Blue Origin, the aerospace firm founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, has thus far focused on its New Shepard sub-orbital rocket. However, it has bigger plans, including a commercial space station and a newly unveiled solar panel manufacturing system called Blue Alchemist. The company claims its technology can cheaply and safely produce solar panels using only lunar regolith, bringing essentially unlimited electricity to the moon.
Since 2021, Blue Origin claims it has been manufacturing solar panels using simulated lunar regolith and has demonstrated every step of the process. It starts with the simulated regolith, which Blue Origin manufactures to be chemically and mineralogically identical to what you’d find on the moon. Blue Alchemist uses a contactless process to melt the regolith, reaching temperatures in excess of 2,900 degrees Fahrenheit (1,600 degrees Celsius). With the raw materials molten, the reactor uses a process called molten regolith electrolysis to separate out iron, silicon, and aluminum.
Producing high-quality solar panels requires unadulterated silicon, and Blue Origin says its process reaches more than 99.999% purity. The standard silicon purification methods on Earth require toxic and unstable chemicals, but all Blue Alchemist needs is energy from sunlight. In fact, the only byproduct of Blue Alchemist is oxygen liberated from the lunar oxides. This gas bubbles up during electrolysis and can be collected for fuel or breathable air. The low environmental impact means this technology could also be adapted for use on Earth.
A prototype solar panel manufactured from simulated regolith.
Blue Alchemist makes everything you need to deploy new solar panels, including cover glass that protects the panels from harsh lunar conditions and transmission wires. Engineers at the company believe the Blue Alchemist panels will have a service life of about 10 years. Even if they don’t last that long, you can make more of them — Blue Origin says this technology can “scale indefinitely.”
Blue Origin says its solar panel manufacturing technology is aligned with NASA’s goals for a long-term human presence on the moon. There’s great interest in so-called in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). Every ounce you have to lift off of Earth for use in space adds to the cost. So, making the things you need from materials at the destination can save substantial time and money. Time will tell if Blue Alchemist becomes a part of NASA’s Moon-to-Mars objectives.
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