Will We Go Back To The Moon? Jeff Bezos Proposes Amazon-Like Delivery Service For Future Lunar Colonies

Jeff Bezos, the founder, chairman, and CEO of Amazon, plans to offer an Amazon-like delivery for future lunar settlements. Bezos, who is also the founder of the aerospace manufacturer and spaceflight services company Blue Origin, has written an internal report arguing that for the establishment of a functional human colony on the moon, it is necessary to have a good cargo delivery service, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

Blue Origin has already submitted a seven-page white paper to NASA, detailing its interest in developing a lunar spacecraft with a lander that would touch down near a crater at the south pole — a region with nearly continuous sunlight for solar energy, the Post, which is owned by Bezos, reported.

“It is time for America to return to the Moon — this time to stay,” Bezos said in response to emailed 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.”

Bezos' proposal comes just days after SpaceX founder Elon Musk made an announcement that his company wants to send a couple of tourists to fly by the moon before the end of next year. If this timeline is met, it could beat a similar mission by NASA.

“This would do a long loop around the moon,” Musk said.

On the contrary, Bezos' proposal, dated Jan.4, does not involve humans, but would involve a series of cargo missions. These missions could deliver necessary equipment that will facilitate the construction of a human colony on the moon, the Post reported.

It has been more than four decades since the last astronaut set foot on the moon. Since then, there have been many upstart space entrepreneurs that have attempted to capitalize on NASA's renewed interest in returning to the lunar surface, and have offered proposals on how a lasting human presence can be established there.

One of the reasons behind the commercial sector's interest is due to the Donald Trump-led administration's support for it. The U.S. is reviewing a possible manned mission around the moon that might take place as early as next year, marking the first such trip since the Apollo era ended in the early 1970s.

If the mission is greenlit, the space agency would put a crewed Orion capsule into a stable orbit that would involve a flyby of the moon. Last month, NASA said that the challenging mission would help it test maneuvers needed to accomplish future missions to deep space — including those to Mars.