Lunar lander mockup ready for testing

Blue Origin’s space vehicle arrives at NASA to dry run ahead of 2024’s moon excursion

An engineering mockup of the Blue Origin-led lunar lander is now in Houston, ready for testing.

This vehicle, with its development led by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ space company, arrived late last week at NASA’s Johnson

Space Center. It is one of three Human Landing Systems being evaluated by NASA to lower astronauts to the moon in 2024.

Standing more than 40 feet tall, the full-scale mockup of the Ascent and Descent elements will be tested in Building 9, where NASA astronauts train in a variety of space vehicle mockups. The lander will be evaluated for its placement of controls and displays, the ease of getting astronauts in and out, and even the position of exterior lights to illuminate basecamp.

“Doing this really early in the program is helpful because you want to get your feedback as early as possible,” said Brent Sherwood, vice president of Advanced Development Programs at Blue Origin.

Blue Origin is the prime contractor for this lander, but it’s working with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper to develop its various components. Together, the companies are called the National Team.

The vehicle has three modules: the Descent Element, Ascent Element and Transfer Element. The Transfer Element is not included in the mockup being tested in Houston.

The Descent Element, which includes a rocket engine to slow

the vehicle as it approaches the surface and legs to land on, is based on Blue Origin’s Blue Moon, a lander designed to lower cargo (rather than people) to the lunar surface. It will also use the company’s BE-7 engine. Both Blue Moon and BE-7 have been in development for more than three years.

The Ascent Element, which holds the crew, is being led by Lockheed Martin, which is also the prime contractor for NASA’s Orion spacecraft being developed to carry astronauts to the moon for the agency’s Artemis program. For the Ascent Element, Lockheed is incorporating systems from the Orion.

“It’s going to feel just like the Orion vehicle,” said Kirk Shireman, vice president of Lunar Campaigns at Lockheed Martin Space. “It will be really familiar to (the astronauts). It really helps them do their jobs.”

The Transfer Element, a propulsive stage that starts the lander on its descent from lunar orbit, is based on Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus vehicle that carries cargo to the International Space Station. Draper is providing descent guidance and avionics to the National Team.

This modular approach allows the lander’s components to be developed independently by the three companies, Sherwood said. It also simplifies testing and can help the National Team meet the aggressive timeline of returning astronauts to the moon in 2024. And then creating a sustained human presence.

In April, NASA selected Human Landing System proposals led by Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX. It said a combined $967 million would be awarded to the three companies for a 10-month base period ending in February 2021. The companies are also contributing their own money.

During this base period, NASA teams are embedded with the companies as they refine their human lander designs, and then the agency will select the contractor(s) that will go on to perform initial crewed demonstrations on the moon’s surface.

Ultimately, it’s the companies — not NASA — that will own these landers. It’s the latest example of NASA seeking to be one of many customers rather than a vehicle’s owner and operator.

If chosen by NASA, Sherwood said the National Team’s modular approach allows for mix-and-match opportunities that will be helpful for developing a sustained presence on the moon.

The Ascent Element, for instance, isn’t needed when carrying just cargo. And Sherwood expects the ratio of cargo flights to human flights could be 5-to-1.

“Artemis is not flags and footprints this time,” he said. “It’s really the beginning of a sustained presence.”

Initially, the Descent Element would stay on the moon and be converted into infrastructure for surface operations. The National Team would eventually like to reuse this part of the lander, taking water ice from the moon and turning it into liquid oxygen and hydrogen to create rocket fuel for its BE-7 engine.

For now, the National Team’s mockup will be tested in Houston through early 2021.

“People have been working tremendously hard,” said Shireman, who previously worked at NASA leading the agency’s International Space Station program, “and this is a very visible example of our progress.”