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SpaceX Will Fly Yasaku Maezawa
around the Moon!
By Lora Snow
September 18, 2018
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk announced at a press conference on September 17 that they will fly Yusaku Maezawa around the moon on the first private lunar mission. Maezawa, who was also at the press conference, proclaimed: “Finally, I can tell you that I chose to go to the moon!
Musk is planning to send Maezawa around the moon on Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) in approximately 2023. Musk said they are definitely not sure of this date, however, due to many uncertainties, adding that they are not 100 percent sure they will succeed in getting the BFR to flight.
The BFR, which is still being developed, is 118 meters long overall, and is being designed to carry a payload of about 100 metric tons all the way to the surface of Mars. And its intended to go further than that according to Musk. He said: “if you have a propellent depot on Mars, you’re able to get from Mars to the asteroid belt, to the moons of Jupiter, and kind of planet and moon hop all the way to the outer solar system. So BFR is really intended as an interplanetary transport system that’s capable of getting from earth to anywhere in the solar system as you establish propellent depots along the way.”
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Conceptual picture of the BFR in flight. Credit: SpaceX
Musk said he estimates making the BFR system will cost roughly five billion dollars, and added that he doesn’t think it will cost more than ten or less than two billion. He also said they need to seek funding wherever they can.
While Musk did not divulge the amount that Maezawa paid, he did say that Maezawa put a significant deposit down, and that it will have a material effect on paying for the cost of developing the BFR. He added that Maezawa is ultimately helping to pay for the average citizen to be able to travel to other planets.
Maezawa, who bought all the seats available on this trip around the moon, explained his desire to go to the moon this way:
I have thought long and hard about how it could be to become the first private passenger to go to the moon. At the same time, I thought about how I could give back to the world, and how this can contribute to world peace. This is my life-long dream. . . . Ever since I was a kid I have loved the moon. Just staring at the moon filled my imagination. It’s always there, and has continued to inspire humanity. That is why I cannot pass up this opportunity to see the moon up close. And at the same time, I did not want to have such a fantastic experience by myself. That would be a little naughty. I don’t like being alone. So, I want to share these experiences and things with as many people as possible. So, that is why I choose to go to the moon. I choose to go to the moon with artists! With artists!
For now, I choose to invite artists from around the world on my journey. The first artist I thought of was . . . Jean-Michel Basquiat. . . . One day when I was staring at his painting I thought what if Basquiat had gone to space and had seen the moon up close or saw the earth in full view? What wonderful masterpiece would he have created? Just thinking about it now gets my heart racing. But once I got started I could not stop thinking about who else. What if Picasso had gone to the moon, or Andy Warhol, or Michael Jackson, or John Lenin, or Coco Chanel? These are all artists that I adore. But, sadly, they are no longer with us. But this is when I thought there are so many artists with us today that I wish could create amazing works of art for humankind, for children of the next generation. And I wish very much that such artists could go to space, see the moon up close, and the earth in full view, and create works that reflect their experience. This is the project that I designed and named dear Moon.
. . . In 2023, as the host, I would like to invite six to eight artists from around the world to join me on this mission to the moon. These artists will be asked to create something after they return to earth. And these masterpieces will inspire the dreamer within all of us.
Maezawa has not yet decided which artists he would like to invite, but said he would like to reach out to top artists that represent the planet from various spheres including painters, sculptors, photographers, musicians, film directors, fashion designers, architects, and so forth.
Maezawa has also invited Musk to go on the trip around the moon and Musk said he is considering it.
Also, at the press conference Musk discussed his reason for creating SpaceX. He said it was to “accelerate the advent of humanity becoming a space faring civilization, to help advance rocket technology to a point where we could potentially become a multi-planet species and a true space faring civilization.”
Musk said there could be some natural or man-made event that ends civilization as we know it, and life as we know it, so it’s important that we try to become a multi-planet civilization, extend life beyond earth as quickly as we can.
Musk added that this window of opportunity may be open for a long time, or a short time, but we should not assume that it will be open for a long time. “We should take action and become a multi-planet civilization as soon as possible,” he said.
He emphasized that he means “multi-planetary, not single planet but somewhere else.” He said that we want to become a multi-planet civilization with life on Mars, the Moon, maybe Venus, the moons of Jupiter, throughout the solar system, and then ultimately extend life beyond the solar system to other star systems.
He added that he thinks becoming a space faring civilization is one of those things that makes you excited about the future, and that the intent of BFR, is to make people excited about the future.
More information about SpaceX can be found here on their website: https://www.spacex.com/
More information about the First Lunar BFR Mission can be found here: https://www.spacex.com/webcast
More information about Maezawa’s Dear Moon project can be found here: https://dearmoon.earth/
More information about Maezawa’s company ZOZO can be found here: https://zozo.com/us/en
Updated: September 24, 2018
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