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WASHINGTON – The team led by Blue Origin, which is one of three working on lunar lander concepts for NASA’s Artemis program, delivered a life-size mock-up of the lander to the agency for it is tested by engineers and astronauts.
Blue Origin announced on August 20 that its “national team” had installed an engineering model of the lander in the mock-up space vehicle facility at Johnson Space Center. The large, but low fidelity, mockup features both the Descent Element, developed by Blue Origin, and the Ascension Element, built by Lockheed Martin, and stands over 12 meters tall.
The companies developed the mock-up to allow astronauts and NASA engineers to study the vehicle’s layout, including the positioning of various components, and get feedback while the lander is still at an early stage. of development.
“You can think of two categories of reviews,” said Brent Sherwood, vice president of advanced development programs at Blue Origin, in an interview. One is the ergonomics of the cabin, like the controls and screens inside the spacecraft. A second is that of viewing angles from the cab. The assessment will include people wearing space suits who test the entry and exit of the lander and access to the equipment.
These tests will allow them to quickly get feedback on the design at a time when it is easier and faster to make changes. “You think you know what’s the right thing to design and you try it, and you get feedback,” he says. “It tells you what to do next.”
Despite advances in virtual reality, companies say a physical model like this mockup is still essential for refining the design of the lander. “The collaboration you can do physically is really important,” said Kirk Shireman, who joined Lockheed Martin Space as vice president of lunar campaigns this summer shortly after retiring from NASA as director. of the International Space Station program. Virtual reality systems, he said, “can’t give the big picture, so it’s great to have that physical vehicle there too.”
This includes, he said, issues such as the placement of windows and other components that affect the overall structure of the lander’s components. “They have an impact on large pieces of the structure that are long in advance and need to be finalized so that we can start manufacturing.”
The tests will also help identify things that designers have forgotten. “The most interesting part of doing this kind of mockup assessment is finding things that you haven’t thought of,” Sherwood said. “There are going to be surprises that are revealed by this type of physical environment, when you can be there and see it and feel it.
The mock-up is one of many lines of work done by the team, which also includes Northrop Grumman, which develops the transfer element that moves the lander into lunar orbit, and Draper, which provides guidance and avionics. . Sherwood said Blue Origin performed tests of its BE-7 engine, which powers the descent stage, at the Marshall Space Flight Center, as well as storage technologies for the cryogenic thrusters for that engine.
The team led by Blue Origin is one of three that won NASA’s Human Landing System (HLS) award in April, with $ 579 million. A team led by Dynetics took home another HLS award, worth $ 253 million, while SpaceX took third prize, worth $ 135 million.
Companies are roughly halfway through these contracts and are already looking to the next competition. Sherwood said the team led by Blue Origin is preparing for a basic certification exam in the coming weeks and expects NASA to issue a draft call for proposals for the next phase of the program in early September. . These proposals will have to be drawn up at the end of the fall for one or two companies next spring.
NASA’s ability to continue supporting one or two landers will depend on both the status of the concepts and the funding available. NASA requested $ 3.3 billion for the HLS program in its budget proposal for fiscal year 2021, but a spending bill passed by the House in July provides less than $ 630 million. The Senate has yet to pass its version of a spending bill.
Sherwood said the uncertain budget was the biggest risk in being able to have a lander ready to take astronauts to the moon’s surface in 2024. “This program is running at credit speed,” he said. “The program plan gets us there, but it all depends on the budget.”
This is beyond the control of any of the companies participating in the program. “All we can control is the work we have to do,” he said.
Budget issues aside, Sherwood and Shireman said they were confident their lander could gain continued NASA support and be ready in 2024. “Our experience as a team, our experience with this material, will be really a big advantage as we move forward to meet. NASA’s goal of putting the next people on the moon in 2024, ”Shireman said.
The mockup is a big step forward in that effort, Sherwood said. “This is really the beginning of the realization.”
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