Blue Origin Unveils Blue Moon, a Giant Lunar Lander for Future Moon Missions

Blue Origin, the private space company founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, has revealed a mock-up of its Blue Moon lunar lander, a giant vehicle that could carry humans and cargo to the surface of the Moon in the near future. The Blue Moon lander is a revised version of earlier designs released by the company. The lander is 16 meters tall and designed to fit inside the seven-meter payload fairing of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket. It has a dry mass of 16 metric tons, and more than 45 metric tons when filled with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants.

The Blue Moon lander has four main engines and 18 smaller thrusters for precision landing and maneuvering1. It also has a large payload bay that can accommodate up to 6.5 metric tons of cargo, including rovers, habitats, science instruments, and even human modules1. The lander can also deploy smaller satellites into lunar orbit using a dedicated dispenser.

The Blue Moon lander is part of Blue Origin’s vision to enable a sustained human presence on the Moon. The company believes that the Moon is a rich source of resources and a strategic location for exploration and innovation. By using liquid hydrogen as fuel, the lander can also tap into the water ice deposits at the lunar poles, which can be converted into more propellant and other useful materials.

The Blue Moon lander is not just a concept, but a reality that is being developed and tested by Blue Origin and its partners. The company has already built and tested several components of the lander, such as the engines, the landing gear, the avionics, and the software. The company has also constructed a full-scale mock-up of the lander at its facility in Kent, Washington, where it is undergoing further evaluation and integration.

The Blue Moon lander has also been selected by NASA as one of the two human landing systems for the agency’s Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon by 2024 and establish a permanent base by 2028. Blue Origin will design, develop, test, and verify its Blue Moon lander to meet NASA’s human landing system requirements for recurring astronaut expeditions to the lunar surface, including docking with Gateway, a space station where crew transfer in lunar orbit. In addition to design and development work, the contract includes one uncrewed demonstration mission to the lunar surface before a crewed demo on the Artemis V mission in 2029. The total award value of the firm-fixed price contract is $3.4 billion.

The Blue Moon lander is an impressive feat of engineering and innovation that could revolutionize lunar exploration and settlement. By unveiling its Blue Moon lander mock-up, Blue Origin has shown its commitment and readiness to make its lunar dreams come true. As Jeff Bezos said in his presentation, “It’s time to go back to the Moon. This time to stay.”