Elon Musk sends a Japanese billionaire to the moon and takes a group of artists with him | Smart News

Last May, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa hit the headlines bought an untitled title 1982 Jean-Michel Basquiat The painting for $ 110.5 million, breaking the existing record created by an American artist at auction. Now, Maezawa is back in the limelight, albeit for a different reason, but still related to the art: as reported by Amy Thompson CableThe 42-year-old entrepreneur is heading for the moon and hopes to have between six and eight artists with him.

Monday, the technology giant Elon Musk announced that Maezawa had registered as the first commercial passenger on the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), a vehicle of nearly 387 feet currently under development by the You're here the astronomical creation of the founder, SpaceX. Maezawa, which has a net worth of about $ 3 billion and is listed by Forbes like the 18th richest person in Japan, not only did he get his own place on the first BFR space voyage, but he also bought all the seats on the rocket, which allowed him to select the people who will accompany him during a trip. week.

Although SpaceX's flagship vehicle is not ready for launch before at least 2023, VoxKaitlyn Tiffany writes that Maezawa already has a clear vision of her team of artists. At a press conference held Monday at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, the billionaire said he wanted to recruit artists ranging from filmmakers to painters, dancers, novelists, musicians, creators of fashion, sculptors, photographers and architects.

"I choose to go to the moon with artists," wrote Maezawa on a new website dedicated to the project.

Thinking about the legacy of some of the most prominent artists in history, he continued, "If Pablo Picasso had seen the moon up close, what kind of paintings would he have drawn? If John Lennon could have seen the curvature of the Earth, what kind of songs would he have written?

according to The edgeLoren Grush, the project entitled #dearMoon, is entirely designed by Maezawa. As Allyson Chiu writes for The Washington Post, the former punk-rocker-made-self-made billionaire of electronic commerce with a passion for expensive art approached SpaceX with plans for theft and has invested enough funds to bring his dream closer to reality:[Maezawa] put his money in his place ", making a large down payment for the $ 5 billion development costs provided by BFR.

L & # 39; IndependentAndrew Griffin reports that BFR will be the subject of several unmanned test launches before it carries passengers. The initial mission will not involve a lunar landing, but as Grush notes in a separate article for The edge, the two main parts of the ship – a giant propeller and a spacecraft capable of holding up to 100 passengers – will be designed to perform motorized landings on celestial surfaces. In the end, Musk hopes to turn the BFR into an "interplanetary transport system that can pass from Earth to any part of the solar system."

In February 2017, SpaceX announced similar plans to send two citizens on a weeklong trip around the moon. At the time, The edgeGrush and Angela Chen wrote that the company planned to launch the mission in the fourth quarter of 2018. Musk hoped to send the tourists in a Crew Dragon ship equipped with a Falcon Heavy rocket, but as reported by Jeff Foust Space News, he presented these plans in February 2018, committing to focus instead on the development of technology for manned BFR flights.

It remains to be seen whether SpaceX will meet the new deadline of 2023, but in the meantime, Maezawa will be busy recruiting artists from around the world to join his team.

"If you hear from me, say yes and accept my invitation," he said at Monday's press conference. "Please, do not say no."

At least one eminent figure – NASA veteran Scott Kelly, who may not meet the defined artistic requirements but would certainly bring valuable knowledge to the mission – is interested in accompanying Maezawa. As the astronaut wrote Twitter"Good luck for your trip and if you need someone with a little experience to accompany you, my schedule is open in 2023."

Musk can also register. Although he initially said he did not know if he would join the mission, Maezawa's cajoling made him say to reporters, "Yeah, maybe we'll both be there.

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