Blue Origin Wins Artemis Lander Contract
Blue Moon
NASA
“NASA announced today (May 19) that Blue Origin is the winner of the second Artemis lunar lander contract today. Initially, NASA had hoped to fund more than one lander concept for the Artemis program — the logic being similar to how NASA approached commercial crew and cargo service for the International Space Station. In both ISS cases, the redundant approach adopted for ISS has proved to be a wise one.” More.
6 responses to “Blue Origin Wins Artemis Lander Contract”
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Will there be protests and lawsuits again this time? What will this lander for 4 crew look like compared to the bids that lost to SpaceX last time?
Anybody have a clue where the descent engine nozzle(s) is(are) in this imagery? And the four articulated blades are…what?
One of the “”new” things they are doing is use Liquid Hydrogen for the lander. The boiling point is something like 20K, which requires the use of radiators to get rid of as much heat as they can to keep the fluid from boiling off. BTW, one of the things they are exploring is mining ice from beneath the surface to break up into H and O2 to liquify and make into fuel. Previous rockets used hypergolics for the engines to increase reliability.
The descent engines are underneath, which may require some pad being constructed for long term viability
What you refer to as “articulated blades” are, according to a Blue Origin official, radiators.
Interesting to see how they will begin with a very large rocket with no experience with smaller rockets like other companies have done (there’s much more than a suborbital hop). If all goes according to plan then this vehicle can provide some considerable infrastructure on the lunar surface. I was not impressed with Administrator Nelson strongly talking about Mars. Let’s first show we can do some serious stuff on the moon though I think humans on Mars is way off into the future, and I see zero reasons to permanently settle there (as I see no landrush to the Gobi Desert).
My immediate impression is more human factors focused than wondering about the engines used… or if maybe sending lawyers and lawmakers to the moon might actually a great idea (In space nobody can hear them pontificate!).
Instead, I was actually drawn to the right of the landing stage… I see a nice comfortable staircase (with rails, yet!) appearing to come from an unseen opening likely not too far up there.
Versus… Elon’s Starship lander with a 100++ foot exterior elevator that just looks like it’s one cable snap/snag away from a very bad [lunar] day? (even at 1/6 G, that would make quite an impression … literally)