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After roughly a five decade-long absence from our biggest satellite, mankind is once again on the verge of heading back to the moon. Everyone from NASA to China to Elon Musk is in the process of whipping up some sort of plan to send humans to the lunar surface in the next few years. Now, Jeff Bezos—founder of Amazon and rocket company Blue Origin—is throwing his hat into the ring. But as you’d expect from the guy who rebuilt the retail market around quick, easy delivery, he’s preoccupied with getting goods up there.
“It is time for America to return to the Moon — this time to stay,” Bezos said in a statement to The Washington Post, which he also owns. “A permanently inhabited lunar settlement is a difficult and worthy objective. I sense a lot of people are excited about this.”
A white paper obtained by the Post, penned by Blue Origin and sent off to NASA administrators and President Donald Trump’s transition team, details the company’s ideas in greater detail. Blue Origin is reportedly interested in setting up an Amazon-esque regular delivery service for bringing supplies to the planet by the mid-2020s, as well as aiming to develop a lunar lander and rover that could make a base camp near the moon’s south pole, where pockets of water ice are believed to exist and sunlight for solar panels is constantly available.
What the Blue Origin plans don’t make any mention of is moving people to the moon. That, presumably, would be either left to NASA or one of the other private companies looking to fire humans towards the satellite.
But by working with America’s space agency, Bezos says the company could begin dropping supplies for future missions on the moon as soon as July 2020, carrying up to five tons of gear to the satellite at a go.
“Our liquid hydrogen expertise and experience with precision vertical landing offer the fastest path to a lunar lander mission,” Besos wrote, according to the Post. “I’m excited about this and am ready to invest my own money alongside NASA to make it happen.”
