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July 29, 2023

Blue Origin Technology To Produce Solar-Cells from Lunar Regolith

Moondust in the Wind

Blue Origin—the space-launch subsidiary of Amazon boss Jeff Bezos’s business empire—has been awarded a $35-million NASA Tipping Point partnership by dint of which the Kent, Washington-based aerospace concern will further the development of its Blue Alchemist initiative. Announced in February 2023, Blue Origin’s Blue Alchemist is a nascent, end-to-end, scalable, autonomous solution by which solar-cells are produced from silicates derived of lunar regolith—which is to say, the fine dust and crushed rock with which the moon’s surface is replete.

Space Agency Readies for Lunar and Extraplanetary Explorations

NASA has selected 11 U.S. companies to develop technologies germane to long-term space and lunar exploration. The technologies under development—which range from lunar surface power systems to tools for extra-atmospheric 3D printing—stand to collectively expand the U.S. domestic industrial sector’s ability to facilitate a sustained human lunar presence through NASA’s Artemis program and similarly ambitious government and commercial missions.

A Lesson for Those Inclined to Learn

Among the most visited locales at EAA’s AirVenture 2023 is the NASA pavilion. Often a queue of event attendees forms outside the venue, each waiting patiently to enter therein—not only because the space is well air-conditioned, but because it houses a preview of aerospace’s future. Near the pavilion’s center sits a small table atop which a model of a blue-and-white aircraft is displayed. Subject model depicts NASA’s X-57, an unusual high-wing monoplane bristling with underwing pods and fitted with sizable wingtip fixtures—an aircraft that could have been built but wasn’t.