SpaceX moon mission billionaire reveals who could get ticket to get on spaceship

In the course of 2023, a billionaire Japanese entrepreneur and a team of eight artists and animators are expected to take off inside a SpaceX spacecraft on a mission intended to take them “further than any human has gone before”. The mission, known as dearMoon, is led by Yusaku Maezawa, who paid an undisclosed sum to make his dream of going to the moon come true. He wanted the dearMoon project to be something like a civil art project, but we don’t really have a clue who he might bring. So far.

The mission has has changed a lot since its first announcement in 2018. Maezawa had planned to invite artists aboard the Starship and venture with them on a circuit around Earth’s only natural satellite. But earlier this year, he changed the process and opened seats for virtually everyone, calling on aspiring lunar explorers to sign up for a ticket aboard the spaceship, then produce videos explaining why they want to go. in the space.

On Thursday, Maezawa provided an update on some of the contestants whose videos blew him away. He says there were over a million applicants from virtually “every country” around the world. You can see the video below.

It’s a pretty diverse crowd, with professional ballet dancers, actors, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers, artists, Olympians and, yes, that’s DJ Steve Aoki too.

The nominees have yet to be officially selected, and it’s unclear exactly when Maezawa will make such an announcement, but it’s the first indication of who could land a coveted spot on the return trip around the moon.

Before March 2021, the billionaire entrepreneur had also started developing a “matchmaking” TV show focused on finding a girlfriend he could take to the moon on a mission. After extensive online reactions, Maezawa canceled the project.

With Richard Branson’s recent trip to the edge of space in a Virgin Galactic space plane and former CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos’ next lift off from Earth, it seems like a decent enough time to have accumulated enough wealth to briefly leave the planet. But the so-called “billionaire space race” has its critics, with some calling the missions “vanity projects” and declaring them scientifically unnecessary. In the case of Maezawa, there are still a few years left to influence public opinion.