On Thursday, Jeff Bezos, head of space company Blue Origin announced his intent to participate in the new race to the Moon with a high-tech lander to carry vehicles and equipment. He is the World’s richest man and founder of Amazon. Let’s discuss the new project of Bezos Blue Moon.
Bezos said, “This is Blue Moon,” while showing a model of a huge vessel during a presentation in Washington.
It is supported by four legs, with an upper deck where equipment can be fixed. A large tank of liquefied nitrogen fuel occupies its centre.
“It’s an incredible vehicle, and it will go to the Moon,” Bezos declared.
Bezos didn’t announce a specific date for the Blue Moon project’s first launch. Later on, Blue Origin said it is capable of meeting President Donald Trump’s announced goal of returning people to the Moon by 2024.
He said, “We can help meet that timeline, but only because we started three years ago. It’s time to go back to the Moon, this time to stay.”
The vehicle will be capable of carrying scientific instruments, four self-driving rovers and a future pressurized vehicle for humans also.
Astoundingly, The goal is to land on the south pole of the moon where ice deposits.
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Thus, Hydrogen production is possible by exploiting water which in turn could fuel future exploration of the solar system.
The White House’s intention to return to the Moon in 2024 sent NASA into a frenzy of activity. However, this mission originally anticipated for 2028 globally.
Several other aerospace companies are also expected to bid to build the lander for the space agency, which is in the process of finalising requests for proposals. Lockheed Martin proposed its own lander concept some months ago.
Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, did not talk to journalists at the event.
The lander’s unveiling came as Bezos outlined in a lengthy monologue his broader vision to build an infrastructure that would sustain the colonisation of space by future generations of humans and shift polluting industries of the Earth.
This would involve the construction of artificial worlds in space, inspired by designs first proposed by the late physicist Gerard K. O’Neill, one of Bezos’s heroes, intended to give humanity an escape route in case of limited resources on Earth.
“My generation’s job is to build the infrastructure,” said Bezos. “We’re going to build the road to space.”
Blue Origin is working on two other major projects: New Shepard, a suborbital rocket to fly tourists into space; and New Glenn, a heavy lift, partly reusable launch rocket.
Bezos confirmed his commitment to fly the first people in New Shepard this year, and New Glenn in 2021.
