The Mark 1 lander is powered by the BE-7 engine, which runs on liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. There may be compatibility issues related to the Falcon rocket’s kerosene-powered upper stage, although this has not been confirmed. Also, it is unlikely that Blue Origin would partner with a direct rival, SpaceX, in this manner.
Note: This article has been edited to clarify interoperability issues between the Blue Moon Mark 1 lander and the Falcon Heavy rocket.
I don’t think the edit did a very good job of clarifying the nature of the “compatibility issues”! Is there any general reason that a hydrolox payload can’t be delivered by a kerolox upper stage?
I believe the specific concern here comes from a rumour that this particular payload (the Blue Moon Mark 1 lander) is designed to be topped up with hydrogen from the New Glenn second stage. (I think this rumour was in the original version of the article.)
Could there be a solution involving just not topping up the lander’s hydrogen, but instead having the rocket do more of the work? Apparently the lander was designed to do its own TLI burn. But some people on Twitter are claiming that FH could just about do the TLI so that the lander doesn’t have to. Meaning the lander wouldn’t need as much propellant.
I was also wondering about Starship. SpaceX has already done a pretty good job with the ‘pez dispenser’ variant. Eventually they’ll have to make a ‘miscellaneous deployment’ variant, right? And would it be that much more difficult?
But I guess NASA would prefer the focus is on the depot & tanker & HLS variants, because HLS is more important than MK1. And as for SpaceX themselves, they probably care much more about the ‘pez dispenser’ than the ‘miscellaneous deployment’ variant. So the idea of MK1 on Starship seems pretty remote to me.
N.B. Is it really “unlikely that Blue Origin would partner with a direct rival”? Even with Isaacman and all his relatively tough talk about handling suppliers?
Agreed, I think the upper stage crossfeed rumor was edited out.
Getting hydrolox infrastructure to a Falcon pad… They’ve added methane to at least one, so there’s some kind of precedent, but hydrogen is a whole different beast.
I could care less about Kuiper and AST, but the Artemis effects of this explosion really hurt.
I was so bummed when the government went back and included Blue Origin in the Artemis missions. I knew they weren’t even remotely ready for a mission this complex, and I foresaw this exact thing happening. Thank fucking God there were no astronauts onboard.
Though SLS is expensive, it’s a lot more reliable.
Agreed on Blue. I was really rooting for the Dynetics lander.
Yeah, that was a lander that truly looked like a lunar workhorse.
