Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon and space company Blue Origin, wants to make “cost-effective deliveries” to the moon.
As the Trump administration shows renewed interest in traveling to the moon, Blue Origin has circulated a seven-page white paper at NASA and among the president’s transition team that details its interest in developing a lunar spacecraft with a lander for the purpose of delivering supplies to the moon, according to the Bezos-owned Washington Post.
Blue Origin proposed that NASA back a shipping service that could eventually support a “future human settlement” on the moon. The service, which Bezos said could be up and running as early as 2020, would land near a crater at the south pole of the moon where there is water and constant sunlight (which are necessary ingredients for rocket fuel and solar power, respectively). “It is time for America to return to the Moon — this time to stay,” Bezos told The Post.
Bezos is not the only private-sector CEO with business ambitions for future space settlements. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has somewhat more ambitiously set its sights on colonizing Mars. Either way, getting people into space is only a small piece of the equation. They’ll also need supplies.
Though Bezos’s Amazon has plenty of room to grow its delivery business on Earth—ecommerce still accounts for just 8% of US retail sales—you know what they say: Shoot for the stars.