Many people tend to think that SpaceX holds the monopoly on commercial space efforts, especially with its ambitions for the Starship Super Rocket. But it’s worth noting that other companies are also making strides that could enhance human activities and development in space. Some of this progress is focused not just on how we reach the moon, but also on how we can sustain a presence there.
Take Blue Origin, for example, a space firm founded by Jeff Bezos of Amazon. They’re working on a project called the Blue Alchemist, which aims to utilize the moon’s natural resources in a single process to create materials that would be useful for future lunar residents.
This initiative, which was awarded a $35 million NASA contract in July 2023 to develop solar cells from lunar regolith, has been in the works since 2021. The process entails applying extreme heat to the moon’s regolith to isolate materials like oxygen, silicon, iron, and aluminum. Remarkably, the silicon produced is about 99.999% pure.
Recently, Blue Origin announced that the Blue Alchemist successfully completed a key design review, though they haven’t yet confirmed whether a prototype will be sent to the moon for testing in lunar conditions.
For quite some time, there has been a belief that future moon settlers would need to bring as many resources as possible from Earth. The expense of transporting essentials like oxygen, water, food, and construction materials from our planet is exorbitant. This is even as companies like SpaceX find ways to lower launch costs with an eye on sustaining lunar settlements.
The Blue Alchemist addresses this issue. Blue Origin claims its technology can achieve the following:
- Provide breathable oxygen, sufficient for extended missions involving multiple astronauts on the lunar surface.
- Facilitate low-cost exploration of the moon and the space between Earth and the moon, taking advantage of regolith and offering immediate cost efficiencies.
- Transform the economics of space exploration through sustainable commercial enterprises.
- Enable permanent human and robotic settlements on the moon, powered by locally-produced solar arrays.
- Support Mars exploration using similar principles for resource transformation.
- Aid in deep space exploration through refueling stations made from lunar regolith and, eventually, materials from asteroids.
That said, the Blue Alchemist isn’t a complete solution for sustaining moon settlements. There’s still the need to extract ice for water. Additionally, NASA’s recent move to deploy small reactors for lunar settlements may complicate the reliance on solar cells for power. It’s possible that a mix of energy sources, including nuclear and solar, could offer more security than relying solely on one type.
Blue Origin has historically operated in the shadow of SpaceX, but it’s slowly carving out its space in the commercial sector. Their New Shepard rocket, for instance, has taken passengers—celebrities included—on suborbital journeys to the edge of space.
This company also has plans for its new orbital rocket, New Glenn, with a test flight expected by the end of 2025. The second launch aims to deliver NASA’s Escapade probe, which will study Mars’ magnetosphere, aiming to understand how solar winds affected its atmosphere over billions of years.
The Blue Moon lunar lander is also under development, with an uncrewed version expected in 2026, and a crewed version slated for the Artemis V mission in 2030.
In essence, the Blue Alchemist stands out as a pivotal project in the commercial space industry. It has the potential not only to aid future moon settlers in achieving self-sufficiency but also to supply raw materials for manufacturing in space.
Thus, a lunar economy could emerge, inviting profit-driven ventures into space exploration rather than keeping it as a costly pursuit for major nations.
With vehicles like the Human Landing System and Blue Moon, humans are set to return to the moon. And technologies such as the Blue Alchemist might just reshape our approach to this venture, making it more sustainable for everyone involved.
