#Lunar lander free#

While Blue Origin’s plans all sound good on paper, a lot needs to go right before they become reality. For this reason, Bezos said, the lunar lander is fueled by liquid hydrogen so it can be refueled on the surface of the moon. More important, however, the lunar south pole is believed to be home to large deposits of water ice, which can potentially be used for life support or broken down into its constituent elements-hydrogen and oxygen-and repurposed as rocket fuel.

The crater receives almost perpetual sunlight, which can be used for solar power. He said the engine will undergo a hot test for the first time this summer, but he did not say when he expected the lander to fly for the first time.īezos says Shackleton Crater is a strategic destination that was chosen for its resources. For this reason, Bezos said, they had to develop a special descent engine that had “deep throttling capabilities,” so the engines could drastically reduce their force as the lander shed mass. The Blue Moon lander weighs roughly 33,000 pounds when it’s loaded with fuel, but by the time it touches down on the lunar surface, it will weigh a mere 7,000 pounds.

In addition, Bezos unveiled the BE-7 engine, which will be used to control the lander’s descent. Last month, the company hinted at its plans with an enigmatic tweet depicting Endurance, the ship that carried British explorer Ernest Shackleton on a disastrous mission to Antarctica in the early 20th century. As detailed by Bezos, the plan is to send the lunar lander, called Blue Moon, to Shackleton Crater at the moon’s south pole. Today Bezos unveiled a mock-up of Blue Origin’s lunar lander at a small invite-only event in Washington, DC. He is also, incidentally, a big fan of Heinlein. For the past 19 years he has bankrolled his space company, Blue Origin, almost entirely out of pocket and has made his goal of colonizing the moon known. Once the richest man in the world, Bezos is Harriman become flesh. But towering above them all is Jeff Bezos. These days, billionaires with their own space programs are in abundant supply-Elon Musk, Paul Allen, Richard Branson, Robert Bigelow.

At the dawn of the new space race, it feels more relevant than ever. Harriman drives himself to the brink of bankruptcy and madness chasing his lunar ambitions, which he feels can’t be left to the bumbling government bureaucracy to handle. Harriman, the “last of the robber barons,” who is hell-bent on being the first man on the moon. Published in 1950, it tells the tale of Delos D. Once Peregrine’s integration is complete, it will head to spacecraft environmental testing, before being shipped to Cape Canaveral in Florida to begin its final preparations for launch in Q4 2022.When Robert Heinlein wrote his masterpiece of space age realism, The Man Who Sold the Moon, he had no way of knowing how prescient it would be. The payloads are already integrated onto Peregrine’s flight decks, which are awaiting installation on the greater lander. These include scientific instruments from three national space agencies – including 11 from NASA alone – a rover from Carnegie Mellon University, several payloads from commercial companies, and cultural messages from individuals around the Earth. It represents the culmination of countless hours over many years by hundreds of people to design and assemble the lander, to create the lunar delivery market, and to establish the facilities and supply chain needed to ensure the success of commercial space missions like Peregrine’s long into the future.”Īlso present in the cleanroom were the 24 payloads that Peregrine will be delivering to the lunar surface. “This is why our company was founded 15 years ago. “This lunar lander build is a dream come true,” said John Thornton, CEO of Astrobotic.

#Lunar lander free#

Because the flight model must be kept free of contamination of sensitive spacecraft components, attendees were required to suit up in white coveralls and hairnets to enter the cleanroom where Peregrine is being assembled. Peregrine’s unveiling took place at Astrobotic’s Pittsburgh headquarters, an approximately 50,000ft² state-of-the-art facility dedicated to developing and operating lunar spacecraft. Peregrine is the first lander in NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative to unveil its flight model, and could become the first American spacecraft to land on the Moon since the Apollo program. Its unveiling is a sign of Peregrine’s state of readiness as it moves closer to its launch date, scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year. The flight model, as opposed to earlier test models, is the version of Peregrine that will actually fly to the Moon on a United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket. Astrobotic has unveiled the flight model of its Peregrine lunar lander during a visit by top NASA and government officials to the company’s headquarters.