In a dizzying new effort intended to provide a more permanent means of artificial gravity to try out tools and equipment for use on upcoming missions to the Moon and Mars, a joint venture between Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and NASA will launch the New Reconfigure Shepard spacecraft with the ability to trigger the effects of the Moon’s gravity.
The conditions experienced with the lunar surface gravity represent one-sixth of the Earth’s gravity and are just some of the problems that machines and materials need to operate efficiently.
As a larger testing ground for these emerging technologies, NASA will soon have more options to observe those innovations in the Moon’s gravity thanks to a partnership with Blue Origin to bring new capabilities to their reusable suborbital missile system New Shepard.
Currently, NASA can simulate the moon’s limited gravity on parabolic flights in converted aircraft such as the retired KC-135 “Vomit Comet” that helped train astronauts from 1994 to 2004, and in special centrifuges aboard suborbital vehicles. NASA currently has a Navy C-9 aircraft in service for their Limited Gravity Program, using a test aircraft commissioned in 2005 as a twin-jet variant of a McDonnell Douglas DC-9.
However, these outlets provide only a few seconds of exposure to the moon’s gravity at a time and are severely limited in the ultimate size of payload, prompting NASA to investigate future systems for longer durations and greater payloads.
According to a press release from NASA, Blue Origin’s new lunar gravity test innovation should be ready to roll by the end of 2022. In order to achieve the desired results, the New Shepard missile and capsule will undergo a number of upgrades that will allow the spacecraft to utilize its response control system and ensure for actual rotation with the vessel.
This process makes the entire capsule act like a sort of giant centrifuge to produce long-lasting artificial gravity environments for the charges being carried within it. Blue Origin’s first flight experiments for the program will focus on 11 rotations per minute to give more than two minutes of consistent gravity on the moon.
“NASA is delighted to be one of the first customers to take advantage of this new opportunity,” said Christopher Baker, program manager of the Flight Opportunities program at NASA’s Washington headquarters. “One of the constant challenges in living and working in space is reduced gravity. Many systems designed for use on Earth just don’t work the same elsewhere. A wide variety of tools we need for the Moon and Mars could benefit from partial gravity testing, including technologies for in-situ resource utilization, regolith mining, and environmental control and life support systems. “
Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft is one of the prominent commercial flight platforms offered for technology flight testing contracted by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program.
This program has helped advance hundreds of encouraging space technologies not only from NASA, but also from private industry and academia, by operating them onboard commercial sub-orbital flights before escalating to high-risk orbital missions such as CubeSats , the International Space Station. , the moon and possibly Mars.
“Humanity has been dreaming of artificial gravity since the earliest days of space flight,” said Erika Wagner, PhD, New Shepard director of payloads at Blue Origin. “It is exciting to partner with NASA to create this unique opportunity to explore the science and technology we need for future exploration of human space.”