Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture is testing a full-scale prototype of its cargo lunar lander, as part of its campaign to get a jump on heavy-duty deliveries to the moon.
In a video posted today to Twitter and Instagram, members of Blue Origin’s lander development team provided a status report on their efforts.
The pathfinder lander has been taking shape at the factory that Blue Origin recently opened in Huntsville, Ala. That factory is responsible for manufacturing the descent element for a human-capable landing system, as well as the BE-4 engines for Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket.
Blue Origin’s heavy-duty landers are being designed to deliver a metric ton of payload to the lunar surface.
At our Huntsville, Alabama factory, we built a full-scale pathfinder of our #HLS Descent Element lander in preparation for our demonstration mission. Take a look at some recent progress and how we are advancing America’s return to the Moon. pic.twitter.com/3yIYnGGN5d
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) February 9, 2021
The company intends to have a cargo-only version of the descent element lander ready to take on a demonstration mission to the moon one year in advance of the first crewed landing for NASA’s Artemis program.
“That provides an enormous amount of risk reduction,” Blue Origin chief scientist Steve Sqyures — a veteran of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover missions — explained in the video. “We get to practice. … We can pre-position material, and it can be whatever you want it to be. We can begin to build up Artemis Base Camp.”
Sqyures said the cargo lander will have a crane system to offload a rover and other payloads. NASA’s Langley Research Center has already provided a crane for the pathfinder tests, and Sqyures said Honeybee Robotics is developing a payload-lowering davit system.
Previously: Blue Origin fleshes out plans for cargo delivery to the moon
If NASA sticks to its current schedule, the demonstration lander would touch down near the moon’s south pole in 2023, in preparation for a crewed landing in 2024. That schedule is almost certain to be pushed back, however, due to the transition in the White House and budgetary concerns.
Blue Origin’s lunar lander team — which also includes Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper — is competing with SpaceX and Dynetics for NASA’s nod to proceed with development of a full-service human landing system. Last month, NASA said it would delay its decision on who gets the nod until as late as April.
In related developments:
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In the wake of Bezos’ announcement last week that he’d be stepping away from his CEO role at Amazon, Reuters quoted an unnamed senior industry source as saying that the billionaire “is going to kick Blue Origin into a higher gear.” Blue Origin has lagged behind SpaceX in rocket development.
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NASA has selected SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket to deliver the first elements of an international Gateway outpost to lunar orbit. Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element, as well as the Habitation and Logistics Outpost, would be sent out in a single launch that would take place no earlier than mid-2024. Total cost to NASA is about $331.8 million, including the launch service and other mission-related costs. For what it’s worth, Blue Origin is one of Maxar Technologies’ partners on the Power and Propulsion Element.
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NASA has awarded Texas-based Firefly Aerospace a $93 million contract to deliver a suite of 10 science investigations and technology demonstrations to the moon in 2023, using Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander. The award is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.