{"id":18492,"date":"2018-05-31T18:59:18","date_gmt":"2018-05-31T10:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/blue-origin-gets-in-on-nasa-studies-for-resource-utilization-on-moon-and-mars\/"},"modified":"2018-05-31T18:59:18","modified_gmt":"2018-05-31T10:59:18","slug":"blue-origin-gets-in-on-nasa-studies-for-resource-utilization-on-moon-and-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/blue-origin-gets-in-on-nasa-studies-for-resource-utilization-on-moon-and-mars\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Origin gets in on NASA studies for resource utilization on moon and Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_391822\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-391822\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-391822\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/180122-bluemoon-630x420.jpg\" alt=\"Blue Moon lander\" width=\"630\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/180122-bluemoon-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/180122-bluemoon-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/180122-bluemoon.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-391822\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s conception shows Blue Origin\u2019s Blue Moon lander on the lunar surface. (Blue Origin Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture is among 10 teams that will share about $10 million in NASA funding to look into techniques for using resources from the moon and Mars.<\/p>\n<p>The studies are aimed at advancing technologies for in-situ resource utilization, or ISRU.<\/p>\n<p>Such technologies could, for example, make use of ice in lunar soil to produce drinkable water, breathable oxygen and rocket propellants for refueling spacecraft. To cite another example, carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere could contribute to the production of methane fuel.<\/p>\n<p>Relying on ISRU resource processing would reduce the amount of fuel and supplies that\u2019d have to be launched from Earth for missions heading to the moon, Mars or other space destinations.<\/p>\n<p>NASA has set up three research tracks as part of its public-private NextSTEP-D program. \u201cNextSTEP\u201d stands for \u201cNext Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships.\u201d The D refers to Appendix D of the NextSTEP-2 program description, which focuses on ISRU technologies.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Track 1<\/strong> supports one-year trade studies to identify ISRU technology gaps and further define the benefits of including ISRU in mission architectures. In addition to Blue Origin, Track 1 participants include&nbsp;United Launch Alliance, the University of Illinois at Urbana and UTC Aerospace Systems.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Track 2<\/strong> supports component development and testing in simulated space environments. Companies selected for Track 2 are BlazeTech Corp., Paragon Space Development Corp., Skyhaven Systems and Teledyne Energy Systems.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Track 3<\/strong> focuses on extensive subsystem development and testing in simulated space environments. The Track 3 companies are Honeybee Robotics Spacecraft Mechanisms Corp. and OxEon Energy LLC.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Track 2 and Track 3 projects could continue for as long as three and a half years, NASA said. Contract amounts still have to be negotiated, but the selected teams will be required to put \u201cskin in the game\u201d and make corporate contributions to their efforts.<\/p>\n<p>Jason Crusan, NASA\u2019s director of advanced exploration systems, said the space agency is already learning about the potential value of lunar resources for human exploration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we can find smart ways to harness its resources now, those capabilities will help shape our long-term exploration goals, including partnership and commercial opportunities with and for U.S. industry,\u201d Crusan said today in a news release. \u201cFurthermore, these capabilities will help us prepare for ISRU on Mars and other planetary bodies in deep space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"There\u2019s Water Inside the Moon\u2014More Than We Thought | National Geographic\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1IFyf59Fk0o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s current timeline sets 2022 as the date to begin building an outpost in lunar orbit and start sending medium-class landers to the lunar surface.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to its New Shepard suborbital spaceship and its New Glenn orbital-class rocket, Blue Origin is working on the development of a Blue Moon lunar lander that could go into operation as part of a public-private partnership by the mid-2020s. United Launch Alliance has partnered with Masten Space Systems on a different lunar lander system known as Xeus.<\/p>\n<p>Bezos said last week at the National Space Society\u2019s International Space Development Conference that Blue Origin would build any type of hardware needed to facilitate the establishment of lunar settlements.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll do stepwise whatever we need to do to get that vision to happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Update for 4:47 p.m. PT May 31:<\/strong>&nbsp;Fixed the spelling of Jason Crusan\u2019s name. (\u201cS,\u201d not \u201cZ\u201d!)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows Blue Origin\u2019s Blue Moon lander on the lunar surface. (Blue Origin Illustration) Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture is among 10 teams that will share about $10 million in NASA funding to look into techniques for using resources from the moon and Mars. The studies are aimed at advancing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1508,509,291,625,190],"class_list":["post-18492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-moon","tag-blue-origin","tag-commercial-space","tag-moon","tag-nasa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18492"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18492\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}