DJ Steve Aoki, Indian actor Dev Joshi, American Youtuber Tim Dodd, K-pop musician TOP,…Those are only a few names of the artists joining Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa for a journey around the Moon.
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa announced Thursday that eight crew members who will join him for a journey around the Moon planned for 2023 on a SpaceX rocket that is still under development.
The mission, known as dear moon, was first announced in 2018. Maezawa initially said he would invite a crew of six-to-eight artists, but later changed the entry requirements to a competition which applicants could apply for online.
The eight people chosen were DJ and producer Steve Aoki of the United States; Tim Dodd, an American YouTuber; Czech artist Yemi AD; Rhiannon Adam, an Irish photographer; British photographer Karim Iliya; American filmmaker Brendan Hall; and Indian actor Dev Joshi, and K-pop musician TOP of South Korea.
There were also two backup crew members: snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington of the US and dancer Miyu of Japan.
“I hope each and everyone will recognize the responsibility that comes with leaving the Earth, travelling to the Moon and back,” Maezawa said in an announcement video on YouTube.
“They will gain a lot from this experience, and I hope they will use that to contribute to the planet, to humanity.”
According to a mission profile graphic on the dear moon website, the round trip would last almost six days and circumnavigate the Moon without landing.
SpaceX’s Starship will be the most powerful rocket ever built when completed.
Although its upper stage has succeeded in test flights within the atmosphere and successfully landed, SpaceX has yet to carry out an orbital test flight — something founder Elon Musk has repeatedly promised will happen by the end of 2022.
Maezawa, the mega-rich founder of Japan’s largest online fashion mall, flew to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket last year, paying a reported 10 billion yen ($73 million on current conversion rates).