Amazon plans to delivery to the Moon

Jeff Bezos, co-founder of Amazon and owner of Blue Origin, a private space firm looking to rival SpaceX, is hoping to help humanity establish a colony on the moon by delivering supplies there. An internal report from Blue Origin was obtained by the Washington Post, which Mr Bezos also owns, and outlines the space travel firm’s plans for future missions.

Mr Bezos says he now want to create a delivery service to our nearest satellite. He explained that NASA need to create “incentives to the private sector to demonstrate a commercial lunar cargo delivery service”.

Just last month, Nasa's top staff were given instructions to assess the feasibility of sending humans to space with the first flight of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. The mission was originally designed to be uncrewed, and was set to launch in 2018.

The proposal looks to Nasa for help in sending a ‘Blue Moon’ spacecraft to the south pole of the lunar satellite. Plans are already in motion and Mr Bezos hopes to have preparations ready by 2020 and has a Blue Origin vehicle in the pipeline which could carry 4,500kg of cargo to the lunar rock.

Aboard the ship will be equipment to help humans establish a base on the moon. The report reads: “Once on the surface, the lander’s useful payload can be used to conduct science or deploy rovers.

“A robotic arm attached to the lander will deploy to examine the lunar surface with an array of instruments.” Mr Bezos told the Washington Post: “It is time for America to return to the Moon — this time to stay. A permanently inhabited lunar settlement is a difficult and worthy objective. 

"A permanently inhabited lunar settlement is a difficult and worthy objective. I sense a lot of people are excited about this", he said. The report has reportedly been given to both NASA and Trump’s transition teams in a bid to get Blue Origin a head start in any upcoming lunar shipping projects. News of the proposal comes during a period of renewed enthusiasm for the Moon, which was largely overlooked during the Obama administration in favor of Mars. This proposal came just days after Elon Musk said his company would fly two citizens around the moon next year.