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KENT, Wash. — NASA has awarded a NextSTEP-2 Appendix P Sustaining Lunar Growth (SLD) contract to Blue Origin. Blue Origin’s Nationwide Crew companions embody Lockheed Martin, Draper, Boeing, Astrobotic, and Honeybee Robotics.
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Underneath this contract, Blue Origin and its Nationwide Crew companions will develop and fly each a lunar lander that may make a precision touchdown wherever on the Moon’s floor and a cislunar transporter. These autos are powered by LOX-LH2. The high-specific impulse of LOX-LH2 offers a dramatic benefit for high-energy deep house missions. Nonetheless, decrease performing however extra simply storable propellants (resembling hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide as used on the Apollo lunar landers) have been favored for these missions due to the problematic boil-off of LOX-LH2 throughout their lengthy mission timelines. Via this contract, we’ll transfer the state-of-the-art ahead by making high-performance LOX-LH2 a storable propellant mixture. Underneath SLD, we’ll develop and fly solar-powered 20-degree Kelvin cryocoolers and the opposite applied sciences required to stop LOX-LH2 boil-off. Future missions past the Moon, and enabling capabilities resembling high-performance nuclear thermal propulsion, will profit vastly from storable LH2. Blue Origin’s structure additionally prepares for that future day when lunar ice can be utilized to fabricate LOX and LH2 propellants on the Moon.
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