Jeff Bezos Is Planning To Ship 'Several Metric Tons of Cargo' To the Moon (vice.com)

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin aerospace company is planning to send "several metric tons" of unspecified cargo to the Moon in the next five years. The company reportedly signed a letter of intent with Germany aerospace companies OHB Space Systems and Security and MT Aerospace at the 69th annual International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Germany on Tuesday. The OHB dubbed the lunar project the "Blue Moon" mission in a press release. Motherboard reports: 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. Blue Origin said in a press release that both the Blue Moon mission and Moon Race are in line with its goal to "land large payloads on the Moon that can access and utilize the resources found there."

Comments

Seeing a lot of talk about lunar flights

[sheramil]

Talk is cheap, guys. I'd be interested to see, in ten years' time, how many, if any, of these fantasies get carried out.

Blue Origin Pivoting?

[mentil]

Blue Origin of course has no near-term plans for Moon-launch capability, thus why they're courting other companies to develop this. However this got me thinking...
SpaceX's plan is for other companies to develop the various tech which will be deployed to Mars, for habitats, fuel production, automated machinery et cetera. This makes me wonder if Blue Origin is planning on developing some of said equipment, and putting it on the Moon first, giving up on making heavy-lift rockets and pivoting to making interesting cargo to put in space.