SpaceX plans to send a Japanese billionaire and several others beyond the low Earth orbit on the company's Big Falcon Rocket, revealed in depth last week, have been updated through a series of recent tweets CEO Elon Musk.

Yusaku Maezawa, one of the 20 richest Japanese and a big art lover, has been announced as SpaceX's first paying customer for a BFR-powered moon-trip around the world in 2023 at an event in California this week. last. The two billionaires said Maezawa would take six to eight artists with him in hopes that travel-inspired works would capture imaginations on Earth.

Since then, Musk has answered several questions about the lunar journey, SpaceX plans for computer equipment and even discussed a schedule for establishing a colony on Mars.

The missions will be broadcast and compatible VR

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For fans of space unable to make the trip, Musk announced that SpaceX will have the best solution: live broadcasting in high definition Supports virtual reality formats.

SpaceX will obviously need to install 360-degree cameras inside and outside BFR that support streaming of the field of view, but it remains to be seen how VR technology will evolve by 2023 – the flows could support more features, such as rendering 3D objects in real time based on a camera input, called photogrammetry. Also here, the resolution of the VR headsets, the battery life and the ability to operate independently of the computer should also improve.

But how will SpaceX transmit data during a communication failure? Musk also had an answer to this question.

Starlink should be active for lunar missions

Starlink, the ambitious SpaceX project to wrap the Earth in a constellation of small satellites on the Internet, follows a similar timeline to that of lunar missions.

If all goes as planned, SpaceX should at least have at least part of its network of 4,425 satellites planned in low Earth orbit. Current projections include the addition of at least 7,000 additional devices in an even lower orbit, which improves the latency of Internet connections for customers in the field, who will only need a handheld terminal to access to the constellation.

But as in many Musk projects, Starlink will not be limited to Earth – he hopes that a small constellation could also operate around the moon. When asked how SpaceX would support live streaming from the dark side of the moon, which has always resulted in a communication failure, Musk said "Starlink should be active by then."

This reinforces the idea that SpaceX could also bring Starlink – and global Internet connectivity – to its long-term goal of a colony on Mars.

Establish SpaceX's base on the red planet

Since its inception in 2002, SpaceX's long-term goal is to make humanity a "multi-planetary species" with the development of an autonomous colony on Mars.

Building on the previous details of his company's plans, previously announced in 2016 as a massive interplanetary transportation system and refined in 2017 as the smallest BFR, Musk said the latest roadmap shows that 39, a red planet base could be established from 2028.

In a tweet last week, Musk downloaded a rendition of several updated Big Falcon or BFS spacecraft, stationed vertically on Mars with a small base made of futuristic hexagonal panels and a greenhouse in the background.

Musk's ambitious timetable for this development, however, should be refined as the company looks at its short-term goals of repatriating astronauts from the US space in the second half of next year. of the Starlink constellation. These two first goals in support of NASA, Musk said last week, are the current and most important priorities of the company.

Astronauts trained in the lunar mission of BFR?

Although this was not announced by Musk, discussions on Space Flight Forums and SpaceX websites indicate that it would be difficult to imagine a moon fly over without experienced astronauts. After all, Maezawa has only bought six to eight seats for the artists, one for himself and maybe even more than that – but BFS, measured 180 feet long, is a big spaceship.

Scott Kelly, a NASA astronaut and resident of the ISS for four years, responded to Maezawa on Twitter and said: He would be happy to join.

"Yusaku Maezawa, it will be a great adventure! Good luck for your trip and if you need someone with a little experience to accompany you, my schedule is open in 2023", a- he declared.

Contact Emre Kelly at [email protected] or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @EmreKelly.

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