In just a few short years, a spacecraft that looks something like a flying water tower will land at the lunar south pole, carrying astronauts back to the Moon's surface for the first time since NASA’s Apollo program. That’s only if things go Jeff Bezos’ way, of course. But then again, these days, they typically do.
The Blue Moon spacecraft is a lunar lander designed to haul cargo, and potentially people, to the lunar surface on future missions. It’s currently being developed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ rocket company, Blue Origin. Once completed, Blue Moon should be capable of delivering nearly 10,000 pounds (4,500 kilograms) to the Moon. By comparison, NASA’s Apollo lunar module, the “LM,” was designed to haul up to 11,000 pounds (5,000 kg).
Blue Moon’s impressive cargo capacity, coupled with modern technology, could enable the stuff of sci-fi dreams. Not only could the spacecraft haul the freight needed to build lunar bases or telescopes on the Moon, it also might safely land many batches of astronauts on the lunar surface.
“What we're trying to do is enable a future in which people can live and work on the Moon as part of a broader vision of millions of people living and working in space someday,” Blue Origin’s Chief Scientist Steve Squyres said in an interview with Astronomy last year.
What is the Human Landing System?
Blue Origin — together with its partners Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper — won a collective $579 million contract in 2020 to build a “Human Landing System” for NASA’s Artemis program. Although engineers had been working on the lunar lander since 2016, it wasn't revealed to the public until 2019. And this latest contract is significantly accelerating its development.
“This is the first time since the Apollo era that NASA has direct funding for a human landing system, and now we have companies on contract to do the work for the Artemis program,” former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said when the award was announced.
However, Blue Origin's funding was only enough for an initial “base period” study that’s set to expire at the end of April 2021. Plus, the company and its partners are still competing for the final lunar lander contract. The competition is stiff, too, with Blue Origin facing off against both SpaceX and Dynetics, the latter a spaceflight company in Alabama. Still, so far, SpaceX's and Dynetics' projects have won comparatively less money than Blue Origin’s effort.
With the base period funding for the development of a working lunar landing expiring soon, only two of the three projects will make it to the next round. And NASA is expected to award the contracts to the two finalists very soon, according to reporting by SpaceNews.
If Blue Moon gets the green light, it won't just be a win for Blue Origin, it will also be a major milestone for their partners. That's because Blue Moon can't actually reach the lunar surface without several additional spacecraft components built by other contractors.
Once it's all put together, the multi-company team calls their Human Landing System spacecraft the Integrated Lander Vehicle (ILV), which will include elements for lunar transfer, as well as both descent and ascent.