Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Wins Contract to Take NASA Rover to the Moon

NASA’s VIPER lunar rover could beryllium delivered to nan satellite by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company. The US abstraction agency has awarded nan institution a task bid to creation a transportation scheme for nan rover, pinch a early transportation option.

The award, worthy $190 million, was issued done NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which nan agency is utilizing to bargain transportation services to nan satellite from backstage companies. The grant does not straight connote a transportation agreement; first, NASA will verify whether Blue Origin is tin of successfully sending nan costly VIPER rover to nan moon’s southbound pole. To beryllium eligible to return connected nan VIPER delivery, nan institution must spot its Blue Moon MK1 lunar lander—complete pinch a NASA exertion payload—on nan lunar aboveground by nan extremity of 2025.

Blue Origin won this statement to nonstop cargo to nan satellite successful 2023, and designed nan Blue Moon MK1 successful bid to fulfil it. On this mission, it will transportation NASA stereo cameras that will behaviour aboveground surveys, successful summation to mini spheres equipped pinch laser exertion for ngo tracking.

“There is an action connected nan statement to present and safely deploy nan rover to nan Moon’s surface. NASA will make nan determination to workout that action aft nan execution and reappraisal of nan guidelines task and of Blue Origin’s first formation of nan Blue Moon MK1 lander,” nan agency said successful a statement.

On nan aforesaid time arsenic NASA announced nan award, Blue Origin wrote connected X: “Our 2nd Blue Moon MK1 lander is already successful accumulation and well-suited to support nan VIPER rover. Building connected nan learnings from our first MK1 lander, this ngo is important for early lunar permanence and will thatch america astir nan root and distribution of h2o connected nan Moon.”

VIPER—which stands for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover—has been designed by NASA scientists to research nan moon’s southbound rod for crystal and different resources of interest. It is astir 2.5 meters tall, weighs astir 500 kilograms, and has a one-meter drill and 3 technological instruments. The conveyance had been scheduled to motorboat successful 2023, only for that day to beryllium pushed back. Then, successful nan look of rising costs and further delays, successful July 2024 NASA said it had cancelled nan mission. The CLPS grant to Blue Origin now appears to person revived nan program.

The presence of backstage abstraction companies has nan imaginable to trim nan accepted costs of abstraction exploration while allowing ngo managers to attraction connected technological issues. Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, and SpaceX are conscionable immoderate of nan companies that person emerged successful this assemblage and won CLPS contracts pinch NASA.

“NASA is starring nan world successful exploring much of nan Moon than ever before, and this transportation is conscionable 1 of galore ways we’re leveraging US manufacture to support a semipermanent American beingness connected nan lunar surface,” said acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy successful a statement. “Our rover will research nan utmost situation of nan lunar South Pole, walking to small, permanently shadowed regions to thief pass early landing sites for our astronauts and amended understand nan Moon’s environment—important insights for sustaining humans complete longer missions, arsenic America leads our early successful space.”

This communicative primitively appeared on WIRED en Español and has been translated from Spanish.