Jeff Bezos, who heads both Amazon and space company Blue Origin, has unveiled a lunar lander that he said could be used to transport equipment, and possibly human beings, to the south pole of the Moon by 2024.
"This is Blue Moon," he said at a presentation in Washington, as curtains lifted to show a mock-up of a huge vessel weighing many tons and able to carry four self-driving rovers.
Jeff Bezos speaks in front of a model of the lunar landing. Source: AAP
"It's an incredible vehicle, and it will go to the Moon," he declared.
The vehicle has been under development for the past three years, he said. It will be capable of carrying scientific instruments and also rovers for humans.
Mr Bezos unveiled a model of one of the proposed rovers, which was roughly the size of a golf cart. Bezos also presented a new rocket engine called BE-7, which can blast 4535kg of thrust.
Mr Bezos didn't announce a specific date for the project's first launch, but said the lander would be in ready in time to make President Donald Trump's announced timeline to return people to the Moon by 2024.
"We can help make that timeline, but only because we started three years ago," he said. "It's time to go back to the Moon, this time to stay."
Blue Origin is also developing its New Shepard rocket for short space tourism trips and a heavy-lift launch rocket called New Glenn for satellite launch contracts.
It is aiming to deliver the New Glenn rocket by 2021, while launching humans in a suborbital flight later this year atop its rocket-and-capsule New Shepard.
Human colonisation
Blue Origin has also previously discussed a human outpost on the moon.
NASA has already set its sights on the moon's south pole, a region believed to hold enough recoverable ice water for use in synthesising additional rocket fuel as well as for drinking water.
Mr Bezos, who has talked about his broader vision of enabling a future in which millions of people live and work in space, has been intent on moving Blue Origin closer to commercialisation.
He spoke of the importance of future human colonisation of space and mentioned two important issues: reducing launch costs and using resources already in space.
"One of the most important things we know about the moon today is that there's water there," he said. "It's in the form of ice. It's in the permanently shadowed craters on the poles of the moon."
His vision is shared by other billionaire-backed private space ventures like Elon Musk's SpaceX and aerospace incumbents like United Launch Alliance, a partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
