Jeff Bezos aims for the moon as Amazon dominates earth

LAS VEGAS: The world’s richest man whose company has been flirting with a trillion-dollar market cap isn’t resting on dominating the earth’s marketplace. Amazon’s founder-CEO Jeff Bezos is aiming for the moon.

In a free-wheeling fireside chat at the Amazon re:MARS event to explore the frontiers of machine learning, automation, robotics, and space, the hyperdriven tech mogul provided a raft of reasons why his new company, Blue Origin, is part of the new moonrush some half century after mankind first landed on the lunar surface. Prime among them: to save the earth.



“If we are going to continue to grow this civilization, we need the moon,” Bezos argued, explaining that discoveries such as ice from the moon’s poles can be used not only for drinking and growing food, but also as a source of rocket propellant. Besides, he observed, the moon is only a three-day ride away, and launches from the moon (to beyond) would take less energy because of lower gravity. It takes 24 times less energy to lift a pound off the moon than it does on the Earth, he noted.

“To do big things in space, we need to use in-space resources, and so the moon is great,” Bezos said, clarifying that while his company had already begun working on the project, he’s talking about something “our grandchildren and their grandchildren will build on.”

“This isn’t something that this generation is going to accomplish, but we need to move heavy industry off the Earth. It will be better done in space anyway. It will be way easier in space, and Earth will be zoned residential and flight industry,” he said to some disbelieving laughter.

Bezos’ talk was briefly interrupted by Indian-American animal rights activist Priya Sawhney who rushed to the stage to protest conditions at a California poultry farm that supplies Amazon. As she was led away by security, Bezos made light of the kerfuffle, asking his interviewer, “Do you have a response to that?”

The re:MARS conference showcased a range of technologies that are at the forefront of Amazon’s growth as a global giant, from imminent drone deliveries of goods to ever-improving services by Alexa, its virtual assistant.

In one of the more jaw-dropping moments at the conference, Amazon rolled out new capabilities of its voice assistant Alexa, a division headed by the Ranchi-born Indian-American Rohit Prasad, who is Amazon’s vice-president and head scientist.

Dubbed Alexa conversations, the new capabilities include planning an entire evening out, from booking movie tickets to making dinner reservation to organizing an Uber ride between the two destinations.

Prasad said an extended back-and-forth dialogue with the digital assistant will become possible in the coming months, the demo showed Alexa already programmed to anticipate the user behavior.

After booking movie tickets, Alexa asks, unprompted, “Will you be eating out after the movie?” Asked to recommend a Chinese restaurant, it offers a choice, makes a reservation at one the user chooses, and then asks, “Would you like me to book an Uber?”