Jeff Bezos showed the lunar module for landing on the moon (7 photos + video)

The question of the colonization of nearby planets passesfrom theory to the practical field. Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin company presented in Washington the first results of the previously classified Blue Moon landing module project. The project has existed since 2016, and only now the head of the company Bezos has revealed plans for the exploration of the Moon and demonstrated a prototype of the cargo lunar module.

& times

Businessman during a press conferencedemonstrated the appearance of the module for the colonization of the Moon, which will be able to deliver about 3.6 tons of payload to the Earth’s satellite. At the same time, in the Blue Origin aerospace company, work is underway on a more lifting apparatus capable of delivering 6.5 tons of cargo to the Moon and above the module for delivering human colonizers to the surface.

The Blue Moon module is equipped with the most modernnavigation system for topographic study of the surface of the moon. In addition, a space is provided on the upper surface of the module to accommodate a manned lunar rover or two space rovers.

Especially for the Blue Moon module Blue engineersOrigin developed the BE-7 rocket engine with a 40 kN barge using liquefied hydrogen as a fuel. It is envisaged that the extraction of hydrogen will be carried out "on the spot" from the water found on the moon. The real fire tests of the BE-7 are scheduled for the summer of 2019.

The project of the exploration of the moon, developed by Blue Origin,contains infrastructure plans using local resources. According to Bezos, due to significantly less gravity on the moon, mining requires 24 times less energy than for similar work on Earth.

It is assumed that the first stage of colonizationwill begin in 2024 with the manned launch of the Blue Moon module. This period coincides with the control time set by the US government for the return of NASA to the moon. However, NASA currently has no specific plans and it is highly likely that the Blue Moon project may receive government support.

Source: cnet.com