Jeff Bezos unveils ‘Blue Moon’ spacecraft, plans 2024 lunar landing

Amazon founder and he of  company Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos unveiled on Thursday a lunar lander that he said would be used to transport equipment, and possibly human beings, to south pole of moon by 2024. At presentation in Washington, Bezos said, "This is Blue Moon,” while curtains lifted to show a mock-up of a huge vessel weighing several tons and able to carry four self-driving rovers. “It’s an incredible vehicle, and it will go to moon,” he declared.

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Manufacturing on Moon

“We were given a gift — this nearby body called moon. moon is a good place to begin manufacturing in due to its lower gravity than Earth. Getting resources from moon takes 24 times less energy to get it off surface compared to Earth and that is a huge lever," Jeff Bezos said.

According to him, Blue Moon lander can bring 3.6 metric tons to lunar surface and has been under development for past three years according to Bezos. It will be capable of carrying scientific instruments as well as rovers for human exploration. He also unveiled company’s BE-7 rocket engine at event which he declared will be test-fired for first time in coming months. Bezos also informed that many parts of engine were 3D printed.

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Lunar base for furr solar exploration

goal of company is to land on moon’s south pole where ice has been discovered. This is a huge boon as water extracted from this can be used to produce hydrogen, which in turn could fuel future exploration of solar system. A permanent settlement on this side of moon can become an industrial outpost for solar exploration. Blue Origin plans to begin building infrastructure of a lunar base. first mission was proposed for 2020, in partnership with Boeing-built NASA Launch System (SLS) rocket. But last year, Jeff Bezos indicated his company may develop Blue Moon on its own.

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Time to go back to moon and stay

However, Bezos did t anunce a specific date for project’s first launch but said lander would be rey in time to make US President Donald Trump’s anunced timeline to return humans to moon by 2024. Just this year, world celebrated NASA's 50th anniversary of sending first men to moon in 1969. “We can help make that timeline, but only because we started three years ago,” Bezos said. “It’s time to go back to moon, this time to stay.”

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