Eight members of the public will join the scheduled SpaceX moon trip in 2023 after Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire, announced on Tuesday that he would be choosing the individuals who will be joining him.
According to CNBC, the Japanese billionaire invited the public in joining him on a trip around the moon which he called his mission in a video.
The Japanese billionaire, Maezawa, announced the said mission in September of 2018 alongside SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who stated that the plan has evolved from flying artists on a lunar orbit trip.
Moreover, the project of Maezawa, which he called 'dearMoon,' will be flying 10 to 12 individuals in total, and eight of the crew will be coming from the public who the Japanese billionaire will pick.
Maezawa also mentioned that he would be paying for the entire journey, so those joining him will fly for free. The Japanese billionaire made his fortune by founding this fashion retail company, Zozotown, after resigning in 2019 and selling a majority stake to SoftBank.
Furthermore, the dearMoon mission will take three days to fly to the moon, loop behind it in orbit, and then spend three days in the return flight. Musk also stated that aside from the historic private lunar mission, the rocket targets' flight path targets it to go beyond the Apollo missions' distance traveled.
Musk stated that the mission expects people to be going further than any human has ever gone from planet Earth in an interview.
On the other hand, the mission's website, dearMoon, stated that the 'pre-registration is still open until March 14. The pre-registration application requests the name, country, e-mail address, and profile picture of the applicant.
The initial screening process will start on March 21, while the final interview and medical checkup will be conducted sometime in late May.
Based on the dearMoon mission guidelines, there are two key criteria for any individual who applies to fly with Maezawa. First, a prospect passenger can advance whatever activity they are into by going to space, Space.com reported.
Second, in the criteria, the eight aspiring astronauts must be willing and able to support other crew members who share the same aspirations.
The Japanese billionaire's announcement of the SpaceX moon trip came after two and a half years since his original dearMoon announcement, and the project has stuck to its 2023 goal for its launch.
Meanwhile, SpaceX has continued its dedication to developing Starship, as the rocket represents a next-generation vehicle which is the key to Musk's dreams of future space exploration.
The SpaceX founder aims for Starship to be fully reusable. Despite not reaching the orbit yet, the company has testing prototypes in its facility in Texas and has successfully launched numerous Starship prototypes by landing them safely after short flights around 500 feet in altitude, CNA reported.
