Jeff Bezos is planning Amazon-like delivery to the Moon for “future human settlement”
That Jeff Bezos vs Elon Musk rivalry can't just be contained to measly planet Earth.
Not a week since Elon Musk announced his SpaceX company will be sending two private citizens to the moon next year, the Amazon boss has told The Washington Post, which is owned by Bezos, his plans to set up Amazon-style delivery for "future human settlement" of the moon.
Yes, he's thinking big.
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Bezos, who also owns private space travel company Blue Origin, has written an internal report saying a good delivery service will be key to establishing a functioning lunar settlement.
He said he wants to encourage NASA towards developing "incentives in the private sector to demonstrate a commercial lunar cargo delivery service" by 2020, essentially lining up an Earth to Moon equivalent of Amazon Prime.
While Bezos says the first lunar mission could be performed by Blue Origin as early as July 2020, he said it could "only be done in partnership with NASA".
"Our liquid hydrogen expertise and experience with precision vertical landing offer the fastest path to a lunar lander mission. I'm excited about this and am ready to invest my own money alongside NASA to make it happen," he wrote.
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"It's time for America to return to the Moon – this time to stay," Bezos said in response to questions from The Post. "A permanently inhabited lunar settlement is a difficult and worthy objective. I sense a lot of people are excited about this."
So rather than focusing on humans, Blue Origin's proposal is centred around a series of cargo missions which could deliver the equipment necessary to help establish a human colony on the moon, unlike space trips to date.
Its "Blue Moon" spacecraft could carry as much as 10,000 pounds of material and fly atop several different rockets, according to Blue Origin. The project is "all about cost-delivery of mass to the surface of the Moon", Bezos added. "Any credible first lunar settlement will require that capability."