only the first step in fulfilling Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos' vision of using ever larger reusable rockets to send an entire economy into Earth orbit and beyond.

Following the Laureate Award presentations held at Washington's National Building Museum on March 2, Bezos talked to Aviation Week & Space Technology Editor-in-Chief Joe Anselmo and the audience at the awards dinner about the importance of expanding into the solar system.

posted 01-22-2018 05:11 PM               

50 years ago today, NASA launched Apollo 5, the first uncrewed Lunar Module test flight. This mission proved out the Lunar Module propulsion systems, staging, and in-space operations before carrying astronauts.

Blue Moon is designed to fly on any launch vehicle, including SLS, Atlas V, Vulcan and New Glenn. Delivering large payloads to the lunar surface, Blue Moon can help put astronauts on the moon – this time to stay.

posted 01-23-2018 11:17 PM               

As to the payload capability, The Washington Post, in its March 2017 article, cited a (leaked) Blue Origin white paper as stating:

The Blue Moon spacecraft could carry as much as 10,000 pounds of material...

posted 05-26-2018 02:48 PM               

Without divulging details about the new generations of powerful rockets, spacecraft and landing vehicles he envisions will be necessary to establish such permanent outposts, Mr. Bezos made an impassioned argument for accelerating private space travel. He argued that future generations won't be able to survive on earth without expanding into other parts of the solar system.

"The alternative is stasis," he said, adding that without space settlements, societies around the globe "will have to stop growing" due to environmental and other constraints. "That's not the future that I want for my grandchildren, or my grandchildren's grandchildren."

Mr. Bezos called the efforts of his rocket company, Blue Origin LLC, "the most important work I am doing." The question and answer session occurred at the annual meeting of the National Space Society, a nonprofit group championing space colonies.

posted 10-03-2018 10:56 AM               

OHB Group signs Letter of Intent for cooperation with Blue Origin

The OHB Group today signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) for future cooperation with the U.S. aerospace company Blue Origin. The document was signed by Dr. Lutz Bertling and Kurt Melching, members of the Management Board of OHB SE, Hans J. Steininger, CEO of MT Aerospace and Bob Smith, CEO of Blue Origin, during a bilateral meeting at the International Space Congress IAC in Bremen.

The aim is to explore the extent to which OHB, MT Aerospace and Blue Origin can work together across the Atlantic. The companies have partnered on a future Blue Moon mission to the lunar surface – Blue Origin's lunar lander capable of bringing several metric tons of cargo to the Moon. The companies will collaborate on a payload on board Blue Origin's reusable orbital rocket New Glenn. The use of these systems and possible cooperation will be the subject of in-depth discussions in the transatlantic dialogue.

"We are delighted to have gained Blue Origin as a dialogue partner who has established itself over the past few years as one of the leading companies in the aerospace industry," says Lutz Bertling. "We are convinced that the mixture of the respective competencies will quickly lead to concrete approaches for further cooperation."

posted 03-30-2019 10:05 AM               

Under the agreement, Blue Origin promised to pay NASA nearly US $50,000 to "leverage the unique capabilities, expertise, and knowledge of NASA in multiple technology areas to help to optimally design and develop such capabilities for both NASA and commercial missions."

In the Space Act arrangement, NASA would provide Blue Origin with the in-space trajectory analysis software called Copernicus, to help plan Blue Moon's journey. The agency would also supply reports and studies about a return to the moon, including surveys of potential landing sites. Blue Origin even wanted to know about the status of unopened samples of lunar rock from the Apollo missions.

At the end of the six-month project, which could come as early as next month, NASA's technical experts would review and provide feedback on Blue Origin's lunar lander mission plans. The company's stated intent is to land an uncrewed spacecraft on the moon as soon as 2024...

posted 05-09-2019 03:43 PM               

Meet the Blue Moon lander.

It can soft land up to 6.5 tons on the surface of the Moon, Bezos said. Been working on it for 3 years.

Fits into 7-meter payload fairing of the New Glenn rocket. Fuel cells provide 2.5 kilowatts of power.

Bezos unveils a BE-7 engine with 10,000 pounds of thrust. Deep-throttling capability. LH-LOX fuel. Will hot fire test it for the first time this summer.

Humans? A stretch tank version of Blue Moon can carry a pressurized ascent vehicle on top.

Bezos on VP's Moon 2024 plan. "I love this. It’s the right thing to do. We can help meet that timeline but only because we started three years ago. It's time to go back to the Moon, this time to stay."

posted 05-10-2019 12:51 AM               

On May 9, 2019, our founder discussed his vision to go to space to benefit Earth. In addition, he also announced the Blue Moon lunar lander, which is capable of taking people and payloads to the lunar surface.