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Comment by Rebelgecko | Hacker News Reader

I'm confused. Does this actually exist yet?

The linked page says things like "Blue Moon is a flexible lander", and "Blue Moon can land multiple metric tons of payload on the lunar surface". Is there any actual hardware? Or is it entirely CAD drawings and renderings? They seem to be implying that the hardware currently exists and is ready to go (presumably for the Pence/Trump 2024 mandate), but the videos and pictures don't seem consistent with that.

Edit: I found a bit more info elsewhere [1]. They built a nice nonfunctional model of it. It sounds like it's relatively early in development, let alone integration. They'll start testing the engines in the next few months. This sort of hyperbolic marketing copy that abuses verb tenses and grammar is a huge pet peeve of mine.

[1]: https://spacenews.com/blue-origin-unveils-lunar-lander/

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It's Amazon's way of working. Starting from PR/FAQ and working backwards.

Err well publishing the PR while it's still vaporware is not the Amazon way.

I don't mean it as shortcoming for Amazon. Their way of working have brought them quite far.

As for proving my point: https://www.quora.com/What-is-Amazons-approach-to-product-de...

No it does not exist yet. This is a page devoted to pulling both private and public funding and something to wave in front of Congresscritters' eyes.

Pretty much. President Trump wants to put a man on the moon before he's out of office (assuming he gets re-elected and makes it to 2024). Mike Pence obsequiously tells NASA to make it so. Amazon wants more sweet federal contracting money, and prepares to bid for that contract.

I wish Bezos, Allen, Musk, etc. weren't burning their piles of cash to see who could be first to shoot other people at the moon, but such is the world we live in.

> I wish Bezos, Allen, Musk, etc. weren't burning their piles of cash

Allen did many things with his pile of cash (though none that I know of directly involved moon trips), but no longer:

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/paul-allen-microsoft-spacesh...

RIP.

Allen doesn't seem to have been going for the moon (yet), but I wish the billionaires would not spend their hoards on private rocket companies. It's a bit gross that the article you linked calls them "philanthropists" for doing it. Andrew Carnegie was a real bastard, but he funded many wonderful small-town libraries, which remain valuable community centers over 100 years later. Bill Gates took his shot at world domination, but is now using his money to solve real-world problem like malaria.

It's their money, so they can do what they want with it, but rocket companies are pure vanity. Real, cost-effective philanthropy would mean improving the perfectly acceptable planet we live on, not trying to terraform Mars.

To the contrary, I'd argue spending on spaceflight in current day is significantly more challenging and laudable than solving some more "real-world" problems.

Those problems are quite important, but I'd prefer to live in the world where space problems are among those worthy of attention.

What I find really galling is how farmers bury corn in the ground every spring when there are clearly millions of people going hungry up here on the surface.

>> Andrew Carnegie was a real bastard, but he funded many wonderful small-town libraries, which remain valuable community centers over 100 years later.

That's a bit of an understatement of one of the worst monopolists and union-busters (even locking out employees and bringing in non-union immigrants to operate his factories) in America's history, but alright. [0]

Why didn't you mention Elon Musk and the Flint, Michigan water problem? (not to mention laptops and other donations he's made on two occasions now)

I think that's a real-world problem.

[0]: Also, he significantly contributed to the deaths of thousands through neglect of environmental standards for his own personal vacation and hunting spot. "South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club" will get you more information on him.

> even locking out employees and bringing in non-union immigrants to operate his factories

Giving work to immigrants. What a bastard. Everybody knows that Americans are better and more important then those dirty immigrants. They should only be allowed to get work if all white Americans already have jobs.

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