Member-only story
Blue Origin aims to launch its first two Moon missions by next year
But with nearly no NASA payloads onboard.
Blue Origin indeed aims to launch its robotic Blue Moon Mark I lander later this year on a New Glenn rocket. The trip to the Moon will take seven days, and the landing site will be somewhere on the Moon’s south pole. The region is known to have water ice deposits based on orbital remote sensing measurements but it’s unclear what payloads the Mark I will carry on this flight, and if any are related to lunar water.
Blue Origin will launch another Mark I lander next year, incorporating lessons based on how the first “Pathfinder” flight performs. It also gives the company another shot at landing on the Moon in the near future should the first Mark I fail.
One payload the Pathfinder Mark I will certainly carry is NASA’s third version of the multi-camera SCALPSS payload. The second SCALPPS, which flew on Firefly’s first Moon lander called Blue Ghost earlier this year, snapped close-up images of the Moon’s surface as the lander’s thruster plumes vigorously kicked up lunar dust, soil, and rocks — collectively called regolith. Collectively, these measurements will help lunar scientists and engineers better understand how rocket plumes blast out lunar regolith and affect the local lunar environment, and thus how to best…
