Yusaku Maezawa, a billionaire from Japan, called on public on Tuesday to apply for a chance on SpaceX’s Starship on one of his private mission circulating the moon. The Japanese billionaire announced two years ago of going on the venture to the moon with only artists and now has asked a wider group of people to join him on his mission to the outer world.
In a recent video, Maezawa said, “I want people from all kinds of backgrounds to join. It will be 10 to 12 people in all, but I will be inviting 8 people to come along on the ride.”
Maezawa is the founder of Japan’s most prominent online retail service, which along with other ventures, has made the guy reach $2 billion of total net worth. The guy became Musk’s starship’s first signed passenger in 2018. Back then, Maezawa announced his project to the moon, aiming to take about eight artists from around the world and join him in nearly a six-day lunar flyby mission at some point in 2023. The reason to invite artists is that the guy is fond of art and is an avid art collector, and it clearly links his love with art as well.
Back in the time when he first invited artists along on the trip to space, he said, “These artists will be asked to create something after they return to Earth, and these masterpieces will inspire the dreamer within all of us.”
However, in a recent video, he might have changed the criteria of the artists that he wants to accompany him alongside, said, “maybe every single person is doing something creative could be called an artist.”
As per the latest, the artists meeting these two criteria could bag a seat for the space ride, “those who “can push their envelope to help other people and greater society in some way” and those “willing to support other crew members who share similar aspirations.”
Mr. Maezawa has been quite active in the space exploration front in the past couple of years. In January 2020, the guy launched a campaign looking for a female partner to accompany him on his trip around the moon. The website taking the bid received nearly 30k applications while Abema TV, Japan’s streaming service, was all set to record the mission in a reality TV show with the name of ‘Full Moon Lovers.’ Unfortunately, the show was canceled later, and Maezawa apologized to all the applicants as it had to be done like this due to some personal reasons.
Space-X’s next-generation starship is a fully re-usable Mars rocket system made to take humans and nearly 100 tons of cargo on the space venture. However, until now, the rocket has conducted two tests with an altitude of up to 7.8 miles, both of which resulted in fiery explosions on their failed landings.
Maezawa’s statement came in the absence of details on how the selected crew would train for the space venture. However, what he did clarify was that the unknown ticket price is what he will bear: “I will pay for the entire journey. I have bought all the seats so that it will be a private ride. It will take three days to get to the Moon, where Starship will loop behind it and begin its three-day journey back to Earth.”
