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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin are looking to partner with NASA and ESA to help create settlements on the Moon. However, he implied that he would fund development of such a project himself if governments don't:
Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos says his Blue Origin space venture will work with NASA as well as the European Space Agency to create a settlement on the moon. And even if Blue Origin can't strike public-private partnerships, Bezos will do what needs to be done to make it so, he said here at the International Space Development Conference on Friday night.
[...] To facilitate a return to the moon, Blue Origin has a lunar lander on the drawing boards that's designed to be capable of delivery 5 tons of payload to the lunar surface. That's hefty enough to be used for transporting people — and with enough support, it could start flying by the mid-2020s. Blue Origin has proposed building its Blue Moon lander under the terms of a public-private partnership with NASA. "By the way, we'll do that, even if NASA doesn't do it," Bezos said. "We'll do it eventually. We could do it a lot faster if there were a partnership."
[...] It's important to point out that moon settlement isn't just a NASA thing. Bezos told me he loves the European Space Agency's approach, known as the Moon Village. "The Moon Village concept has a nice property in that everybody basically just says, look, everybody builds their own lunar outpost, but let's do it close to each other. That way, if you need a cup of sugar, you can go over to the European Union lunar outpost and say, 'I got my powdered eggs, what have you got?' ... Obviously I'm being silly with the eggs, but there will be real things, like, 'Do you have some oxygen?' "
So how far is Blue Origin willing to go? Bezos has already committed the company to build rockets and landers. How about rovers, habitats and all the other hardware that a moon base will need? "We'll do anything we need to do," Bezos said. "I hope we don't need to do any of that. I want other people to do it. But if need be, we'll do it."
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross published an editorial in The New York Times (archive) emphasizing a return to the Moon and President Trump's recent Space Policy Directive 2 (here's the first one).
Just don't call it a colony.
Also at TechCrunch and Engadget.
Rebuttal: Dear Jeff Bezos: Forget About The Stupid Moon
Previously: Jeff Bezos' Vision for Space: One Trillion Population in the Solar System
ESA Expert Envisions "Moon Village" by 2030-2050
Related: How to Get Back to the Moon in 4 Years, Permanently
Bigelow Aerospace Forms New Company to Manage Space Stations, Announces Gigantic Inflatable Module
Blue Origin to Compete to Launch U.S. Military Payloads
2020s to Become the Decade of Lunar Re-Exploration
Blue Origin Conducts its First Successful Suborbital Test Flight and Landing of 2018
Lunar Regolith Simulants Damage Cells
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine Serious About Returning to the Moon
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @08:39PM (4 children)
You left out "self-proclaimed".
Trump biographer David Cay Johnston (a former NYT tax reporter) has reckoned that Trump has $700M max.
Now, with Trump's daily violations of The Emoluments Clause(s), that may have changed.
when news[1] networks will give [an orange clown] all the free air time [he] want[s]
A sad commentary on USA's media in the 21st Century.
Even more sad is that to get actual political analysis you have to turn to comedians.
(A shout out here in particular to Jimmy Dore, who got his initial media exposure via Pacifica Radio KPFK in Los Angeles.)
[1] Using the term in the broadest possible context.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @08:54PM (2 children)
I'd be surprised if he had even $700m. People with that kind of money are unlikely bother with scams like Trump University, the money in that is just not good enough for somebody that's already worth 8 figures. For people who don't have much money, it can be worthwhile, up until getting caught, but somebody that's on the verge of becoming a billionaire is unlikely to be willing to take that risk.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Monday May 28 2018, @11:05PM (1 child)
Even if it was only $350m, I think it would not break the observation that rich people sitting around smoking $100-bill wrapped cigars are not likely to come up with anything that benefits the vast majority of citizens.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 29 2018, @12:38AM
My point is that he is a perennial liar (as well as a self-agrandizing fraud).
He even lies when it doesn't matter at all.
His brain is just defective.
Why anyone would bother to report what he *says* is beyond me.
He proves at least 4 times a day that his word can't be trusted.
Putting his stupid name in the headlines just strokes his gigantic, undeserved ego.
Better to wait and see what he actually does|what can be proved via tax returns.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @11:57PM
+∞ Insightful
I'll get my dose of common-sense wherever I can. So comedians it is for the present.