ASU And Blue Origin Team Up To Conquer The Moon

TEMPE, AZ — Amazon's Jeff Bezos wants humans on the moon in the next five years and Arizona State University will have a part in getting there. The company Bezos founded to accomplish this task, Blue Origin, announced a partnership Thursday with ASU researchers to develop payloads that will eventually land on the lunar surface.

The memo of understanding signed between the two parties means ASU will be designing and developing "one or more" of these platforms, which are typically loaded with equipment for experiments. Blue Origin will load these onto their newly announced Blue Moon lander, which will then be secured to their New Shepard rocket. Their plan is to get the lander on the moon's surface in the next five years.

The news comes after a successful rocket launch that was loaded with ASU-designed payloads last week. A New Shepard rocket rumbled into orbit from West Texas carrying three experiments involving students from engineering and science disciplines. One included a softball-sized capsule holding 24 honeybees. The so-called "flapstronauts" were monitored during orbit and returned to Earth to pollinate.

Another payload featured cameras and other sensors trained on a Sparky figurine to record the five senses in space. Orbital air was passed over "scent paper" during the mission to capture the smell of space.

“These are the first-ever ASU student-designed and -built payloads to be launched into space and brought back to Earth,” ASU research director Tanya Harrison said.

Video from Blue Origin shows the moon landing concept and how the payloads would be delivered to the surface:

Congrats to the whole @BlueOrigin team on the fifth flight of this particular New Shepard vehicle. It’s another big step in demonstrating operational reusability. #LaunchLandRepeat pic.twitter.com/55LXBMdECP
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) May 2, 2019

The vision was even bigger than I expected. Positive hopeful aspiration for humankind! @JeffBezos @blueorigin #BlueMoon @II_ASU pic.twitter.com/IdtLaU1MmO
— Lindy Elkins-Tanton (@ltelkins) May 9, 2019