/sci/ - Science & Math

Jeff Bezos shows off new Moon lander design for NASA,
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https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/10/jeff-bezos-shows-off-new-moon-lander-design-for-nasa/
> Blue Origin has unveiled a mock-up of the Blue Moon lander it says will be ready to fly to the Moon within the next three years as a precursor to human landings on a larger vehicle, perhaps at the end of the decade.
> This is the Mark 1 variant of the Blue Moon lander. It's designed to deliver up to 3 metric tons (about 6,600 pounds) of cargo anywhere on the lunar surface. Blue Origin revealed the design on Friday.
>"Blue Moon Mark 1 is a single-launch, lunar cargo lander that remains on the surface and provides safe, reliable, and affordable access to the lunar environment," Blue Origin wrote on its website. The company is developing the Mark 1 as a predecessor to the larger Mark 2 lander, which will ferry astronauts to and from the lunar surface under contract to NASA, which selected Blue Origin as its second human-rated lunar lander contractor in May, alongside SpaceX.
> “We’re building our landers, both our Mark 1 and our Mark 2, to enable global landing capability on the Moon, day or night," said John Couluris, senior vice president of lunar transportation at Blue Origin.
> With its $3.4 billion fixed-price Human Landing System (HLS) contract with NASA, Blue Origin will be responsible for transporting astronauts between lunar orbit and the surface of the Moon, then back into space, on the Artemis V mission. This mission is officially scheduled for no sooner than 2029, but is likely to slip into the 2030s.