Jeff Bezos Has Plans to Extract the Moon’s Water

Jeff Bezos Has Plans to Extract(ikˈstrakt) the Moon’s Water

The Amazon(-zən,ˈaməˌzän) CEO unveiled(ˌənˈvāl) a sleek(slēk)-looking lunar(ˈlo͞onər) lander—and he hopes the White House takes notice.

By Marina(məˈrēnə) Koren

Between the shipping and handling, the web servers, the groceries(ˈgrōs(ə)rē), and the newspapers, Jeff Bezos never stopped thinking about the moon. He was 5 years old when Americans first walked on the lunar surface, and he remembers the grainy(ˈgrānē) black-and-white footage(ˈfo͝odij) from that historic(hiˈstôrik) moment.

“It had a huge impact(ˈimˌpakt) on me,” Bezos said. “And it hasn’t changed.”

Bezos, in addition(əˈdiSHən) to leading(ˈlediNG,ˈlēdiNG) Amazon and owning The Washington Post, runs a spaceflight company called Blue Origin(ˈôrəjən). Blue Origin has been working on something for the past three years, and on Thursday, Bezos unveiled it: a giant(ˈjīənt) spacecraft(ˈspāsˌkraft) designed to touch down gently(ˈjentlē) on the lunar surface, plus a small rover(ˈrōvər) with droopy(ˈdro͞opē) camera eyes, like WALL-E.

“This is an incredible(inˈkredəbəl) vehicle(ˈvēəkəl,ˈvēˌhikəl),” Bezos said, beaming(bēm). “And it’s going to the moon.”

If this news seems like it’s coming out of, well, the blue, that’s because Blue Origin is not the flashiest(ˈflaSHē) company. It has conducted much of its work in secret(ˈsēkrit) and rarely(ˈre(ə)rlē) holds press(pres) events. But the company, Bezos has said, is “the most important work that I’m doing.” He spends about $1 billion on it each year, collected(kəˈlektəd) from selling off his Amazon stock.

So far, the work has stayed close to the ground. Blue Origin has carried out nearly a dozen successful flights of its New Shepard(shapərd) rocket(ˈräkət), named for Alan Shepard, the first American to go to space. The rocket hurtles(ˈhərdl) upward(ˈəpwərd) until it reaches the edge of space, then descends(dəˈsend) and lands vertically(ˈvərdək(ə)lē) on the ground. Bezos wants to use New Shepard to fly space tourists(ˈto͝orəst), perhaps as early as this year.


https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/05/jeff-bezos-moon-nasa/589150/