For this reason, Bezos said, they had to develop a special descent engine that had “deep throttling capabilities,” so the engines could drastically reduce their force as the lander shed mass. The Blue Moon lander weighs roughly 33,000 pounds when it’s loaded with fuel, but by the time it touches down on the lunar surface, it will weigh a mere 7,000 pounds. In addition, Bezos unveiled the BE-7 engine, which will be used to control the lander’s descent. Last month, the company hinted at its plans with an enigmatic tweet depicting Endurance, the ship that carried British explorer Ernest Shackleton on a disastrous mission to Antarctica in the early 20th century. As detailed by Bezos, the plan is to send the lunar lander, called Blue Moon, to Shackleton Crater at the moon’s south pole. Today Bezos unveiled a mock-up of Blue Origin’s lunar lander at a small invite-only event in Washington, DC. He is also, incidentally, a big fan of Heinlein. For the past 19 years he has bankrolled his space company, Blue Origin, almost entirely out of pocket and has made his goal of colonizing the moon known. Once the richest man in the world, Bezos is Harriman become flesh. But towering above them all is Jeff Bezos. These days, billionaires with their own space programs are in abundant supply-Elon Musk, Paul Allen, Richard Branson, Robert Bigelow. At the dawn of the new space race, it feels more relevant than ever. Harriman drives himself to the brink of bankruptcy and madness chasing his lunar ambitions, which he feels can’t be left to the bumbling government bureaucracy to handle. Harriman, the “last of the robber barons,” who is hell-bent on being the first man on the moon. Published in 1950, it tells the tale of Delos D. When Robert Heinlein wrote his masterpiece of space age realism, The Man Who Sold the Moon, he had no way of knowing how prescient it would be.
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