Japanese Billionaire Unveils the 8 Artists He'll Fly To the Moon On SpaceX's Starship dearMoon Flight 76
A Japanese billionaire picked his crewmates for the first-ever artist-centered mission. Space.com reports: Yusaku Maezawa, who made his fortune as an online fashion retailer, announced the eight people who would be flying with him on the dearMoon mission, which aims to use a SpaceX Starship to fly around the moon as soon as next year. "I hope each and every one will recognize the responsibility that comes with leaving the Earth, travelling to the moon and back," Maezawa says in the video in Japanese, with a translation provided in-video.
Riding along with Maezawa will be:
- Steve Aoki, D.J., producer and electronic dance music artist with several Billboard-charting studio albums;
- Tim Dodd, YouTube creator of the "Everyday Astronaut" channel (Dodd has interviewed SpaceX founder Elon Musk multiple times on camera);
- Yemi A.D., artist and choreographer known for his work with JAD Dance Company and with Ye (formerly Kanye West);
- Karim Iliya, photographer whose publications include National Geographic Magazine;
- Rhiannon Adam, a photographer who has been supported by the BBC/Royal Geographical Society and won multiple awards, according to their website;
- Brendan Hall, filmmaker on projects such as the two-hour documentary "Blood Sugar Rising" about diabetes in the United States, according to the Internet Movie Database;
- Dev Joshi, an "Indian television actor known for portraying the role of Baal Veer in Sony Sab's Baal Veer and Baalveer Returns," according to the Internet Movie Database;
- T.O.P., a South Korean rapper known as the lead for the boy band Big Bang;
- Two backup members: dancer Miyu, and snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington.
Each member of the dearMoon crew was briefly quoted in a video from the dearMoon YouTube channel, and the announcement was confirmed on Dodd's and Maezawa's Twitter feeds.
Riding along with Maezawa will be:
- Steve Aoki, D.J., producer and electronic dance music artist with several Billboard-charting studio albums;
- Tim Dodd, YouTube creator of the "Everyday Astronaut" channel (Dodd has interviewed SpaceX founder Elon Musk multiple times on camera);
- Yemi A.D., artist and choreographer known for his work with JAD Dance Company and with Ye (formerly Kanye West);
- Karim Iliya, photographer whose publications include National Geographic Magazine;
- Rhiannon Adam, a photographer who has been supported by the BBC/Royal Geographical Society and won multiple awards, according to their website;
- Brendan Hall, filmmaker on projects such as the two-hour documentary "Blood Sugar Rising" about diabetes in the United States, according to the Internet Movie Database;
- Dev Joshi, an "Indian television actor known for portraying the role of Baal Veer in Sony Sab's Baal Veer and Baalveer Returns," according to the Internet Movie Database;
- T.O.P., a South Korean rapper known as the lead for the boy band Big Bang;
- Two backup members: dancer Miyu, and snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington.
Each member of the dearMoon crew was briefly quoted in a video from the dearMoon YouTube channel, and the announcement was confirmed on Dodd's and Maezawa's Twitter feeds.
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In my humble opinion, the best artist who has ever existed is definitely our very own Slashdot mascot (no costume needed) and wannabe influencer!
That cermagnificator guy possesses an endless stream of wonderful innovative and creative ideas! His originally makes every artist on that list weak compared to him!
Are you talking about The One...The Only...COWBOY NEAL ?
élan: (n) vigorous spirit or enthusiasm (Score:2)
C'mon man. Not everything is about money.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's being done with private money. Why do you give such a full-throated fuck what this guy spends his money doing?
If he wants to fire a bunch of telephone sanitizers around the moon, that's his decision.
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Oh, so you're a communist that believes in taking from others without regard to property law, because they aren't using THEIR property the way YOU think they should.
You can officially go fuck yourself with a garden rake.
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For those who think this is a useless gimmick, there's a parallel with Antarctic missions.
Not a great comparison. We shouldn't be sending artists on science and exploration missions on the taxpayer dime. I'm fine with them paying their way, or in this case, even better, a wealthy man picking up the tab as a way to be a patron to the arts. That's how it SHOULD work.
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Because it is on the taxpayer's dime, there is a reason to include certain people who contribute by engaging that work back the public. And, yes, that includes actually sending artists to far-flung places. There are some excellent scientists that also happen to be great at communicating their work to the general public - bringing humanity into the abstruse. But, frankly, most working scientis
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Whether or not government should spend some of taxpayers money on the arts and humanities is an age old question. Some say no, only roads, bridges, fire, police, military, etc. Others say of course public money should be paying for libraries, museums, holiday decorations, public art, even just some architecture so public buildings are more than just concrete cubes. Believe it or not, plenty of people _want_ their town to buy and decorate a big tree in December. They actually want there to be a library, and
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For those who think this is a useless gimmick, there's a parallel with Antarctic missions.
There's also a parallel with Cook's three voyages of discovery. He took artists with him on all trips, and the resulting oil colours of bays and sunsets are to this day some of history's great memories of the expeditions. On the second voyage, naturalist Joseph Banks actually provided for a chamber orchestra! but the top-deck built to accommodate them proved too top-heavy and had to be cut. The belief was that art, specifically music, was a universal language and it'd be a valuable tool of communication wit
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I suppose you were saying the same the first time around, when the same money (a lot more of it, actually) was used to chase fashion instead of A Hell Of A Lot Of Good.
Come to think of it, that's surely still happening, yes? Go on then, tell them to do ahoalog with it instead of vuitton and prada.
Re: Why? (Score:3)
You could argue that whatâ(TM)s really being done here is an investment in Starship. Just itâ(TM)s an investment that happens to include a cool, fun trip as part of the deal.
Admittedly it seems like Polaris is a better implementation of that idea, but still, I think this does good.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
How did we get so effing negative and bitter? No wonder so many kids these days are depressed; not that we don't have problems, but we never ever stop telling them what a shit place the world is. It's reflected in our books and movies of today as well. I miss the 80s... we had our problems back them, but there was a general sense of optimism pervading our culture.
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"How did we get so effing negative and bitter?"
Perhaps we've been subjected to too much assholery by the ever more filthy rich?
But I remain puzzled why the erstwhile Imperator of Mars has yet to ride any of his own rockets.
Re: Why? (Score:2)
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the issue is not that the money could be better spent, it's that a billionaire is sending a bunch of minor celebrities on a mission that could do a lot of interesting science.
Spaceflight used to be a noble scientific pursuit, not a joyride for rich assholes and the people who are in their favour right now. It was aspirational because if you had the skills you could be part of it, regardless of how wealthy you were or how far your tongue extended up Elon Musk's arse.
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First up, I'd suggest that if a billionaire doesn't spend money on this, they probably won't spend that money at all (or else, will spend a lot less of it on maybe a new yacht or something). I'd rather they spent it than hold on to it.
Secondly, yes I agree more science could come out of this. But on the flip side, more art could come out of just about anything to do with space that's ever been done, ever. This is an attempt to alter that balance a little.
Thirdly, just because this arty flight is going ahead
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I'm not saying I necessary agree with everything I posted, but it's not far off. It's just not very inspiring. Like if I see 100k watch I don't think "I wish I had one of those, I'll work harder to get it".
I wonder how safe it will be too.
In any case, Musk tends to be optimistic with timelines, but SpaceX needs to move fast to meet NASA's planned 2025/6 landing date.
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I think the issue is not that the money could be better spent, it's that a billionaire is sending a bunch of minor celebrities on a mission that could do a lot of interesting science.
Spaceflight used to be a noble scientific pursuit, not a joyride for rich assholes and the people who are in their favour right now..
And sailing the oceans used to only be for explorers. Once we learned HOW, it was time to use it for commerce. Space is no different.
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sailing the oceans used to only be for explorers. Once we learned HOW, it was time to use it for commerce. Space is no different.
It is no different, in that building sailing ships was a major cause of deforestation [swarthmore.edu].
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It was aspirational because if you had the skills you could be part of it
Not unless you were part of the US military, with one or two random school teachers as a PR stunt. In fact, it is now that arse-licking is no longer a requirement. Example: OneWeb.
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Things that used to only be in the domain of the rich, and are now common every-day activities that people of practically all economic classes enjoy:
Riding a horse
Sailing a boat
Owning and driving a car
flying in an aircraft
owning and using a computer
The very nature of technological progress is to first have something be very expensive and exclusive to governments, large corporations, and the extremely wealthy. Then, as we figure out how to make them more useful and less expensive, everyone else gets a shot.
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People used to get enthused about missions like these. Nowadays all we can think of is how much better that money could have been spent elsewhere
Please don't assume everyone is as jaded as you are. You speak for JaredOfEuropa alone.
How did we get so effing negative and bitter? No wonder so many kids these days are depressed;
Don't beg the question. There's no evidence anyone is any more or less negative or bitter than before. Simply giving negative people an outlet where they can tweet their negativity to the world doesn't mean the world itself is any different.
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People used to get enthused about missions like these. Nowadays all we can think of is how much better that money could have been spent elsewhere, what the negative effects of the launch are on the gray spotted pinguin, or why a billionaire should get to spend that much of his money on something like this,
It's not "we". It's a small but loud group of people bitching because they never got their classless utopia that Karl Marx promised was coming. Most people are fine with this stuff as long as they don't have to pay for it. As for the bitchers, I think had then been alive 60 years ago, they'd have been among the crowd trying to kill off Apollo. "Because look what that money could do for X!".
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"Whitey on the Moon" was released in 1970, one year after the moon landing. There's always been a struggle between social spending and exploration, you just weren't paying attention.
Re: Why? (Score:2)
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But this much money could do a hell of a lot of good
I am absolutely sick of guys like this essentially saying "Hey, why aren't you spending YOUR money the way I want you to???"
Because it's his money, and not yours. Go make your own and spend it how you please. "How much good would that money have done going to X?"; we'll never know, because he doesn't want to spend it on X. He wants to spend it sending artists to the Moon. The End. You get zero say in it.
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Art is more than uplifting though. It speaks to different groups of people and it is often overlooked how important and useful different messages can be in getting people to understand the importance. I once thought this show Liquid Science [imdb.com] by GZA from the Wu Tang Clan made no sense, but then I realized Wu Tang Clan speaks to a demographic that
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A 747 can hold 63,500 gallons of fuel. That fuel weighs 6.7 pounds per gallon. So that is 425,450 pounds of fuel, which is 193 tons. Jet fuel produces about 3.15X its weight in CO2 when burned. So that would be about 609 tons of CO2. Just US commercial flights are at around 5,670 per day. Those are not all fully fueled 747s of course, but they do absolutely dwarf the amount of CO2 currently used in rocketry.
...and back. (Score:3, Funny)
And back, right?
Re:...and back. (Score:4, Funny)
No.
Which is why I'd request to change the list of artists. Kanye, Kid Rock, and Nickelback should take the place of these randos I've never heard about.
Re: ...and back. (Score:1)
We're gonna need a bigger rocket. (Score:2)
Steve Aoki, no-talent millionaire DJ son of the fucking Benihana guy, deserves to be, at the very least, shot into the Sun.
Tom Dodd is a fine space nerd, not an "artist" ! (Score:1, Troll)
HE has to come back.
The "artists"
Oh, and if this launches before 2025, I will eat moondust.
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One could argue the ability to effectively and evocatively explain complex scientific concepts to the masses is an art unto itself. There was certainly a poetry to the way Sagan communicated.
As a musician, I will be keen to see what Steve Aoki takes away from it though.
Tim Dodd so deserves that adventure. (Score:5, Interesting)
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Yup.
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Launch date (Score:5, Informative)
The previously-announced 2023 launch date may push back substantially, however, as Starship has not yet been approved for an orbital journey around Earth, let alone a flight to the moon.
Yeah that 2023 launch date is absolutely not happening. For some insanely smart reason, the area the BFR is being built and tested in, in Texas has all kinds of environmental protections all around. None of the programmatic environmental assessments (PEAs) were done prior and so the FAA shut their shit down. Not only that, when it came up for eval by the FAA in 2021, there were over a 1,000 public comments that all had to be heard. Clearly none of the neighbors are fans of the place nearby. It wasn't until 2022 did the FAA finally wade through everything and gave them limited go ahead. But there's still way more paperwork that SpaceX hasn't completed with their facility and until that's done, the thing cannot even be tested for LEO approval.
The rocket will eventually get green-lit as SpaceX's BFR is way too important to NASA's Lunar Gateway, a pretty fucking important component of NASA’s Artemis program as a whole. There's a really important reason SpaceX didn't get folded into the whole Twitter buying shit, NASA is basically letting them know that SpaceX is new Boeing and doing dumb shit with NASA's investment isn't going to fly.
So yes, this rocket will get off the ground. That red tape will be gotten through. And this private moon trip will eventually happen because the FAA and NASA are not letting the BFR slip, full stop. But it's going to happen on the US Government's timeline and no one else's. Because that rocket blowing up a bunch of artist is only going to happen once the public puts trust in those rockets being at the Gateway. If those rockets kill everyone on board and suddenly Congress and the public wants to put hard brakes on them BEFORE NASA can get the Gateway stationed. Oh they'll tell SpaceX to pound sand. This whole Artemis thing has been slow enough and the Directors of the US Space program aren't going to humor some ego-tripping billionaire to YOLO some well known figures on a suicide mission and risk putting the entire thing on a delayed track for another ten years.
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I think the real reason is that Elon's stake in SpaceX is small, relative to what he had to raise for Twitter, and he surely doesn't want to give up much of it. And because SpaceX is still privately held, his stake is much harder to liquidate.
So I'm not surprised that he pulled from his shares of a publicly-traded company that has 10x the valuation of SpaceX. Even after Twitter, he still owns about 15% of T
Can he leave them there? (Score:1)
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What money really is ? (Score:2)
It occurred to me that, in fact, money is actually a token that gives You the right of vote over, among other things, the usage of the limited amount of natural resources available to humans.
Whence, whenever You pay for something, You need to be aware that You vote for two things:
1) The use of those limited resources for the product You are acquiring
2) You forego Your right to vote equivalent to the margin of the manufacturer and all of the intermediary
Hence for those who are unhappy about the resources dep
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Hence for those who are unhappy about the resources depletion by this space tourism, You need to be aware that those resources are the "votes" of people who allowed the tourists to accumulate wealth and decide on behalf of the humanity on how to use them.
Shit ideas don't become good ideas because dumbfucks voted for them.
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True enough. So, what makes you think YOUR ideas are good ideas? As opposed, say, to MY good ideas?
Alas, while democracy sucks as a form of government, it sucks LESS than all the other forms we've tried from time to time...
In other words, till you can PROVE that your ideas are better than mine (or anyone else's), you'll just have to deal with the fact that not everyone (probably not even most people) agrees with you.
9th Passenger announced (Score:1)
Arthur Dent
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Arthur Dent
Shouldn't he be the 42nd passenger?
Missed Opportunity (Score:2)
He should've hired 8 hookers, dressed them in sexy Startrek uniforms, and taken them up with him. I can see the poster now, a breathtaking image of the moon, taken from the capsule's porthole - and faintly reflected in the glass, is Maezawa doing his O face.
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It won't help. (Score:4, Funny)
He'll just bring them back.
Would you go? (Score:1)
If you were picked for this (and assuming the thing actually existed, had launch permission, etc), would you go?
The risks are definitely higher than anything anyone does in normal every day life but the trip itself could be amazing.
I'm not some random unknown artist so missed my shot but not certain I'd do it once my art is discovered. :-)
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What the hell was he thinking? (Score:2)
I can't even make myself read the whole summary. (Score:2)
The title is enough for me to shake my head and say "How stupid. Publicity stunt. What good is it to have art on the moon this decade? There's nobody to even look at it there."
Rich arsehole further fucks up the planet (Score:1)
Unfortunate (Score:2)
It's really unfortunate that they missed their chance to send a blind person. They are ablelists.
Pretty weak bunch. (Score:1)