MENU
Blue Origin has shown a 20 m-tall vertically deployed solar array called the Power Tower, designed to provide more than 10 kW of electrical power for lunar surface operations near the Moon’s south pole. The system is intended to deploy from the company’s Blue Moon MK1 lander and, according to Blue Origin, extend power beyond the lander itself to other surface equipment.
The design addresses a particular problem at the lunar poles. The Sun remains low on the horizon, so ridges, crater walls and relatively small changes in terrain can cast long shadows. Raising the arrays above the surface improves their chances of reaching prolonged sunlight while also reducing the footprint compared with a large horizontal array.
Blue Origin says the Power Tower uses a modular architecture intended to support future surface power networks. Its Blue Moon MK1 programme describes Power Towers as part of the lander’s lunar infrastructure role, with more than 10 kW available from locations offering near-continuous illumination.
The company has not announced a flight date for the Power Tower. It has, however, released footage of a terrestrial deployment test. Blue Origin previously described the combined lander and deployed array as reaching about 26 m in total height, while its latest description specifies a 20 m tower.
The hardware builds on work carried out by Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin subsidiary, on the Lunar Array Mast and Power System (LAMPS). Honeybee completed thermal-vacuum testing of LAMPS at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in 2024. That prototype also used a 20 m deployable mast and was rated for up to 10 kW.
LAMPS was developed under NASA’s Vertical Solar Array Technology programme. NASA says the programme is intended to support long-duration lunar surface operations with arrays that can deploy vertically on masts of up to 20 m, where elevation helps avoid shadowing from the Moon’s uneven south-polar terrain.
The Power Tower is one element of a much broader infrastructure problem. Communications, thermal control, scientific instruments, rovers, computing and eventually crewed facilities will all require reliable electricity, while the lunar environment makes generation, storage and distribution unusually difficult.
As eeNews Europe reported in June 2026, NASA’s Moon Base programme places power infrastructure alongside robotics, communications and mobility as a core requirement for sustained operations near the south pole.
Blue Origin is also working on reducing the need to import power hardware from Earth. Its Blue Alchemist process is intended to turn lunar regolith into silicon solar cells and aluminium conductors, an approach previously covered by eeNews Europe. In principle, systems such as Blue Alchemist and the Blue Origin Power Tower address opposite ends of the same problem: producing energy infrastructure locally and placing it where sunlight can be captured effectively.
All material on this site Copyright © 2026 European Business Press SA. All rights reserved.

source