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Blue Moon

On 19 May 2023 NASA selected Jeff Bezos’s company Blue Origin to construct a spacecraft that will send astronauts to and from the surface of the moon, winning a contract valued at about $3.4bn. The contract requires Blue Origin to offer a demonstration of an uncrewed mission to the moon, followed by a crewed voyage that would take astronauts to the lunar surface, scheduled for 2029. Blue Origin will build a 16-metre (52-foot) tall lander in coordination with defence contractors Lockheed Martin and Boeing, as well as spacecraft software firm Draper and the robotics company Astrobotic. Those companies lost to SpaceX in their 2021 bid, which Blue Origin unsuccessfully tried to have overturned in court.

NASA exercised an option for a contract in December 2022 under the Next-STEP-2 Omnibus BAA for a sustainable lander known as Option B, which will serve notionally as the lander for the Artemis IV mission. The purpose of this solicitation is to request proposals from industry for selection and a second award for the rapid development and demonstration of a Sustainable Human Landing System (HLS) from a second provider, delivering humans to the lunar surface in a subsequent Artemis mission, and with the requirement of completing the required Lunar Orbit Checkout Review (LOCR) by April 2028.

To facilitate Blue Origin’s ability to successfully complete the required Lunar Orbit Checkout Review (LOCR) and crewed demonstration mission in 2028, Blue Origin proposed a unique and highly advantageous aspect of its technical approach that matures several technologies critical to the success of the crewed and cargo landers early in the development cycle to burn down risk associated with the current low-Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) of multiple technologies. Specifically, Blue Origin planned to fund and execute pathfinder lander missions in 2024 and 2025, to land on the Moon to mature several critical, lowTRL technologies three years before the Sustaining Lunar Development (SLD) uncrewed demonstration mission by demonstrating lunar lander components, subsystem designs, and system behaviors.

It is a forward-thinking solution to mature key low-TRL technologies allowing for incorporation for any changes into the final design well in advance of the LOCR and crewed demonstration mission. The proposed solution to maturing these technologies is a significant strength of the technical proposal because it is highly advantageous to NASA in terms of maintaining schedule and ensuring mission success, and there is no financial impact to NASA because the pathfinder missions are being funded by Blue Origin.

Blue Origin’s technical approach is the plan to burn down risk associated with the crewed demonstration mission by using a fully integrated flight configuration of all systems for the Uncrewed Flight Test (UFT), which is conducted before the crewed demonstration mission. The success criteria for the UFT that are identified in the Statement of Work (SOW) only include a landing test to the lunar surface with a demonstration of precision landing capabilities. However, the UFT being proposed by Blue Origin will also demonstrate critical lander systems that will be at play during the crewed demonstration mission (i.e., thermal and fluid characterization of cryogenics, lunar surface storage, Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS), reignition of the engines after surface stay, and the autonomous ascent burn and Non-Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) return). Early demonstration of the crewed lander, through all mission phases, allows lander systems to be exercised in the environments they are expected to operate in during the crewed demonstration mission.

Proposed excess capabilities for the Integrated Lander above the solicitation functional requirements for both NASA DRM-H-001 (Polar Sortie Mission) and NASA DRM-H-002 (Polar Excursion Mission) include delivery from Earth to Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) (volume only), delivery from NRHO to lunar surface, delivery from Lunar Surface to NRHO (volume only for NASA DRM-H-002), extended loiter in NRHO, lunar ascent video, surface operations vertical orientation, and peak power for GFP. Blue Origin also provides more than the goal for volume on Delivery from NRHO to Lunar Surface and Delivery from Lunar Surface to NRHO. Additionally, excess capability is provided for science/utilization, including total power wattage, individual power wattage, interface power feed, interface envelope and providing more than goal allocations for externally mounted payloads. Excess capabilities are also proposed for the NASA HDL DRMs, DRM-C-001 (Integrated Cargo Delivery Mission) and DRM-C-002 (Offloaded Cargo Delivery Mission) that include cargo delivery and surface operations vertical orientation. Lastly, Blue Origin proposes an excess capability to provide Non-Polar Surface Access to six of the six sites listed for NASA DRM-H-001b (Non-Polar Sortie Mission Variant), which demonstrates flexibility and added margin against the non-polar NASA DRM.

Blue Origin’s architecture supports market expansions above and beyond the Appendix P mission of the Lunar Cargo Delivery Service, In-Space Transportation services, and Refueling markets by expanding the space economy through Blue Origin’s availability of its commercial lander capabilities to international agencies, other Government customers, and private astronauts. Reusability is a promising key future characteristic within Blue Origin’s architecture and business approach, which will greatly benefit the Government in the future by enabling long-term affordability, reducing crew safety risks by having multiple landers available, and/or delivering multiple cargo missions without disposal. When coupled with Blue Origin’s plans for a reusable New Glenn launch vehicle, the proposal demonstrates a strong commitment to future cost reductions and increasing the customer base with emerging markets. A path to sustainability is also addressed within Blue Origin’s business approach and it shows NASA that up-front design considerations are being studied and acted upon. Examples include the plan to launch duplicate landers for the 2027 uncrewed flight test and 2028 crewed demonstration missions and their ability to loiter in Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) exceeding NASA’s requirements.

Blue Origin’s Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) contains numerous conflicts and omissions. The Volume 3 Management proposal states that Blue Origin’s “…schedule management approach is anchored by the program IMS, a single source of truth for the whole team;” however, the IMS has numerous conflicts and omissions, which is a weakness of their proposal. NASA had some concern with this aspect of the proposal and view it as a potential schedule management process weakness for integrating disciplines, Integrated Product Teams (IPTs), and/or subcontractors, and contrary to the stated “single source of truth” intent of the IMS. These flaws in the IMS increase the risk that deliverable deadlines may be missed due to incorrect documentation and increases the risk of confusion across the contractor and NASA teams as multiple delivery dates are documented or missing.

Blue Origin’s CEO Jeff Bezos offered NASA $2 billion if the space agency reconsiders his company for a contract on its lunar landing mission. His firm lost the contract to Elon Musk’s SpaceX in April 2021. “Blue Origin will bridge [NASA’s] budgetary funding shortfall by waiving all payments in the current and next two government fiscal years up to $2bn to get the program back on track right now,” Bezos wrote on 26 July 2021 in an open letter to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. In return, Bezos wants Blue Origin to get a fixed-priced contract for the construction of a spaceship for NASA’s moon mission.

In a 175-page protest, Blue Origin accused NASA of misjudging several parts of its proposal for its lunar lander called Blue Moon. “NASA has executed a flawed acquisition for the Human Landing System programme and moved the goalposts at the last minute,” Blue Origin said in a statement. Calling NASA’s decision “high risk,” the company said that the decision “eliminates opportunities for competition, significantly narrows the supply base, and not only delays, but also endangers America’s return to the Moon. Because of that, we’ve filed a protest with the GAO”.

The space agency announced the contract earlier in 2021. It initially wanted at least two private-sector companies to compete for a part in the mission, but later decided to go for one firm, citing low funding. In April, NASA inked the deal with Blue Origin’s rival, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, granting a $2.9 billion contract for SpaceX’s cylindrical Starship shuttle. Blue Origin and defense company Dynetics lost the bid, with NASA stating that SpaceX was “the best value to the government.”

After losing the bid to SpaceX, both Blue Origin and Dynetics filed a protest with the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) claiming that NASA’s choice was unfair. Amid the legal challenge NASA had to suspend work on the project in May. In his letter, Bezos further warned that NASA’s mission may be delayed and will be more expensive without competition.

The Trump Administration announced plans to return Americans to the Lunar surface by the year 2024, some five years earlier than previously planned. This biggest challenge facing NASA is the development of the lunar lander needed to take astronauts to the surface. Such a vehicle had been under development under the Bush Administration, but had been halted under the Obama Administration. NASA now faces the choice of either reviving the Bush Adminisration Altair Lunar Lander, a large, highly capable system of the sort needed for extensive Lunar operations, or developing something along the lines of the Golden Spike lander, a minimalist vehicle that would meet the immediate political "footsteps and flags" requirements, but might not support much else.

On 09 May 2019, Jeff Bezos announced the Blue Moon lunar lander, which is capable of taking people and payloads to the lunar surface. The lander would be able to bring US astronauts to the Moon by 2024 in line with the goals set by US President Donald Trump’s administration. The world's richest man and Amazon.com Inc's chief executive waved an arm and a black drape behind him dropped to reveal the two-story-tall mockup of the unmanned lander dubbed Blue Moon during an hour-long presentation at Washington's convention center, just several blocks from the White House.

"This is Blue Moon. We’ve been working on this lander for three years. It’s a very large lander. It will soft-land in a precise way 3.6 metric tons onto the lunar surface. The stretched-tank variant of it will soft-land 6.5 metric tons onto the lunar surface … This is an incredible vehicle and it’s going to the Moon. It’s time to go back to the moon, this time to stay", Bezos said at the press event in Washington, DC.

Blue Origin announced Blue Moon, its large lunar lander capable of delivering multiple metric tons of payload to the lunar surface based on configuration and mission. The cargo variant revealed today can carry 3.6 metric tons to the surface. The Company also designed a variant of the lander that can stretch to be capable of carrying a 6.5-metric-ton, human-rated ascent stage. Blue also announced it can meet the current Administration's goal of putting Americans on the Moon by 2024 with the Blue Moon lunar lander.

BE-7 engine: The Blue Moon lunar lander will be powered by the BE-7 engine, a new addition to Blue Origin’s family of engines. The BE-7’s 40 kN (10,000 lbf) thrust is designed for large lunar payload transport. The engine’s propellants are a highly-efficient combination of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. The BE-7 will have its first hotfire in the summer of 2019. The engine will be available for sale to other companies for use in in-space and lander applications.

Historically, cryogenic rocket engines have not been used for in-space applications due to their additional complexity, the mission need for high reliability, and the challenges of propellant boil-off. The Apollo Saturn IVB third stage vehicle used a single J-2 LOX-hydrogen rocket engine to reach Earth orbit, for orbit circularization, and for trans-lunar injection. The Apollo service module and the Lunar Excursion Module descent and ascent propulsion used pressure-fed, hypergolic, bi-propellant rocket engines for trajectory adjustment, lunar capture. lunar descent, lunar ascent, and trans-Earth return propulsion. Virtually all planetary exploration missions have used hypergolic propellants for in-space propulsion.

While the mission and vehicle architectures are not yet defined for the lunar and Martian robotic and human exploration objectives, cryogenic rocket engines offer the potential for higher performance and greater architecturehission flexibility. In-situ cryogenic propellant production could enable a more robust exploration program by significantly reducing the propellant mass delivered to low earth orbit, thus warranting the evaluation of cryogenic rocket engines versus the hypergolic bipropellant engines used in the Apollo program.

Blue Moon is a flexible lander delivering a wide variety of small, medium and large payloads to the lunar surface. Its capability to provide precise and soft landings will enable a sustained human presence on the Moon. Blue Moon can deliver payloads to the lunar surface, host payloads and even deploy payloads during its journey to the Moon. Its technology builds on experience with New Shepard with respect to LH2/LOX propulsion, precision guidance, vertical landing and landing gear systems.

Blue Moon can land multiple metric tons of payload on the lunar surface. The top deck and lower bays easily accommodate a wide variety of payloads, including large payloads and ESPA-class payloads with standard ring port interfaces. There are lower mounting locations for payloads, useful for closer access to the lunar surface and off-loading. The Blue Moon lander provides kilowatts of power to payloads using its fuel cells, allowing for long mission durations and the ability to last through the lunar night. Blue Moon's precision guidance and descent sensors utilize machine learning technology to accurately land anywhere on the lunar surface, starting with its first mission.

The Blue Moon lander can deliver large infrastructure payloads with high accuracy to pre-position systems for future missions. The larger variant of Blue Moon has been designed to land an ascent vehicle that will allow returning Americans to the Moon by 2024.

Blue Origin announced 22 October 2019 a national team to offer a Human Landing System for NASA’s Artemis program to return Americans to the lunar surface by 2024. Blue Origin signed teaming agreements with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper. These partners have decades of experience supporting NASA with human space flight systems, launch vehicles, orbital logistics, deep-space missions, interplanetary navigation and planetary landings. Each partner will bring their industry leading solutions to the following roles:

• Blue Origin, as prime contractor, leads program management, systems engineering, safety and mission assurance, and mission engineering while providing the Descent Element that is based on the multi-year development of the Blue Moon lunar lander and its BE-7 engine.
• Lockheed Martin develops the reusable Ascent Element vehicle and leads crewed flight operations and training.
• Northrop Grumman provides the Transfer Element vehicle that brings the landing system down towards the Moon.
• Draper leads descent guidance and provides flight avionics.

“National challenges call for a national response. We are humbled and inspired to lead this deeply committed team that will land NASA astronauts on the Moon,” said Bob Smith, CEO, Blue Origin. “Combining our partners’ heritage with our advance work on the Blue Moon lunar lander and its BE-7 engine, our team is looking forward to working with NASA in support of the Artemis program.”

“Lockheed Martin has been honored to help NASA explore space for more than 50 years, providing deep space robotic missions, planetary landers, space shuttle heritage and the Orion exploration spacecraft,” said Rick Ambrose, executive vice president, Lockheed Martin Space. “We value Blue Origin’s thoughtful approach to developing human-rated flight systems, and are thrilled to be part of a national team with this mix of innovation and experience. We look forward to safely and sustainably returning our nation to the surface of the Moon by 2024.”

“Northrop Grumman’s commitment to put Americans back on the moon dates back over 50 years ago with the delivery of the first lunar lander for the historic Apollo Program,” said Blake Larson, corporate vice president and president of Innovation Systems, Northrop Grumman. “Along with our ongoing work on the Space Launch System boosters, astronaut escape system, and the Gateway habitat, we are proud to be a part of the Blue Origin national team to support NASA’s Artemis program and the ambitious goal to return to the moon by 2024.”

“When the nation needs precision guidance, it calls on Draper,” said Kaigham J. Gabriel, President and CEO, Draper. “We guided Apollo to the moon and back nearly 50 years ago. We’re ready to do it again with the Blue Origin team for Artemis.”