- Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, gave a talk to a members-only event at the Yale Club in New York on Tuesday.
- During the 30-minute lecture, Bezos said his private aerospace company, Blue Origin, would launch its first people into space aboard a New Shepard rocket in 2019.
- Bezos also questioned the capabilities of a space tourism competitor, Virgin Galactic, and criticized the goal of Elon Musk and SpaceX to settle Mars with humans.
- Ultimately, Bezos said he wants Blue Origin to enable a space-faring civilization where "a Mark Zuckerberg of space" and "1,000 Mozarts and 1,000 Einsteins" can flourish.
- Bezos advised the crowd to hold a powerful, personal long-term vision, but to devote "the vast majority of your energy and attention" on shorter-term activities and those ranging up to 2- or 3-year timeframes.
[...] Bezos: I don't think we'll live on planets, by the way. I think we'll live in giant O'Neal[sic]-style space colonies. Gerard O'Neil, decades ago, came up with this idea. He asked his physics students at Princeton a very simple question, but a very unusual one, which is: Is a planetary surface the right place for humanity to expand in the solar system? And after doing a lot of work, they came back and decided the answer was "no." There's a fascinating interview with Isaac Asimov, Gerard O'Neill, and their interviewer that you can find on YouTube from many decades ago. And to Asimov, the interviewer says, "Why do you think we're so focused, then, on expanding onto other planetary surfaces?" And Asimov says, "That's simple. We grew up on a planet, we're planet chauvinists."
But the space colonies we'll build will have many advantages. The primary one is that they'll be close to Earth. The transit time and the amount of energy required to move between planets is so high. But if you have giant space colonies that are energetically close and, in terms of travel time close to Earth, then people will be able to come and go. Very few people are going to want to leave this planet permanently — it's just too amazing.
Ultimately what will happen, is this planet will be zoned residential and light industry. We'll have universities here and so on, but we won't do heavy industry here. Why would we? This is the gem of the solar system. Why would we do heavy industry here? It's nonsense.
And so over time — of course you have to today — but over time that transition will happen very naturally. It'll even be the business-smart thing to do because the energy and resources will be so much cheaper off-planet that industries will naturally gravitate to those lower-cost environments.
Previously: Jeff Bezos' Vision for Space: One Trillion Population in the Solar System
Jeff Bezos Details Moon Settlement Ambitions in Interview
Related: Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin Expects to Sell Tickets for Manned Suborbital Flights in 2019
Blue Origin Wins Contract to Supply United Launch Alliance With BE-4 Rocket Engines
New Shepard Makes 10th Launch as Blue Origin Aims to Fly Humans Late in 2019
Blue Origin Starts Construction of Rocket Engine Factory in Alabama
Blue Origin to Provide Multiple Orbital Launches for Telesat
Related Stories
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos talked about his vision for Blue Origin and humanity at the Apollo 11 Gala at Kennedy Space Center:
For Bezos, colonising space is a more a simple necessity for continued life on Earth. The compound effect of the incremental increase in energy requirements will mean us having to cover every inch of Earth in solar cells, he said, while the solar system offers virtually unlimited energy resources.
"We can harvest resources from asteroids, from Near-Earth Objects, and harvest solar energy from a much broader surface area – and continue to do amazing things," he said. The alternative, he said, was an era of stasis and stagnation on Earth, where we are forced to control population and limit energy usage per capita.
"I don't think stasis is compatible with freedom or liberty, and I sure as hell think it's going to be a very boring world – I want my grandchildren's grandchildren to be in a world of pioneering, exploration and expansion throughout the solar system."
He also suggested that exploration and colonisation of the solar system would make it possible to support one trillion people.
"Then we would have 1,000 Einstein's and 1,000 Mozarts, how cool would that be?" he said.
"What's holding us back from making that next step is that space travel is just too darned expensive because we throw the rockets away. We need to build reusable rockets and that's what Blue Origin is dedicated to."
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?' "
Blue Origin plans to start selling suborbital spaceflight tickets next year
Blue Origin expects to start flying people on its New Shepard suborbital vehicle "soon" and start selling tickets for commercial flights next year, a company executive said June 19.
Speaking at the Amazon Web Services Public Sector Summit here, as the keynote of a half-day track on earth and space applications, Blue Origin Senior Vice President Rob Meyerson offered a few updates on the development of the company's suborbital vehicle. "We plan to start flying our first test passengers soon," he said after showing a video of a previous New Shepard flight at the company's West Texas test site. All of the New Shepard flights to date have been without people on board, but the company has said in the past it would fly its personnel on the vehicle in later tests.
[...] Even the company's billionaire owner has not disclosed details. "We don't know the ticket price yet. We haven't decided," said Jeff Bezos in an on-stage interview May 25 at the National Space Society's International Space Development Conference in Los Angeles. That approach stands in stark contrast to Virgin Galactic, the other company in the advanced stages of development of a commercial suborbital vehicle capable of carrying people. Virgin Galactic started selling tickets more than a decade ago, even while SpaceShipTwo was still in the early stages of development. The company has approximately 700 customers who have paid at least a deposit.
Also at Quartz.
Jeff Bezos's rocket company beats out spaceflight veteran for engine contract
Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin rocket company just scored a major contract. His company's BE-4 engines will power United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur, a new suite of rockets that will aim to better compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX on price. Its first launch is slated for 2020. The contract award with ULA marks a high-profile vote of confidence for Bezos's space startup.
"We are very glad to have our BE-4 engine selected by United Launch Alliance. United Launch Alliance is the premier launch service provider for national security missions, and we're thrilled to be part of their team and that mission," Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith said in a statement announcing the award on Thursday.
[...] Blue Origin's win does not come as a huge surprise. The BE-4 is further along in development than the comparable Aerojet engine, dubbed the AR1, and is expected to be less expensive to make. [ULA CEO Tory] Bruno previously expressed his preference for Blue's BE-4 over Aerojet's AR1.
BE-4.
Also at Ars Technica.
Related: Blue Origin Will Build its Rocket Engine in Alabama
NASA Opens Door to Possibly Lowering SLS Cost Using Blue Origin's Engines
Aerojet Rocketdyne Seeks More U.S. Air Force Funding for AR1 Rocket Engine
SpaceX BFR vs. ULA Vulcan Showdown in the 2020s
Blue Origin to Compete to Launch U.S. Military Payloads
New Shepard Makes 10th Launch as Blue Origin Aims to Fly Humans Late in 2019:
Under clear west Texas skies on Wednesday morning, Blue Origin's autonomous New Shepard launch system made what appeared to be a flawless flight into space and back. After separating from its booster, the spacecraft ascended to a height of 106.9km before returning to Earth by parachute. The booster also made a nominal powered landing.
For Blue Origin, the company's first flight of its reusable New Shepard system in more than six months served a dual purpose. It provided additional test data for the launch system as the company moves closer to crewed flights, and the launch allowed the company to fly eight NASA-sponsored research and technology payloads into space through NASA's Flight Opportunities program.
During the webcast, Blue Origin's head of sales, Ariane Cornell, said the company was "aiming" to conduct human flights on board New Shepard before the end of 2019, but stressed that Blue Origin would not compromise on safety to meet any arbitrary dates. The company has yet to begin selling tickets for the six-person capsule, or set a price for the 11-minute experience that will take passengers above the Kármán line and provide a few minutes of weightlessness.
Also at cnet:
The rocket company -- which is owned by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos -- sent eight NASA-sponsored research projects up to spend a little time at the edge of space before smoothly returning to Earth.
It was New Shepard's 10th mission (NS-10) and originally set for December, but halted due to "a ground infrastructure issue." The mission was rescheduled for Monday, but wind forecasts pushed it again to Wednesday.
The reusable rocket reached its apogee and fell back to Earth, using its booster engine to cushion its landing and remain upright.
Skip ahead to about 42 minutes into the webcast to see the actual launch, ascent, and return.
Blue Origin starts building the factory for New Glenn's engines
Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket just became more tangible. The company has officially started construction on a factory in Huntsville, Alabama that will produce the BE-4 engines powering both New Glenn and United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur. It'll also make the BE-3U engines used for New Glenn's second stage. While it's not clear when the factory will start making rockets, Blue Origin expects to complete development later in 2019.
Both New Glenn and Vulcan Centaur are expected to launch in 2021.
BE-4.
Previously: Blue Origin Will Build its Rocket Engine in Alabama
NASA Opens Door to Possibly Lowering SLS Cost Using Blue Origin's Engines
Blue Origin to Compete to Launch U.S. Military Payloads
Blue Origin Wins Contract to Supply United Launch Alliance With BE-4 Rocket Engines
Telesat signs New Glenn multi-launch agreement with Blue Origin for LEO missions
Canadian fleet operator Telesat has agreed to launch satellites for its future low-Earth-orbit broadband constellation on multiple New Glenn missions, Blue Origin announced Jan. 31.
The agreement, for an unspecified number of launches and satellites, makes Telesat the fifth customer to sign up to use the reusable launcher, which is slated for a maiden flight in 2021.
"Blue Origin's powerful New Glenn rocket is a disruptive force in the launch services market which, in turn, will help Telesat disrupt the economics and performance of global broadband connectivity," Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg said in a news release.
Blue Origin already has eight other New Glenn missions in backlog: one each for Paris-based Eutelsat, Sky Perfect JSAT of Japan and Thai startup Mu Space, plus five launches for low-Earth-orbit megaconstellation company OneWeb.
SpaceX's Starlink constellation would compete with Telesat's low Earth orbit broadband offering. Perhaps that factored into the choice of Blue Origin as launch provider.
Related: Blue Origin to Compete to Launch U.S. Military Payloads
Blue Origin Wins Contract to Supply United Launch Alliance With BE-4 Rocket Engines
The Military Chooses Which Rockets It Wants Built for the Next Decade
Blue Origin Starts Construction of Rocket Engine Factory in Alabama
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 24 2019, @04:09PM (3 children)
Clearly, Bozos is looking for "B Ark" material.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday February 24 2019, @04:17PM (1 child)
1,000 Zuckerborgs vs. 1,000 Mozarts vs. 1,000 Einsteins Battle Royale
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(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Sunday February 24 2019, @05:43PM
Don't forget his wife: i'm sure she'll be there if he has ANYTHING to do with it, lol.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1) by Tokolosh on Monday February 25 2019, @02:41PM
And so he is wrong. The "colony" should be filled with all the middlemen of Earth, such as the telephone sanitisers, account executives, hairdressers, tired TV producers, insurance salesmen, personnel officers, security guards, public relations executives, and management consultants.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by looorg on Sunday February 24 2019, @05:42PM (13 children)
So one space-Zuckerberg is like 2000 other geniuses? F*ck off!
Yes and they will be far far away from the prying eyes of governments, journalists and others so they can do more or less whatever they want. Next stop space-slavery or indentured servitude, after all not like you can quit your space-job and leave the place whenever you like.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday February 24 2019, @05:57PM (11 children)
You've got a small point. Space colonies will NEED to be strongly centrally controlled. We don't know any other kind of quasi-stable social system, and security against vandals who would ignorantly (and probably unintentionally) kill everyone aboard is going to be a must.
This, however, also means that the government can't be unduly repressive. If even a few people are so upset they're willing to do a Samson, then the space colony is doomed. For this reason I think virtual reality will need to get a lot better for space colonies to be feasible. Also we need a much better sociology, but perhaps that can be evolved while proceeding...the colonies that bet on the wrong theories will die out, probably explosively.
All that said, we don't have an even nearly closed ecosystem under control yet, so space colonies aren't really feasible. Mars seems more likely than the moon, because it's easier to acquire things like oxygen and water. The moon appears better, because it's closer for help, but the amount of help one could actually expect is questionable.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Sunday February 24 2019, @06:08PM (10 children)
They could also be built using redundant safety systems. Make it so that vacuum or atmospheric (Mars) breach in one unit/room doesn't affect other units/rooms. Flame retardant systems to prevent burning everything down. Build habitats and buildings that are separated from each other. Have backup or primary power systems connected to each facility. Have two of critical buildings such as greenhouses. Have entire separate colonies on opposite poles or other locations. Have emergency rations and first aid kits in every facility/room.
Otherwise, you can either strictly monitor incoming travelers for weapons, or give everyone some kind of weapon. Have a surveillance state so that nobody can easily build a bomb or other deadly chemical (like thermite or acid to eat away at the walls while the perp is wearing a spacesuit. But with the aforementioned safety measures, you can at least ensure that a lone Martian suicide bomber can't destroy the entire colony in one action.
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by HiThere on Sunday February 24 2019, @07:40PM (5 children)
Redundant safety systems are a must, and also insufficient. They don't even work in simple hostile environments if people are unhappy enough. And the harsher the environment, the truer that is. Giving everyone a weapon is foolish. Probably giving anyone a weapon designed to forcibly puncture a life support system is foolish.
This is mainly about space colonies, but it partially applies to colonies on Mars: What you're going to need is a surveillance state that works to prevent people being too unhappy. But people need to feel freedom, or they get unhappy, so an improved virtual reality is a real necessity. In virtual reality you can let people act however they want to. You still need to monitor them in physical space. It may turn out that some people need to be prescribed particular virtual reality games. Or perhaps not. With lots of really small colonies the failures will eliminate themselves.
The reason the previous point was mainly about space colonies is that the environment in space is a lot more hostile (in a passive sort of way). The air pressure difference is greater, it's harder to replace any lost air, etc. Also until massive fabrication happens in space, it's going to be a lot easier and cheaper to have massive redundant safety systems where you don't need to lift the original material out of a gravity well.
The reason for considering ballistic weapons foolish within a pressurized environment is that you're going to need chemical processing and large amounts of electric power no matter what you do. Bombs will be readily feasible without importing any material. Locked doors are vastly more important than guns. If you do have projectile weapons, it needs to be something like tear gas, but you'd better have a really good air filtration system.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Monday February 25 2019, @12:07AM (4 children)
Which is available else you wouldn't have a human presence in the first place.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday February 25 2019, @04:54AM (3 children)
Yes, but it means it's going to be relatively easy to build explosive devices. You can even do it with just LOX and ground carbon.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 1, Disagree) by khallow on Monday February 25 2019, @05:18AM (2 children)
It's even easier now. We don't see a lot of explosions.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday February 25 2019, @05:04PM (1 child)
The thing is, with a benign external environment small explosions don't do that much damage. With a really hostile environment, even a small breach of containment can be fatal for everyone. Or at least so expensive that it can never be repaired. (Economics *always* enters into it.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday February 25 2019, @05:21PM
Unless you engineer against that.
Engineering fixes that too.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 24 2019, @07:53PM (2 children)
I think people have a very wrong idea about what living in one of these would be like. People seem to think it would be like living in a giant version of the ISS. It would be much more like living in a town, or even a small country, with a variety of jobs and a pretty ordinary society. You certainly couldn't shoot a hole in one with a gun, and any bomb capable of doing structural damage would look more like a construction project than a terrorist attack.
You can't go wrong with Isaac Arthur [youtube.com] for discussions of this sort of topic.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Sunday February 24 2019, @08:09PM (1 child)
One proposal would be to land Bigelow inflatable modules on the Moon. That would certainly be like the ISS, and have similar hazards.
Even on Mars, if your habitat gets damaged, you need to stick on a space suit in order to live. In a small town or village on Earth, you can always exit your living quarters after a few seconds and start running away.
I think we will not have many problems as long as these colonies are at the scale of ~5 people to McMurdo Station sized. Most of the people there would be scientists doing lots of geological work, not people who paid $500k to live on Mars and do whatever. Attention is already being paid to the potential psychological problems that these manned planetary science missions would encounter. Starship can offer a lot more living space and a faster direct-to-Mars journey which can cut down on problems. So we have reasons to be optimistic.
Here's a fun article [wikipedia.org].
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 25 2019, @03:28AM
Still thinking way too small. The question is not "what's the first space colony that can possibly be built" but rather "what does a space colony that lots of people can live in look like?" Long term plans, not short term. You won't necessarily build an O'Neill cylinder right away, although they are designed to be buildable with current technology.
But you might. It depends on how good your robots are at building things.
Once you realize that farming can be done more easily in a space habitat than on any planet or moon except Earth, and that mining is better done on asteroids, it turns out that there's not much reason to actually go to a planet except to do science there. And with the possibility of contaminating the planet you are trying to study, there might be no reason to go there at all.
Living on Mars, or even the Moon, is better than just staying on Earth forever. It's just not as good as living in space stations.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday February 25 2019, @03:22AM
Just release more oxygen into the enclosed air and quite a bit of things that were thought as non-flammable at normal oxygen concentration will start burning. Something like the lubricants in your door locks and hinges? [miningquiz.com]
And things that will burn slowly will just explode (PDF warning - see page 5) [airproducts.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 24 2019, @05:58PM
You need one space-Zuckerberg to monitor the geniuses and make sure they are politically correct.
Bring on the space-slaves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 24 2019, @07:08PM (6 children)
Part of the motivation to moving people to space was to relieve population pressures.
But what makes them think people would be able to manage population in these space habitats where population management becomes even more critical?
The TV series “The 100” covered scarce resources very realistically: On the space station any crime was a capital crime because they needed any excuse to cull the population.
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Sunday February 24 2019, @07:40PM (5 children)
Bezos wants a trillion population throughout the solar system, heavy industry based in space, and asteroid mining.
He wants growth but with Earth primarily acting as a giant nature reserve/park.
Asteroids are big balls of money. If they can be used to build space habitats without needing much capital from Earth, then that is exactly what will happen eventually. Habitats can use solar power, fission/fusion if necessary, and water taken from 'roids for fuel, plants, and consumption. If they can eventually get it all from space without the need for resupply from Earth, then people can "live off the land" and slowly build habitats, a process that will accelerate over time as more Starships are zipping around and habitat components are being made assembly line style.
As the population continues to expand and the amount of available resources increases due to mining, we'll see more science, computing, and technological advances. This is where the "1,000 Einsteins" remark comes in. All of these will help to keep the expansion going and clean things up back on Earth. With many more potential physicists using more powerful tools, we will tackle all of the remaining mysteries in chemistry, physics, biology, etc. If we can make a faster-than-light drive or at least good enough propulsion to get to nearby stars, then we will start expanding to other systems. With humanity's eggs in many baskets, we'll take over the galaxy if left unchecked. The galaxy will also expand once Andromeda and other nearby galaxies merge with the Milky Way. Then you'll have a super-galaxy teeming with at least Earth-originated life, and people will continue to do their things until the Big Rip/Chill happens.
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(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 24 2019, @09:15PM (4 children)
His 1000 Einstein’s logic is flawed, in the current winner take all economy the first Einstein to grab the lead will win and win all resources. The remaining 999 Einstein’s will have to scrape by; working in Amazon warehouses. They won’t have any time for thought experiments like Einstein in the Bern patent office.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Sunday February 24 2019, @09:35PM (2 children)
SUBI: Space Universal Basic Income
Give them ramen noodles, tofu, vitamin pills, and water, and they will shit out a Theory of Everything.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 25 2019, @02:32AM (1 child)
> SUBI: Space Universal Basic Income
A more appropirate name would be Universal Basic Dividend. After all, the source of the revenue being taxed from the corporations came from tax money in the first place. Take the example of mobile phones [huffingtonpost.com]. Almost all of it except the packaging came from grants. So the citizens footed the bill for all the investment, they should get a slice of the dividends, even if it's a small slice. Likewise for pharmaceuticals and vehicles.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday February 25 2019, @03:03AM
And cell phones would have happened anyway, even without the taint of public funding. The key driver for it was the ending of the US government-enforced AT&T monopoly, not some modest technology development that happens to have public funding cooties.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday February 25 2019, @12:32AM
Which hasn't happened in today's "winner takes all" economy which isn't actually a winner takes all economy. That's certainly not true in the academic world which rewards many other things than being the first.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday February 24 2019, @08:15PM (3 children)
Just wait til Musk does some coke and starts hitting back...and his dog Trump gets twittering.
The shits gonna fly!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday February 24 2019, @08:27PM (2 children)
Coke? Naw, fam:
https://medium.com/@tarttoter/elon-musk-does-a-lot-more-than-smoke-weed-c4404288ae1b [medium.com] (archive [archive.fo] because the dumb site asked me to log in)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2018/08/22/elon-musks-tweet-taking-tesla-private-now-dogged-drugs-claims-rapper-azealia-banks/1057815002/ [usatoday.com]
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(Score: 2, Disagree) by Gaaark on Sunday February 24 2019, @08:37PM (1 child)
Shit...my bad. Knew it was some shit i never want to do.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 4, Funny) by takyon on Sunday February 24 2019, @09:31PM
That "shit" is one of the safest drugs there is. It's the drug of choice for truly enlightened intellectuals like Musk.
Musk's tweets could probably be better explained by Ambien and long nights at Tesla. Or by him being a troll at heart.
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