Jeff Bezos' Will Shift 'Several Tons' Of Cargo To Moon By 2023, To Build A Launchpad For Mars

Jeff Bezos¡¯ most successful baby may be Amazon, but he¡¯s clearly very fond of his space initiative Blue Origin. Now, reports are emerging that the billionaire will be using the company to ship ¡°several metric tons¡± of cargo to the Moon within five years.

Blue Origin just signed a letter of intent with German aerospace companies OHB Space Systems and Security and MT Aerospace. In subsequent press releases, the project has been called the ¡°Blue Moon¡± mission.

However, it¡¯s not yet been specified what cargo Blue Origin will be shipping, just that there¡¯s a lot of it. Most likely though it¡¯s similar to SpaceX¡¯s plan to help colonise Mars, which means the Bezos-owned space company will probably be transporting hardware and tools to set up basic infrastructure.

The International Astronautical Congress (IAC), where the three companies signed the agreement this week, has also launched the ¡°Moon Race¡±. They say it¡¯s a competition between Blue Origin, Airbus Air and Space, and other private space organisations around the world, to develop technology that would bring corporations to the Moon to set up business.

That means building products and technology for the endeavour, finding ways to provide food and power for the humans that would have to live on the Moon, and getting access to water and setting up farming.

Blue Origin, in a press release, says both the Blue Moon mission and Moon Race are in keeping with its own aims, which are to ¡°land large payloads on the Moon that can access and utilize the resources found there.¡±

It seems where the space was once the pursuit of nations, it¡¯s now the playground of tech CEOs to relieve some of the boredom that comes with managing an empire. After all, it was probably more engaging and a more thrilling fight to struggle and set up the likes of Amazon and Tesla. Now that they¡¯re fairly autonomous though, perhaps Bezos and Elon Musk are getting bored?

Either way though, both these recent space initiatives seem to tread in gray area, where the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty is concerned, that says no one is allowed to own private property in space. At the very least, even if they¡¯re not outright claiming the land, this is starting to look suspiciously like a squatter situation. Once the likes of Blue Origin and SpaceX start building habitats on the Moon and Mars (and that¡¯s only a matter of when, not if), how long will it take before we have another great gold rush?

Because it¡¯s evident that, once again, the human race is advancing into territory it¡¯s not planned for. We¡¯ve looked at all the ways we could survive in outer space, but not once at how we need to regulate to ensure we co-exist there without someone trying to grab a bigger piece. And if that happens, it¡¯s going to be the group with money enough to do that, which means these first few private space companies. Where the digital age gave us the near monopoly of Apple, Google, and Facebook, we might soon see likewise with Blue Origin, SpaceX and more in the coming space age.