Billionaire Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Blue Origin space missions, offered NASA a $2 billion discount on Monday in exchange for his company building a lunar lander.

NASA’s contract, worth about $2.9 billion, to build a manned lander on the moon, was awarded last April to the competing company, “SpaceX”, owned by American billionaire Elon Musk, but “Blue Origin” and a third company, “Dynetics”, submitted objections to the outcome of the tender. The US Audit Bureau has not yet decided on them.

The United States seeks to return to the moon by 2024 within the “Artemis” program, in preparation for a manned mission to Mars in the thirties of this century.

And Bezos considered, in a letter to NASA, that his offer allows “to bridge the funding shortfall” that prompted the US Agency to award the contract to one company instead of two competing.

Blue Origin has launched a frantic lobbying campaign to overturn the decision since it failed to win a NASA bid, prompting the US Senate to pass a bill approving $10 billion for a manned lander.

But the bill is still being debated in the House of Representatives and its opponents have described it as a “Bezos bailout.”

Bezos pointed out that one of the advantages of the “Blue Moon” lander that his company is building is its use of liquid hydrogen as a fuel, as it can be extracted from the moon’s ice, which coincides with NASA’s plans to use the moon to fuel rockets during distant operations in the solar system.

He added that the company will, at its own expense, conduct Earth orbit tests on its lander.

“We are ready to help NASA reduce its technical risks, resolve its financial constraints, and return the Artemis program to a more competitive, credible, and sustainable path,” Bezos said.

It is not certain that Bezos’ last-minute initiative will change the outcome of the bidding.

The Chinese remote-controlled Churong probe separated from a landing capsule and landed on Mars on Saturday, making China the first country to finish orbiting the red planet, and then land on its surface on its first mission to explore the planet.

The probe, named after the Chinese “god of fire” in ancient mythology, landed on Mars at 10:40 am Beijing Time (02:40 GMT).

The probe “Chorong” weighs 240 kilograms, and carries 6 scientific instruments, including a high-resolution camera to photograph the terrain, and will study the soil and atmosphere of the planet.

The solar-powered probe will search for signs of ancient life, such as groundwater and ice, using soil-penetrating radar, during a 90-day journey.

The unmanned Chinese spacecraft “Tianwen-1”, launched from the island of Hainan in southern China in July of last year, and after more than 6 months, the spacecraft reached the red planet last February, and it has remained in orbit since then.

On May 15th, the landing capsule carrying the probe detached from the “Tianwen-1” spacecraft and landed in a vast plain known as Utopia Planisha.

China became the second country after the United States to send a probe to land on Mars and maintain contact with it. The Soviet Union sent a vehicle that landed on Mars in 1971, but lost contact with it seconds later.

“Tianwin-1” is one of three vehicles that reached Mars last February. The American probe “Perseverance” landed on the 18th of last February in a huge depression called Jizero Crater, more than 2000 km from the Plain of Utopia Planica.

And the third is the Emirati “Hope” probe, which entered Mars orbit last February, and is currently collecting data on the planet’s climate and atmosphere.

The two spacecraft “Perseverance” and “Chorong” are among the three remote-controlled probes on the surface of Mars, and the third is the “Curiosity” probe of the US Aerospace and Space Administration “NASA”, which landed in 2012.

According to a new study published in the British journal “Solar Physics”, the US space agency “NASA” must speed up the work if it is to succeed in its “Artemis” mission, which aims to send astronauts to the moon.

According to their findings, the researchers indicated that postponing the mission from 2024 until the end of the current decade could make it vulnerable to “severe space weather,” noting that the mission must be carried out on time in order for NASA to avoid “one of the worst solar storms on Earth.” Launch. ”

The study, which is considered the most in-depth in the field of solar storm timing, provided very clear insights into the timing of solar storms over the next ten years, based on verifying space weather data and studying its patterns over the past 150 years.

Extreme event
The study indicates that the postponement of the planned launch of “Artemis” due to the repercussions of the outbreak of the Coronavirus, which caused the closure of 18 US agency facilities, could have disastrous and severe effects on the astronauts and the navigation systems of the shuttle that will transport them.

Extreme space weather is an extreme event that cannot usually be predicted accurately. During it, the sun diffuses hundreds of particles at the speed of light, which in turn disrupts magnetic systems and causes interference to electronic devices. It can also penetrate the bodies of astronauts, causing an imbalance in vital body functions.

The “Space X” company launched its rocket, Friday, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying four astronauts, including Frenchman Thomas Pescet, to the International Space Station.

The applause increased in the “Space X” control room upon take-off (at 09:49 GMT), and this is the third manned flight of the American special group founded by Elon Musk, which is carrying astronauts and “NASA” after nine years of US dependence on missiles. ” Soyuz “Russian.

The spacecraft is supposed to dock with the International Space Station in less than 24 hours, as this will represent another success for Elon Musk, founder of “Space X” and the “Tesla” car group.

The crew consists of the “Crew-2” mission, consisting of 4 personnel, namely Toma Pisque of the European Space Agency, and the American pioneers Shane Kimbero and Megan MacArthur, and the Japanese Akihiko Hoshide.

The crew said goodbye to their loved ones before boarding in three white Tesla cars, something that has become a tradition for “SpaceX”, which took them to the launch pad.

Shortly before that, Pisquet tweeted, as he would become the first European to fly in the “Crew Dragon” capsule: “It looks like the weather will be favorable, so we must try to take off tomorrow!”

SpaceX, owned by American businessman Elon Musk, has won a contract worth $ 2.89 billion from NASA to build a spacecraft that will land astronauts on the surface of the moon, in one of the most prominent commercial space race awards.

On Friday, NASA chose the rocket company, SpaceX, as the sole contractor to build its next lunar probe, and to conduct one exploratory visit to the moon, most likely by 2024.

SpaceX, owned by American businessman Elon Musk, has won a contract worth $ 2.89 billion from NASA to build a spacecraft that will land astronauts on the surface of the moon, in one of the most prominent commercial space race awards.

On Friday, NASA chose the rocket company, SpaceX, as the sole contractor to build its next lunar probe, and to conduct one exploratory visit to the moon, most likely by 2024.

SpaceX has offered to build and operate its landing craft for $ 2.9 billion, which is “significantly” less than the bid of a competitor from Bezos Blue Origin missile company, affiliated with billionaire Jeff Bezos, according to the Financial Times, citing a document. NASA. ”

According to the newspaper, the selection of “NASA” as a sole contractor for the most important elements of its space program reflects the severe budgetary pressures under which the agency is working, as it is trying to return to the moon for the first time since 1972.

“We awarded the contract to SpaceX in view of what we believe are realistic budgets in the coming years,” said agency official Mark Kyrasisch.

Besides pioneering a new era of fixed-cost commercial space programs for NASA, SpaceX was the first to transport cargo to the International Space Station. And last year, human spaceflight returned to US soil for the first time since 2011, when it received “NASA” astronauts, to the International Space Station.

NASA officials said they are embarking on a review of how to maintain their competitiveness in light of the development of human landers, including a round of consultations with the rest of the commercial space industry, noting that the discussions are designed to lead to a “sustainable” series of visits to the moon. In the wake of SpaceX’s only test landing.

Although SpaceX plans to eventually use the spacecraft on a full flight between Earth and Mars, its role in the landing announced, Friday, will only be to transport two astronauts from orbit around the moon to the surface before returning them.

This mission is part of NASA’s Artemis program, which will use the giant SLS rocket, developed by Boeing, along with the Orion spacecraft from Lockheed Martin, to transport astronauts to and from a “gateway” in orbit. Around the moon.

The newspaper reported that “SpaceX” has suffered a number of accidents this year in its first efforts to prove its ability to land safely in spacecraft.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, “may God protect him”, announced the names of the two new Emirati astronauts within the Emirates Astronaut Program in its second session, and among them is the first Arab astronaut, in a step that translates the endeavor of the UAE Continuing towards global leadership in the field of space exploration, to continue the scientific achievement of the UAE in the Arab and international space sector within a national team of qualified astronauts who are able to fulfill the country’s aspirations in scientific exploration and participate in manned space exploration trips.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said: “We announce, with the grace of God, two new Emirati astronauts … between them are the first Arab astronaut … Noura Al Matrooshi and Mohammed Al Mulla … they were chosen from among more than 4000 applicants … and their training will begin.” Soon, within the NASA astronaut program, we congratulate the country on them … and count on them to raise the name of the UAE in the sky. ”

The first Arab astronaut, Nora Al Matroushi

The second batch of the Emirates Space Exploration Program includes the first Arab astronaut, Noura Al Matroushi, who obtained a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the United Arab Emirates University in 2015, and has experience in the field of engineering .. Al-Matroushi excelled in fields of engineering and mathematics during her academic career, and achieved first place At the level of the Emirates in the International Mathematics Olympiad in 2011, she also represented the UAE youth in the Youth Conference at the United Nations in the summer of 2018 and winter of 2019.