Everyday Astronaut is going to the moon on the dearMoon mission

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Mushtang

Mushtang

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A SpaceX mission where 9 people will fly way around the moon on a Starship rocket was announced years ago. A Japanese man bought all 9 seats and selections were made as to who would join him.

The crew was announced 4 days ago and Tim Dodd was one of those selected. That's super cool!!

They're also bringing along two photographers, a filmmaker, an actor, a choreographer, a DJ, and a rapper. The YouTube reporter, photographers, and filmmaker I can understand, but what the others offer to the mission is a mystery to me.




https://www.space.com/dearmoon-announces-moon-crew-spacex-starship
Riding along with Maezawa will be:

  • Steve Aoki, D.J., producer and electronic dance music artist with several Billboard-charting studio albums;
  • Tim Dodd, YouTube creator of the "Everyday Astronaut" channel (Dodd has interviewed SpaceX founder Elon Musk multiple times on camera);
  • Yemi A.D., artist and choreographer known for his work with JAD Dance Company and with Ye (formerly Kanye West);
  • Karim Iliya, photographer whose publications include National Geographic Magazine;
  • Rhiannon Adam, a photographer who has been supported by the BBC/Royal Geographical Society and won multiple awards, according to their website (opens in new tab);
  • Brendan Hall, filmmaker on projects such as the two-hour documentary "Blood Sugar Rising" about diabetes in the United States, according to the Internet Movie Database (opens in new tab);
  • Dev Joshi, an "Indian television actor known for portraying the role of Baal Veer in Sony Sab's Baal Veer and Baalveer Returns," according to the Internet Movie Database (opens in new tab);
  • T.O.P., a South Korean rapper known as the lead for the boy band Big Bang;
  • Two backup members: dancer Miyu, and snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington.
 
The REAL question now is who gets to fly around the Moon *first*, this crew of 9 or the NASA/Artemis crew?
Right now, Starship is still projecting 2023 according to what I have heard, while SLS is 2024. Unless that has changed.

To be fair, SLS has just returned from a test flight to the Moon and back, successfully, while Starship has yet to get off the ground, but SLS had a decade head-start on development, and, if Starship does test launch this month, it's very possible that SpaceX will start moving very quickly after that.... So, it will be interesting to watch.
 
techrat said:
Right now, Starship is still projecting 2023 according to what I have heard, while SLS is 2024. Unless that has changed.
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*Skepticism intensifies*

I have always believed Dear Moon would happen. I have never believed it would happen in 2023 as projected.

techrat said:
To be fair, SLS has just returned from a test flight to the Moon and back, successfully, while Starship has yet to get off the ground, but SLS had a decade head-start on development, and, if Starship does test launch this month, it's very possible that SpaceX will start moving very quickly after that.... So, it will be interesting to watch.
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A ten year head start doesn't mean that much when creating jobs in as many states as possible was a higher priority than affordability and practicality. Once they start flying, Starship will catch up rapidly. Whether Dear Moon or Artemis 2 flies first is a toss-up by my reckoning.
 
Starship ain't taking any humans to the moon and back to Earth for SEVERAL years. Don't believe the hype.

Even "Elon Said" that SS would make *hundreds* for flights before it would be considered safe for humans to fly on (Of course, "Elon sez" a lot of stuff that does not turn out to be true, or happens a long long long time later. Anyone remember the Falcon-9 booster that launched, landed, and took off again less than 24 hours later? Elon Said they'd do that in.... 2019, I think.).

Keep in mind that the Starship test flights, EVERY ONE of them crashed or blew up, except for the last one, and then they quit rather than keep testing to actually try to prove reliability.

And they are having massive problems trying to keep the heat shield tiles on. The first "orbital" flight (which won't orbit) will re-enter over the Pacific, and if it survives, it will soft-lad on the ocean surface and that will be game-over for that one-shot test.

Also, very curiously, they are not going to try to save the booster either, landing it in the Gulf of Mexico. Not having it come back to the launch site and land onto the launch tower, using the "chopsticks" to grab it. I can see the one-shot in the Pacific part, I don't get why they are afraid to test out the chopsticks to catch the booster (I have my doubts about that system working. The sooner they test it, the better).

Anyway, I think SS is years away from being operational. And years beyond that to carry humans 100%, from liftoff to vertical landing that has only worked once without a big kaboom.

Using SS as a lunar lander for Artemis, is not as dangerous for a crew, since it won't get a crew till they arrive in Lunar Orbit, and will rendezvous back with Orion in Lunar Orbit.

But mission-wise they have a big problem in that once launched into LEO, it will require SEVERAL other SS launches to go up and link up with it to transfer cryogeniic fuel in zero-G, which has never been done. And if one of the boosters fails on landing, taking out a pad, that could be a massive deal depending on how many pads (and boosters) they have by then.

NASA is going to end up have the Artemis Lunar missions delayed and delayed waiting for SpaceX, I have no doubt about it.
 
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Mushtang said:
They're also bringing along two photographers, a filmmaker, an actor, a choreographer, a DJ, and a rapper. The YouTube reporter, photographers, and filmmaker I can understand, but what the others offer to the mission is a mystery to me.
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So I guess it's not a scientific mission then.
And with that skill set I'm presuming a fully autonomous flight?
Opportunities wasted.
 
Antares JS said:
As for what the different crew members offer the mission, Maezawa is an art collector and part of the point was to use the trip to inspire different kinds of artists.
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So, they’re more like a cast than a crew?

kuririn said:
Opportunities wasted
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They should at least bring a flat-earther along.
 
tsmith1315 said:
They should at least bring a flat-earther along.
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Even if they did, either the flat-earther would claim it was a simulation and would refuse to believe it for fear of becoming a "shill", or if they did change their mind none of the other flat earthers would believe them and would accuse them of being brainwashed into becoming a "shill".

You can't use logic and reasoning to change the position of someone when they didn't use logic and reasoning to get themselves into that position.
 
I think more people in space, especially those outside of the scientific community, is a good thing. I'm excited for anyone going up... rapper, wealthy businessman, or astronaut.


"As we got further and further away, it [the Earth] diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful you can imagine. That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart. Seeing this has to change a man."

- James B. Irwin, Apollo Astronaut


"I think the one overwhelming emotion that we had was when we saw the earth rising in the distance over the lunar landscape . . . . It makes us realize that we all do exist on one small globe. For from 230,000 miles away it really is a small planet."

- Frank Borman, Commander of Apollo 8


"There is perhaps no better a demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world."

- Carl Sagan, Astronomer
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Mushtang said:
I'd have gone if I'd been selected. I wouldn't care if people read about me and wondered why they'd send up an HVAC Engineer instead of sending an astrophysicist, test pilot, trained astronaut, or a dancer.
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Yeah, I think most people would jump at the opportunity, I sure would. I do believe that sending up influential people from differing backgrounds could have a knock-on effect boosting interest in space and helping us realize we're all just a bunch of monkeys flying around on a rock and not just brought here to murder those we disagree with. Or maybe not... but I'm hopeful. :)
 
jsdemar said:
He original said "So I guess it's not a scientific mission then."
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So you should have quoted him saying that instead.

But yes, it's a privately funded flight which a very rich man will use to bring lots of diverse people into space with him just for the experience, and not because they're scientists. The rocket could be filled with anyone, or nobody, and would still give SpaceX a tremendous amount of useful information to help with future flights.

What a time to be alive!
 
Mushtang said:
I'd have gone if I'd been selected. I wouldn't care if people read about me and wondered why they'd send up an HVAC Engineer instead of sending an astrophysicist, test pilot, trained astronaut, or a dancer.
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Same here. If they want to send a chopper medic to space, sign me up. I'd be glad to test IV pumps and other equipment I use over the Karman Line.
 
KC3KNM said:
I think more people in space, especially those outside of the scientific community, is a good thing. I'm excited for anyone going up... rapper, wealthy businessman, or astronaut.
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Do we have to bring them back down?
 
kuririn said:
And you are naively assuming that they are?
And that their data gathering would be more comprehensive than Artemis 1?
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No to both. But I'm not assuming it will be a wasted opportunity, as you have stated. There will be plenty of room for secondary payloads that aren't simply pink bags of flesh and bones. Money to be made with the excess payload capacity, and I'd bet SpaceX will make it available. Or, if the Japanese businessman exclusively purchased the whole payload capacity, he'll make it available to offset his costs.
 
kuririn said:
So I guess it's not a scientific mission then.
And with that skill set I'm presuming a fully autonomous flight?
Opportunities wasted.
Click to expand...
Kuririn, I'm sorta surprised you feel that way.

We've scienced the moon already. We've retrieved rocks and poked at them to confirm they're rocks. We just gathered a bunch more science info with Artemis. We'll gather some more again soon.

Since the SpaceX trip is a tourist run, I'm interested to see what the artists come back with. Apparently the experience of seeing the earth from space is life changing. Shatner was trying to express that to Bezos when Bezos cut him of to pop a champagne cork.

Cape Byron mentioned a poet. When I saw the list on the OP, it reminded me of the line from the movie Contact when Jodi Foster's character is at a loss for words and says they should have sent a poet to describe where she was.

It's possible it's a wasted opportunity. Or some really amazing art could come out of it.
Either way, it's going to be a heck of a party up in that spaceship as they round the moon.
 
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