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Jeff Bezos Is Planning to Ship 'Several Metric Tons of Cargo' to the Moon
Blue Origin, described by Bezos as "the most important work I'm doing," signed a letter of intent with German aerospace companies OHB Space Systems and Security and MT Aerospace at the 69th annual International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Germany on Tuesday. The OHB SE dubbed the lunar project the "Blue Moon" mission in a press release.
It's not clear exactly what cargo the Blue Moon mission would transport, but it likely includes infrastructure designed to start private business on the Moon: The IAC also detailed the launch of the "Moon Race," a competition between Blue Origin, Airbus Air and Space, and other space agencies around the world to develop technology that will bring companies around the world to the Moon.
According to a press release, the competition could involve manufacturing products and technology, manufacturing energy sources for humans to survive, getting access to water and sustaining biological life, such as plant or agricultural life—all on the Moon.
Also at Space.com.
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(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday October 05 2018, @02:04PM
I would. A lot of people would. Freedom and independence are innate compulsions. People strike out on their own because they feel stifled by orthodoxy where they are. Frontiers are hard, and many people die trying to tame them. The soft don't survive. But the allure, the promise of doing everything the way they want to do them, outweighs the risks.
Mars and the rest of the solar system will probably be like that. Mars I could see becoming fabulously wealthy based on their proximity to all the resources of the asteroid belt, and as a way station for activities in the outer solar system.
Washington DC delenda est.