Blue Origin announced Project Oasis, a multi-phase initiative to identify key lunar resources from orbit, assess them on the ground, and harness them in situ. Oasis-1, alongside Luxembourg partners, is the first mission in the Oasis campaign. It will create the most detailed high-resolution maps to date of lunar water ice, Helium-3, radionuclides, rare earth elements, precious metals and other materials crucial for humanity’s expansion into space for the benefit of Earth.
Harnessing the water ice found by Oasis-1 could provide hydrogen and oxygen for spacecraft propellant, positioning the Moon as an off-world refueling station for orbital destinations and deep space missions. Additionally, lunar resources could support local lunar surface power, advanced in-space manufacturing, clean energy systems, and reduced reliance on terrestrial extraction on Earth.
"Once we know what's really there and how to access it, everything changes," said Pat Remias, vice president, Advanced Concepts and Enterprise Engineering. "Project Oasis creates the foundation for a thriving space economy that benefits everyone, including the billions of individuals on Earth who will benefit from space-based resources."
Project Oasis makes the construction of space infrastructure economically viable and strategically sustainable by integrating low-cost space transportation with in-situ resource utilization. While Oasis-1 will carry out resource prospecting, it will be further enabled through Blue Alchemist, which will process regolith into useful products like oxygen, solar cells, and power cables. Together, these efforts seek to transform the Moon into a resource and power hub, lowering costs and complexity for missions to Mars and beyond, making asteroid harnessing viable in the future, and enabling greater sustainability on Earth.
In partnership with Luxembourg and its national space agency, Project Oasis is being developed jointly by Blue Origin's Space Resources Center of Excellence (SRCE), the world's largest dedicated facility for space resources prospecting and utilization, and the company’s international office in Luxembourg. GOMSpace and ESRIC in Luxembourg are also supporting the project.
Project Oasis addresses a fundamental challenge in space development: the prohibitive cost of transporting materials from Earth. By producing propellant and construction materials from lunar resources, the program aims to reduce deep-space mission costs by up to 90% through in-space refueling, enable permanent lunar settlements with locally sourced building materials, establish strategic resource security for national space capabilities, and provide a platform for international collaboration to unlock the vast potential of space resources.
Project Oasis employs neutron spectroscopy to quantify subsurface water ice concentrations to one-meter depths, the most reliable method for resource assessments. The ultra-low orbital altitude enables unprecedented spatial resolution impossible with traditional high-altitude orbiters. Additional instruments include magnetometers for metal detection and multispectral imaging for Helium-3 and geological mapping, with controlled impact sequences maximizing data collection for precise extraction site selection.
Click here to learn more about Blue Origin's Space-based Services and Solutions
