Jeff Bezos has unveiled an enormous ‘Blue Moon’ lunar lander to ferry payloads — and maybe people — to the moon’s surface. Here’s what it looks like and how it’d work.

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• Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, unveiled a life-size model of a new moon lander on Thursday for his rocket company, Blue Origin.
• Called "Blue Moon," the vehicle is designed to deliver a variety of payloads to the moon’s surface — potentially even astronauts.
• Here’s what Blue Moon looks like and what Bezos says it will do.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

WASHINGTON, DC — Jeff Bezos just unveiled a giant lunar-landing vehicle created by his rocket company Blue Origin.

The Blue Moon lander, as it’s called, is designed to be a flexible vehicle that can deliver a variety of payloads to the moon’s surface — perhaps one day even astronauts. The eventual goal, the company says, is to help establish "sustained human presence" on the moon.

"This is an incredible vehicle, and it’s going to the moon," Bezos said at an event in Washington, DC, on Thursday afternoon.

Bezos added that Blue Origin has been developing Blue Moon over the last three years. (The company had been teasing the idea of such a lunar lander for about two years.)

The model of the Blue Moon lander that Bezos revealed is the version designed to carry infrastructure payloads to the moon. That could include small rovers, supplies, tools, and other equipment. In the future, though, Bezos said a more powerful variant of Blue Moon could drop off a crewed ascent module.

According to the company’s website, this larger variant of Blue Moon "has been designed to land an ascent vehicle that will allow us to return Americans to the moon by 2024." But a vehicle designed for people was not shown at the event.

Here’s how the Blue Moon lander is slated to look, and what it might achieve.

Bezos envisions Blue Origin as a company that builds a figurative road to space, where resources are practically infinite — and, he thinks, a trillion people could someday live.

Dave Mosher/Business Insider

As part of that long-term vision, Bezos on Thursday unveiled a life-size model of the Blue Moon lunar lander.

Dave Mosher/Business Insider

The spacecraft is designed to carry tanks of liquid hydrogen and oxygen because they combust together very efficiently.

Dave Mosher/Business Insider

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

See Also:

• Jeff Bezos unveils a giant lunar lander that he says is ‘going to the moon’ and will help Blue Origin populate space
• Jeff Bezos will reveal new details about his rocket company Blue Origin today. Clues suggest he could announce plans to land on the moon.
• NASA’s Apollo 10 mission landed on the moon almost 50 years ago — here is every Apollo mission explained

SEE ALSO: Jeff Bezos hinted that Elon Musk should ‘go live on the top of Mount Everest for a year’ if he wants to populate Mars

Source: Business Insider – dmosher+queries@insider.com (Dave Mosher)