3 weeks ago
NASA
Following nan occurrence of its Artemis II crewed mission, NASA is now turning its attraction to nan adjacent milestones successful its scheme to put astronauts backmost connected nan moon. The abstraction agency has been eyeing a satellite landing successful 2028, and it's tapped Blue Origin and SpaceX to supply nan landers that could support humans connected nan aboveground (though neither institution has demonstrated a satellite landing yet). This week, NASA shared that it now has a full-scale prototype of nan unit compartment of Blue Origin's Mark 2 lander truthful it tin statesman training.
With nan 15-foot-tall prototype astatine NASA's Johnson Space Center, nan abstraction agency and Blue Origin will beryllium capable to "conduct a bid of human-in-the-loop tests, aliases tests pinch quality interaction, including ngo scenarios, ngo power communications, spacesuit checkouts, and preparations for simulated moonwalks," NASA explained. This mock-up only includes nan unit cabin, which sits astatine nan guidelines of nan lander — nan full point pinch nan remainder of nan systems integrated will beryllium a towering 52-feet-tall erstwhile it goes to nan moon. But arsenic caller attempts person shown, landing smoothly on nan moon isn't easy, and some Blue Origin and SpaceX person their activity trim retired for them to get their landers fresh connected NASA's existent timeline.
An uncrewed type of Blue Origin's lander, dubbed Endurance (or MK1), has been undergoing testing successful NASA's thermal vacuum enclosure up of its first ngo this year, successful which it will present subject payloads to nan lunar surface. For nan adjacent limb of nan Artemis program, nan Artemis III unit will alert successful nan Orion spacecraft to debased Earth orbit and trial docking capabilities pinch Blue Origin and SpaceX's landers, aliases whichever 1 is ready. NASA is targeting 2027 for this mission.
