Japanese Billionaire buys STARSHIP for circum-lunar flight

Japanese Billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has apparently purchased a Space X Starship for trip around the moon for him and 0-12 other intrepid souls

8 of the crew will be members of the public picked from applicants

www.cnbc.com...

The mission is scheduled for 2023, which seems rather ambitious, considering Space X is still working out the bugs on Starship

Hopefully Musk will be able to keep ,the Starship in one piece through the launch and landing vs coming down in pieces ……...

a reply to: firerescue

Did they fix that splody part of the ship?

originally posted by: Lysergic
a reply to: firerescue

Did they fix that splody part of the ship?

Nope, that's still the most exciting part of the trip.

I wonder if they still play that weird space music on the other side of the Moon.

originally posted by: caterpillage



That what I like to hear~

Well this very interesting stuff I must say.

It could work. I want to see it happen.

Oh snap....thought some dude bought Grace Slick.

Nevermind.

originally posted by: lakenheath24
Oh snap....thought some dude bought Grace Slick.

Nevermind.

Hopefully it was the younger Grace Slick.

a reply to: schuyler


Dayum, ageist AND sexist in one post! LOL

originally posted by: visitedbythem
I wonder if they still play that weird space music on the other side of the Moon.

Far side of the moon, not other side of the moon.

Oops, it is dark side of the moon I was thinking of...Pink floyd weird spacey music.

originally posted by: Lysergic
a reply to: firerescue

Did they fix that splody part of the ship?

Yep now it’s an ex- splody part 🧐

All of these private monies being invested in space Mars and Lunar missions is great, but the conspiracy theorist in me thinks something is up. Obviously the end of the world and/or asteroid or other space impact event, such as aliens. Or have found a way to mine H3, thus the race to the moon. After all, a lunar orbiting Starflight could make a platform for an orbit station for recovery of moon probes and eventually sending a mining moon pod so to speak. Getting even samples back from the moon could mean major discoveries and profits. Not saying the scientific and intrinsic value isn't there, just usually sooner or late companies want to monetize a technology or advancement.

helium-3 has a potential economic value in the order of $3bn a tonne -- making it the only thing remotely economically viable to consider mining from the Moon given current and likely-near-future space travel technologies and capabilities.
explainingthefuture.com...

a reply to: firerescue

Hmmmm, money to burn.

That said if it was me I would put an external camera on a boom looking back at the space craft, pull down my keck's and squash my ugly hair arse into the window as we sailed around the moon then post a video of it with the track.


No Actually I would not I would be too busy with a high resolution digital telescope and camera system trying to sample very inch of the moon's surface down as far and high resolution as I could go so as to look for artefacts and evidence of my pet theory's that we are not the first human or intelligent civilization to have reached it.

That said I believe the earth and the moon are artefacts of intelligent design, we live on the most unlikely designed world, a massive core of spinning molten iron creating a huge magnetic bottle around our planet protecting it from radiation, in the past it may have been much stronger and even strong enough to cause particles to hover on the edge of or be trapped in that shell creating a visible halo around the earth making the sun during daytime slightly more diffuse and the night's less dark with reflected scattered light from particles and dust trapped in the intense magnetic field both repelled and attracted, we live today, the ring's of Saturn are the phenomena of our time and we live at just the right time to see them, millions of years in the past they may not yet have appeared and millions of years in the future they may be a distant and long forgotten memory.

Our moon is perfectly balanced, in an unnatural orbit and even the idea that it is a part of the earth that reformed after an impact smashed the early planet is problematic, it is too perfect, perfectly placed so that to those on the ground we get a nearly perfect eclipse around which a halo of light from the sun can be seen, this is something that may not be found anywhere else in the solar system, from the earth to our eye's it looks the same size as the sun and there are any number of NEAR if not exact mathematical quality's that suggest artificial placement.

So bum's in the window to MOON at the MOON, no I can joke about that but I have other things I would rather be doing, plus it is pretty chilly in space I mean what if the window cracked.

a reply to: firerescue

Is this rocket certified for passengers?
Most people don’t know it but it is much more costly to have a rocket carry passengers than just cargo.

Also is this rocket capable of the altitude required to break earth orbit?

Humans have not left low earth orbit since 1973 if my memory is correct.

a reply to: Bluntone22

That is what Musk is trying to do , get Starship in shape to carry cargo/people beyond earth orbit to moon/Mars

Even now is rolling out Starship 11 (SN11) for next crash, um I mean test ……….

a reply to: putnam6

Yeah, but even still, there would need to be a considerable size workforce and it's tough enough to insulate, cloth, feed and supply just a few people with limited mobility.

Either we find a way to "smart build", in which we design modular parts and simply connect them all, like legos, expanding outward, slowly breaking down parts of the interior for larger space as the structure expands in size. Or create a small drone workforce to construct and build remotely.

Perhaps both.

Fastest way to building a habitat imho.

to be honest, if i was a billionaire this is definitely the kind of thing i'd do. and fund research into a time machine. cool stuff like that.

originally posted by: Arnie123
a reply to: putnam6

Yeah, but even still, there would need to be a considerable size workforce and it's tough enough to insulate, cloth, feed and supply just a few people with limited mobility.

Either we find a way to "smart build", in which we design modular parts and simply connect them all, like legos, expanding outward, slowly breaking down parts of the interior for larger space as the structure expands in size. Or create a small drone workforce to construct and build remotely.

Perhaps both.

Fastest way to building a habitat imho.

No doubt that the next step beyond a moon orbital station. As for the drone or robotic workforce, it's very likely the only way real construction can get done. It'd been proposed in some articles if they can find and access enough water on the moon they could theoretically send robotic drone 3d construction printers that would make and use a type of "moon" concrete for habitats and work pods labs after they are formed and coated to be air pressurized. Again in theory. but all off that starts with an orbital moon station and being able to consistently send cargo and supplies to the moon regularly which Starship if it works could prove in concept at least.

As for the billionaire If I'm financing the whole mission, it's likely to have something of a backup plan if something goes wrong. This is completely different than sending military and trained astronauts, there is a real possibility of them being stranded. The good news is they don't have to land on the moon to survive but they could get stuck in lunar orbit, or mess up on reentry to earth orbit.

a reply to: Lysergic

It only 'splodes after it lands all crooked and whatnot with fires and flames and smoke. I can see the consipiracy theories now "Japanese billionare in bunker on moon, DIDN'T return, nobody's seen him!"

Why am I thinking of Apollo 13 and somehow trig is gonna elude these folks and Alexa won’t be in earshot when they need to slingshot back to this beautiful ball of rock and water?