Japanese Billionaire Yusaku Maezawa Invites Eight Artists and Artists to Fly Around the Moon

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, invite eight artists to fly around the Moon. (photo: dock. dearmoon)

JAKARTA - On Thursday, December 8, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa announced the selection of a crew of eight who will join him on SpaceX's mission to circumnavigate the Moon. Maezawa's dearMoon mission aims to be the first private mission around the Moon, bringing artists and creatives aboard the SpaceX Starship.

The crew consists of eight artists from various disciplines, including an EDM DJ, two photographers, a documentary filmmaker and a YouTuber, as well as other creative professionals.

"I hope that everyone will realize the responsibility that comes with leaving Earth, traveling to the moon and back again," Maezawa said in a video cited by The Verge, in the announcement.

"They will gain a lot from this experience, and I hope they will use it to contribute to this planet, to humanity," said Maezawa.

The full crew includes DJ Steve Aoki, musician Choi Seung Hyun, choreographer and performer Yemi A.D., photographer Rhiannon Adam, YouTuber Tim Dodd, photographer Karim Iliya, filmmaker Brendan Hall, and actor Dev D. Joshi, while snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington and dancer Miyu as a reserve crew member.

Maezawa announced his ambitious plans to fund a personal mission to circumnavigate the Moon in 2018, saying he "chose to go to the Moon with the artists" and that each member of the artist's crew will be asked to create a piece of art that reflects their journey.

The mission is slated to use SpaceX's Starship rocket and has targeted a launch around 2023. However, the rocket has yet to perform a test flight from Earth orbit. Though this is one of many important tests that still need to be completed before launching with humans in the cabin.

This will be Maezawa's second personal trip to space. Last year, he visited the International Space Station (ISS) as one of two space tourists traveling on a Russian Soyuz rocket.

The billionaire, who is the founder of fashion retailer Zozotown, has previously made headlines for announcing that he would be holding a reality show contest to find a girlfriend he could travel to outer space with. However Maezawa later dropped this idea citing "personal reasons".

The dearMoon mission is one of several forays by SpaceX into space tourism. Previously, mission Inspiration4 already put a civilian crew into orbit in 2021. In April, Mission Axiom 1 (also called Ax-1) sent one commercial astronaut and three civilians to the ISS aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft.

Seats on the Ax-1 mission reportedly cost $55 million per person, although Axiom claims it was set up to make space "more accessible to everyone".

The difference between the previous space tourism missions and the one Maezawa led was that the main focus was on art rather than scientific research. There's also a strong element of public outreach, according to crew members.

Tim Dodd of the Everyday Astronaut YouTube channel said in a video about crew selection that his work could involve live streaming as well as video, and he hopes his contribution will help people "appreciate the greatness of our gentle little existence in the vastness of our universe."