Moon Monday #128: Welcoming the Blue Moon, a Chandrayaan launch, lune hops, and more
I only recently learnt that months were originally called moonths. I’m so going to say moonths now every chance I get. The word has been duly added to my device dictionaries. 🌝
NASA has selected Blue Origin and its “National Team” to build what the agency calls a “ sustainable” lunar lander, which can regularly carry humans between the Moon’s surface and its orbit. To begin with, NASA has tasked the National Team—which includes Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, Draper, Boeing, Astrobotic, and Honeybee Robotics—with safely landing astronauts on the Moon in 2029 for the agency’s Artemis V mission.
The National Team’s 16-meter tall “Blue Moon” lander is the second such “sustainable” crewed Mooncraft NASA is co-funding following the agency’s selection of SpaceX’s upgraded Lunar Starship last year, which is currently targeting landing astronauts for Artemis IV in 2028. SpaceX and Blue Origin will bid against each other for crewed landings following Artemis V, giving the agency competition-fueled cost-effectiveness as well redundancy as it hopes to have astronauts visit Luna every year leading up to a sustained Artemis Moonbase.
Notably, even though NASA chose Blue Moon based on the agency’s own sustainable lander requirements, which include four astronauts being able to live and work for a month on the Moon, the agency’s press release states that Blue Moon will only host two astronauts for a week on Luna for Artemis V.
