Amazon founder Bezos unveiled 'Blue Moon' lunar lander project

On thursday, the founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos unveiled a "Blue Moon" lunar lander project along with a smaller rover.

During an invite-only presentation to media and space industry executives, Bezos said, "This vehicle is going to the moon. It's time to go back to the moon and this time stay".

At the press event, Bezos also unveiled the company's BE-7 rocket engine.

"We were given a gift - this nearby body called the moon. The moon is a good place to begin manufacturing in space due to its lower gravity than the Earth. Getting resources from the moon takes 24 times less energy to get it off the surface compared to the Earth and that is a huge lever", Bezos said.

He added, "The engine will be test fired for the first time this summer. It's largely made of printed parts. He also said that we need the new engine and that's what this is. The goal is to land on the Moon's south pole, where there is ice.

Bezos said at the launch of event, "This is Blue Moon. We've been working on this lander for three years, it's a very large lander. It'll soft land in a precise way, 3.6 metric tons (7,936 pounds) onto the lunar surface. The stretched tank variant of it will soft land 6.5 metric tons (14,330 pounds) onto the lunar surface".

However, Bezos didn't announce a specific date for the project's first launch but he said that the lander would be in ready in time to make President Donald Trump's announced timeline to return people to the Moon by 2024.