NASA plans to send an uncrewed Blue Origin lander to the Moon between September and November to lay the foundations for the future lunar base, and two more missions will take place by the end of 2026, according to the space agency.
The spacecraft chosen for the first mission is the Blue Origin Mark One Endurance lander, designed by the space company of Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, as explained today by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman during a press conference in Washington.
Named ‘Moon Base One’, this will be the first privately funded lunar lander mission in history and will head to the rim of Shackleton Crater at the South Pole of the Moon.
“In addition to carrying two NASA scientific payloads, the goal of the mission is to demonstrate critical capabilities that reduce risk for Human Landing System missions,” Isaacman added.
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The second launch, scheduled for late 2026, will send a lander designed by the American company Astrobotic Technology to Earth’s satellite, and will transport more than 500 kilograms of cargo, including a rover, to the lunar surface.
Meanwhile, the third lander will be the responsibility of Intuitive Machines and will investigate the origins of the magnetic anomalies of the Moon.
The three uncrewed launches are part of the initial phase of constructing the lunar base, which involves transporting more than four tons of cargo material to the Moon distributed over 25 launches and 21 lunar landings until 2029.
NASA announced last March an ambitious plan to build a base at the South Pole of the Moon in the coming years, an area with permanently shadowed regions that allow for the presence of ice, which will facilitate the constant stay of astronauts on its surface.
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“We visualize the lunar base as an extension of hundreds of square miles, equipped with diverse resources that together contribute to the goal of establishing a permanent lunar presence,” said Spanish scientist Carlos García Galán, head of the Moon Base program.
The second stage of construction will be carried out between 2029 and 2032 and forecasts 27 launches and 24 landings, in addition to the transport of 60 tons of material, which will allow establishing the initial infrastructure of the base with semi-annual crewed missions.
The third stage will be the definitive one, featuring 29 liftoffs and 28 landings with the capacity to transport 150 tons, resulting in the continuous presence of humans on the Moon.
“We are going to have constellations of satellites that will allow communication, navigation, guidance, and observation. We will have rovers and lunar vehicles, and we are also going to have drones,” the Spanish scientist added.
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The extreme climate will be one of the main challenges that the inhabitants of the base will face, as the satellite can reach temperatures of up to 120 degrees Celsius during the day—which lasts for two Earth weeks—and drop below -120 degrees Celsius at night, of equal duration.
Electricity generation is another complication, although García Galán specified that they plan to use solar and nuclear energy for this purpose.
“We anticipate a power generation capacity of between two and 15 kilowatts, which could reach up to 20 kilowatts in the case of using a nuclear system, along with a storage capacity of hundreds of kilowatt-hours,” he detailed.
