posted 05-09-2019 04:03 PM               

Blue Moon

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.

Meet Blue 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 our experience with New Shepard with respect to LH2/LOX propulsion, precision guidance, vertical landing and landing gear systems.

It's been years in development.

Large Lunar Landing Payload Capability

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.

Ample Power for Payloads

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.

Precision Landing

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.

Versatility

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 us to return Americans to the Moon by 2024.

posted 06-20-2019 06:58 AM               

First hotfire of our BE-7 lunar landing engine just yesterday [June 18] at Marshall Space Flight Center. Data looks great and hardware is in perfect condition. Test went full planned duration – 35 seconds.

posted 12-04-2020 08:40 AM               

Blue Origin BE-7 Engine Testing Further Demonstrates Capability to Land on the Moon

Blue Origin's BE-7 engine program continues its testing at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. This week, the program accomplished the fourth thrust chamber test of its high-efficiency engine. The hotfire testing further validates the engine that will power Blue Origin's National Team Human Landing System (HLS) in support of NASA's Artemis program.

Above: A photo from the fourth trust chamber test of the BE-7 engine at NASA Marshall, which lasted 10 seconds.

So far in this recent campaign, the thrust chamber was tested for a duration of 20 seconds. This brings the cumulative testing time on the BE-7 thrust chamber to 1,245 seconds. The BE-7 is a high-performance, additively manufactured liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen lunar landing engine with 10,000 lbf of thrust – throttling down to 2,000 lbf of thrust for a precise landing on the Moon.

"This thrust chamber test measured the ability to extract energy out of the hydrogen and oxygen cooled combustor segments that power the engine's turbopumps – the key to achieving high engine performance," said John Vilja, senior vice president, Engines, Blue Origin. "The high specific impulse, deep throttling, and restart capabilities of the BE-7 make it the ideal engine for large lunar payload transport as well as many other in-space applications. Thanks to the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center team for their support in this testing. We value this partnership and are looking forward to more test campaigns with them."

Within the National Team's Human Landing System architecture, the BE-7 is used on both the Descent Element and Transfer Element.

Above: BE-7 is an additively manufactured, high-performance, dual-expander cycle engine, generating 40 kN (10,000 lbf) trust.

"The BE-7, a turbomachinery-based engine using the most efficient propellants, is optimal for deep-space maneuvers and landing on the Moon," said Brent Sherwood, vice president, Advanced Development Programs, Blue Origin. "Our engine test series is steadily maturing what's needed to get Americans safely on the lunar surface as soon as possible. We are positioning to use the Moon's ice resources for rocket propellant, which will make exploration sustainable and open the Moon for commerce."

Developed privately over several years, the BE-7 is the latest high-performance engine in the Blue Origin family, building upon the demonstrated success of the BE-3 PM hydrogen/oxygen engine that powers the New Shepard vehicle.