Jeff Bezos Wants to Use Amazon to Ship to the Moon

March 3, 2017 – In the battle of private space companies, the Moon has become the focal point. This time it isn’t Elon Musk, but Jeff Bezos, of Blue Origin, manning up with a proposal to provide frequent delivery to the lunar surface “to maintain a stable colony.”

Blue Origin submitted a confidential white paper on January 4th of this year that proposes developing a regular translunar service to drop food and equipment off to moon settlements. The service could also provide the homes for lunar colonists, shipping inflatable habitats such as those created by Bigelow Aerospace, another private space company. Bigelow has promised to have lunar inflatables ready to go within the next three years.

The announcement, coming after SpaceX notified the world of its intention to send two private citizens on a trip around the Moon in 2018, appears to be the beginning of a private company lunar space race.

Bezos though seems to have one-upped Musk with his plan. He’s in it to permanently inhabit the lunar surface stating in an exclusive interview with the Washington Post, a paper he owns, “It is time for America to return to the Moon, this time to stay.” He went on stating “A permanently inhabited lunar settlement is a difficult and worthy objective. I sense a lot of people are excited about this.”

Bezos’ timetable, a first test delivery in 2020. The initial test would leave cargo on the surface for future colonists to use. Once the conveyor belt gets established, regular deliveries could quickly provide the materials and tools to build a permanent infrastructure.

Bezos isn’t alone in this ambition. United Launch Alliance, the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture, has proposed a translunar transportation network. And Bigelow wants to build a permanent warehouse and supply depot orbiting the Moon.

The refocus on the Moon by private companies is a departure from NASA’s longer term focus on a human expedition to Mars. The private companies see Mars as far more challenging, whereas, the Moon is something that can be achieved now. And the benefit in the longer term would be the establishment of proven, workable infrastructure and technologies that could then serve a future Martian colony.

Bezos sees the latest successes with precision vertical landing by his Blue Origin rocket, New Shepard, as key to making a supply service work. He envisions combining his technology along with the horsepower of larger launch vehicles as a near future solution.

The site of the first delivery, the Shackleton Crater at the Moon’s south pole where there is ample water ice on the surface that could be used to create a way station for space travel, providing liquid water, oxygen for breathing, and hydrogen for rocket fuel.