Elon Musk always knows how to surprise people. Not only did he send his red sports car into the Universe as the world’s first private foray into space, now he is on a mission to send a man on the moon.
Space X had earlier announced that they would send someone to the moon aboard the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), a launch system that was unveiled by Musk in 2016. And now they have announced who that someone lucky is going to be.
Elon Musk revealed that Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire and founder of Zozotown, Japan’s largest online clothing retailer, will be the first private customer to ride around the Moon on the company’s future massive rocket. Maezawa plans to fly on the trip as early as 2023, and he wants to take artists with him to turn the entire ride into an art project called #dearMoon.
Yusaku will be bringing 8 (brave) artists & cultural figures with him on the journey around the moon! https://t.co/PCU23HYTa9
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 18, 2018
Since Musk tweeted about the plans, artists from all over the world have been suggesting their names to him. It would indeed be a dream for a pianist to play on the moon, or a painter to try the moon’s landscape with Earth in the background.
Maezawa, who is 42, reportedly has a current net worth of $2.9 billion, according to Forbes. He is also an avid art collector, and he spent $110.5 million on a 1982 painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat called Untitled last year. As an artist, he wants to invite other artists to come along with him on his ride. Maezawa has bought all the seats on the BFR and wants others to join him on a week-long mission around the Moon.
Imagine if Picasso or Michelangelo would have gotten a chance to travel to space. Or what would have Beethoven or Tansen created if they universe would be their immediate muse.
Only 24 humans have visited the Moon, all of them Americans. 12 of them landed on the moon. Nasa’s Apollo 17 in December 1972 marked the last time humans landed on the moon or went beyond low Earth orbit.
Musk’s vehicle will not land on the moon. It will travel return back to Earth after it has gone around the far side of the moon.
While the achievement itself is inspirational, it would be more exciting to see what these artists bring back to earth after their musings on the moon.
