Blue Origin launches his New Shepard Rocket today and will simulate lunar gravity

The reusable new Shepard rocket will be launched today (Tuesday January 28, 2025) for a mission without any connection with space tourism, which constitutes its ordinary. New Shepard owes its name to the first American to have exceeded the earth's atmosphere, Alan Shepard, which also made a suborbital flight, that is to say without sufficient speed to maintain itself in orbit.

The New Shepard NS-29 mission should take off around 4:30 p.m. Paris time and without any passenger on board. It is an uninhabited flight with payload in order to produce experiences mainly for NASA and its Artemis programin order to test equipment.

11 turns per minute to reproduce the gravity of the moon

NS-29 will therefore make rotation maneuvers to reproduce for 2 min and for the very first time the lunar gravity, which is six times lower than that on earth. Thus, an object weighing 6 kg on our planet weighs only a kilogram on the moon. To do this, the New Shepard will turn 11 times a minute after separating from its booster.

So far, parabolic flights made it possible to reproduce 0.16 g Lunar, but for only about 20 s. Among the thirty experiences that will be produced, here is a small selection (the name of the tool is in parentheses):

• Electrostatic evacuation of dust (EDL) : Lunar dust, otherwise named Régolith, is a big problem for future inhabited missions on our natural satellite. This experience aims to observe his behavior when it is electrically loaded and exposed to UV rays.

• Experience on the evacuation of fluids in lunar gravity (forge) : This experience will be crucial for systems that manage the water from astronauts, and will bring tracks regarding the detection of liquid water in a space without atmosphere.

• Evaluation of soil properties / Thermal resistance analysis (Sparta) : Sparta is a toolbox designed for geomechanical tests under the lunar surface. This test aims to understand how lunar gravity will affect its performance.

Where to follow the shot of the NS-29 mission?

Blue Origin's livelihood will start about fifteen minutes before the planned launch around 4:30 p.m. and will be broadcast On his YouTube channel.