{"id":13592,"date":"2018-09-18T18:27:11","date_gmt":"2018-09-18T10:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/japanese-billionaire-reserves-moon-flight-with-spacex\/"},"modified":"2018-09-18T18:27:11","modified_gmt":"2018-09-18T10:27:11","slug":"japanese-billionaire-reserves-moon-flight-with-spacex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/japanese-billionaire-reserves-moon-flight-with-spacex\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese billionaire reserves moon flight with SpaceX"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: Updated with BFR design details.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk (left) and Yusaku Maezawa, founder of the Japanese retail website Zozo, announce plans for a private lunar mission at SpaceX\u2019s headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Credit: Stephen Clark\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Promising to take a half-dozen or more artists with him on the journey, Japanese fashion magnate Yusaku Maezawa said Monday he has paid a deposit for a ride around the moon aboard SpaceX\u2019s planned BFR rocket as soon as 2023, a financial infusion that will help bankroll development of the company\u2019s futuristic interplanetary transporter.<\/p>\n

Maezawa and SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced plans for the moon mission Monday at the company\u2019s rocket factory in Hawthorne, California.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinally, I can tell you that I choose to go to the moon,\u201d said Maezawa, the 42-year-old founder of Zozo, Japan\u2019s largest online fashion retailer.<\/p>\n

\u201cEver since I was a kid, I have loved the moon,\u201d Maezawa said. \u201cJust staring at the moon filled my imagination. That is why I could not pass up this opportunity to see the moon up close.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he doesn\u2019t want to go to the moon alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be a little lonely. I don\u2019t like being alone, so I want to share this experiences with as many people as possible. That is why I choose to go to the moon with artists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maezawa said he will invite artists to accompany him on a trip around the moon and back to Earth, hoping to inspire the passengers \u2014 musicians, painters, photographers, film directors, fashion designers, sculptors, or architects \u2014 to create new works to reflect their experiences in deep space.<\/p>\n

The artists and Maezawa will launch on SpaceX\u2019s planned BFR vehicle for the the trip around the moon and back to Earth.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Artist\u2019s illustration of the Big Falcon Spaceship at the moon. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SpaceX\u2019s BFR \u2014 or Big Falcon Rocket \u2014 project is designed to help achieve Musk\u2019s vision of one day settling Mars. The two-part vehicle, comprising a booster and an upper stage dubbed the Big Falcon Spaceship, will be entirely reusable and will be refueled in space, making it capable of flying to the moon, Mars, and other destinations throughout the solar system carrying as many as 100 passengers, Musk said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBFR is really intended as an interplanetary transport system that\u2019s capable of getting from Earth to anywhere in the solar system as long as you establish propellant depots along the way,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n

SpaceX has also teased the idea of using the super-heavy-lift BFR system for high-speed, point-to-point travel around Earth.<\/p>\n

The new spaceship will using articulating fins and a heat shield to re-enter Earth\u2019s atmosphere, or descend through Mars\u2019s rarefied air, before rotating to an upright orientation for a propulsive landing using the craft\u2019s Raptor engines, touching down in a similar manner to SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket boosters.<\/p>\n

The ship will also be able to land on airless worlds like the moon, using rocket thrust for all its braking, Musk said.<\/p>\n

Maezawa calls his initiative \u201cdearMoon,\u201d and the process of selecting the artists for the lunar mission has not yet started.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2023, as the host, I\u2019d like to invite six to eight artists from around the world to join me on this mission to the moon,\u201d Maezawa said. \u201cThese artists will be asked to create something after they return to Earth, and these masterpieces will inspire the dreamer within all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maezawa did not disclose how much he will pay for the trip around the moon, but he confirmed he has paid a deposit to SpaceX. Musk said Maezawa made a \u201csignificant deposit\u201d that will have a \u201cmaterial impact\u201d in the development of the BFR system.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a very brave person to do this \u2026 He is paying a lot of money that will help with the development of this ship and booster, and ultimately this system,\u201d Musk said. \u201cThis BFR system is intended to be able to carry anyone to orbit, and to the moon, and to Mars, so he ultimately is helping pay for the average citizen to be able to travel to other planets. It\u2019s a great thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Artist\u2019s illustration of the BFR\u2019s booster and spaceship sections separating after launch. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Musk said he expects development of the BFR system will cost anywhere from $2 billion to $10 billion, a wide range he narrowed to an estimate of roughly $5 billion in response to a question from a reporter. In additional to the numerous technical challenges in building and flying such a vehicle, Musk is also counting on revenues from satellites launches, crew and cargo missions to the International Space Station, and SpaceX\u2019s planned Starlink broadband network to pay for the endeavor.<\/p>\n

Maezawa\u2019s financial commitment will also funnel directly into work on the BFR program, according to Musk, and SpaceX\u2019s ambitious plans need money.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrivate customers, or any customers, for BFR are incredibly helpful in funding development of the rocket,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n

SpaceX is a leader in the global commercial launch market, and the Air Force has tapped the launch provider to begin delivering some of its satellites to orbit, giving SpaceX access to a lucrative line of Pentagon contracts. SpaceX is also one of two companies funded by NASA \u2014 along with Boeing \u2014 to build commercial crew capsules to ferry astronauts to and from the space station.<\/p>\n

But the Starlink network is still in its infancy. Filings with federal regulators suggest SpaceX plans to deploy up to 12,000 small satellites in low Earth orbit to provide global broadband services, and the first two Starlink test satellites launched in February. SpaceX is one of several companies building broadband \u201cmegaconstellations,\u201d and the competition in the satellite broadband market is hot.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to seek every possible means of funding,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Elon Musk tweeted this photo Monday night: \u201cHanging out with @yousuck2020 (Yusaku Maezawa) before the @SpaceX moon mission announcement.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Musk said the circumlunar flight will be risky. No humans have traveled beyond low Earth orbit, a region a few hundred miles above Earth, since the last Apollo moon landing mission in 1972.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is dangerous. This is no walk in the park here. This will require a lot of training. When you\u2019re pushing the frontier, it\u2019s not a sure thing \u2026 There\u2019s some chance that something could go wrong. We\u2019ll do everything we can to minimize that, but whenever it\u2019s the first flight of something on a new technology, and we\u2019re talking about deep space, you have to be a very brave person to do that. This is no small matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

SpaceX announced in February 2017 that it had received a deposit for two private passengers to launch on a circumlunar flight around the moon aboard the company\u2019s Crew Dragon spacecraft, the capsule planned to carry astronauts to the space station, which orbits around 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth.<\/p>\n

Musk said Monday that Maezawa was one of the would-be space tourists who initially signed up for the Crew Dragon lunar flight, which was intended to launch on a Falcon Heavy rocket. When Musk announced the Crew Dragon lunar flight last February, he said the mission around the moon could launch by the end of 2018.<\/p>\n

SpaceX since scrapped those plans, opting to move on to the BFR project.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Falcon Heavy and Dragon, we would have had, essentially, for a trip around the moon only room for two people \u2026 It\u2019s about the size of an SUV inside there.<\/p>\n

\u201cBFR has got room for 100, and we said, well, maybe it\u2019s wise on this to have about a dozen people or thereabouts on the first trip into deep space, and (Maezawa\u2019s) very graciously offered to provide those seats to artists and cultural influencers \u2014 basically key influences on society.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe better get that flight right,\u201d Musk said. \u201cWe\u2019re definitely going to be doing everything we possibly can to make sure that is a good flight. Instead of two (people), you can have a dozen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maezawa invited Musk to join him on the trip around the moon, but Musk was non-committal Monday on his participation on the flight.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The BFR system, as currently designed, will measure 387 feet (118 meters) long. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Asked if he thought the 2023 target date for the lunar mission was realistic, Musk replied: \u201cWe\u2019re definitely not sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musk has a history of stating ambitious schedules for SpaceX\u2019s rocket developments. He announced plans in 2011 to launch the first Falcon Heavy rocket by 2013, and the heavy-lifter finally lifted off for the first time on a successful demonstration flight in February.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been pretty unsure about prior dates, too,\u201d Musk said. \u201cIf I had some sort of crystal ball, I\u2019d love to know how long something will take. You have to set some kind of (date) that is kind of like the \u2018things go right\u2019 date, and then, of course, we have reality, and things do not go right in reality. Usually, there are many setbacks and issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many uncertainties,\u201d Musk said. \u201cThis is a ridiculously big rocket. It\u2019s got so much advanced tehcnology. It\u2019s not 100 percent that we succeed in getting this to flight. It\u2019s not even 100 percent certain. I think it\u2019s pretty likely, but it\u2019s not certain. But we\u2019re going to do everything humanly possible to bring it to flight as fast as we can, and as safely as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has done a lot to restore my faith in humanity, that somebody is willing to do this, take their money and help fund this new project,\u201d Musk said. \u201cThat\u2019s risky. It might not succeed. It\u2019s dangerous, donating seats, these are great things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Space Adventures, the company that has arranged flights by paying passengers to the International Space Station, has also outlined plans for a circumlunar flyby mission with two \u201cspace tourists\u201d and a professional cosmonaut using an upgraded version of Russia\u2019s Soyuz crew capsule. Space Adventures said in 2014 it received deposits from two passengers for the moon mission, with seats selling for $150 million a piece.<\/p>\n

The Russian-led tourist flight to the moon has not materialized, but a section dedicated to the circumlunar flight remains on Space Adventures\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

\"\"
SpaceX has released this graphic illustrating the trajectory and timeline for the BFR\u2019s planned circumlunar flight. This graphic suggests the mission will last approximately six days. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Maezawa and his shipmates will launch on a \u201cfree-return\u201d trajectory, looping around the far side of the moon without entering lunar orbit, following a path similar to the Apollo 13 mission, which aborted its moon landing after an explosion of one of the craft\u2019s oxygen tanks.<\/p>\n

In a tweet, SpaceX said the spaceship will get as close as 125 miles (200 kilometers) from the lunar surface, with the mission set to last about a week. An illustration of the mission\u2019s trajectory provided during SpaceX\u2019s webcast Monday\u2019s announcement suggested the flight would last just shy of six days from takeoff to touchdown.<\/p>\n

SpaceX updates BFR design<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Musk first unveiled the BFR architecture in 2016 at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, then updated the design in a follow-up presentation last year at the IAC in Adelaide, Australia, settling on a smaller rocket than he originally envisioned.<\/p>\n

Musk revealed further adjustments to the BFR design Monday, including a reconfigured propulsion system on the spaceship section of the huge vehicle that will apparently result in a slightly reduced carrying capacity for the system, at least in in its initial version.<\/p>\n

But the BFR \u2014 in its current iteration \u2014 dwarfs all rockets currently flying in dimension and capability, and would stand taller than NASA\u2019s Saturn 5 moon rocket, while producing nearly twice as much thrust at liftoff as the Apollo-era launcher developed in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

With its booster and spaceship stacked together, the launcher will extend to a height of 387 feet (118 meters), slightly taller than the BFR configuration described by Musk a year ago in Australia. The nearly 30-foot-diameter (9-meter) booster will produce nearly 12 million pounds of thrust from 31 Raptor engines, a new powerplant currently being ground-tested by SpaceX which burns a mixture of methane and liquid oxygen.<\/p>\n

The booster will come back to Earth immediately after launch for a vertical propulsive landing and reuse.<\/p>\n

The spaceship to be mounted on top of the BFR booster is part-upper stage and part-interplanetary ship, using seven Raptor engines. After originally considering putting Raptor engines on the BFS with wider nozzles optimized for efficiency in the vacuum of SpaceX, Musk said Monday the ship will use the same engines as the booster, which are rated for sea level.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Illustration of the BFS. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That change apparently comes with a reduction in lift capability. The version of the BFR described Monday can deliver up to 100 metric tons \u2014 about 220,000 pounds \u2014 to low Earth orbit, Musk said, down from 150 metric tons \u2014 330,000 pounds \u2014 in the earlier version of the vehicle.<\/p>\n

The system could haul a similar amount of cargo, including people, to Mars with in-space refueling.<\/p>\n

Musk said the vacuum-rated Raptor engines could be added to the spaceship in a future configuration.<\/p>\n

He also said the latest BFS design has more internal volume than the previous iteration, and features two forward and two aft actuating fins. A third fin-like structure will join the two articulating wings at the rear of the vehicle, and all three fins will act as landing pylons for the ship\u2019s touchdowns.<\/p>\n

SpaceX has started building hardware for a prototype of the BFR, and the company has selected a site at the Port of Los Angeles for full-scale production of the vehicle.<\/p>\n

Musk said the latest refresh in the BFR\u2019s planned appearance and functionality, which he admitted was at least partly driven by aesthetic concerns, could be the project\u2019s last major design change.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like this is the final iteration in terms of broad architectural decisions for BFR (and) BFS,\u201d he said Monday. \u201cThere\u2019s more than one way to solve this problem, and the prior design, the iteration before this, decoupled the landing legs from the control surfaces, and had essentially six legs and then two actuating rear flaps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually did not like the aesthetics of that design, so we have the three sort of large legs, with two of them actuating as body flaps or large moving wings, effectively,\u201d he said. \u201cI think this design is probably on par with the other one, it might be better.<\/p>\n

Musk said he was inspired by the rocket depicted in \u201cThe Adventures of Tintin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s slightly riskier technically because of coupling the legs and the actuating wing fin flaps, but I think it\u2019s the right decision overall,\u201d Musk said. \u201cI think it looks beautiful. I love the Tintin rocket design, so I kind of wanted to bias it towards that. If in doubt, go with Tintin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Test flights of the spaceship portion of the BFR system could begin next year, starting with low-altitude \u201chopper flights\u201d akin to the takeoff and landing tests conducted by SpaceX\u2019s Grasshopper prototype before engineers attempted landings of Falcon 9 rocket boosters.<\/p>\n

According to Musk, SpaceX will base the first BFS hop flights from the company\u2019s launch site in South Texas, which is still under construction after a groundbreaking ceremony at the location on the Gulf of Mexico near Brownsville four years ago this month.<\/p>\n

SpaceX has not committed to a launch or landing site for the BFR\u2019s first orbital missions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may actually be that we launch from a floating platform,\u201d Musk said. \u201cThat\u2019s possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDepending on how well those go, we\u2019ll do high-altitude, high-velocity flights with the ship in 2020, and then also start doing tests of the booster,\u201d Musk said. \u201cAnd if things go well, we could be doing the first orbital flights in about two-to-three years.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said SpaceX will conduct \u201cmany such test flights before putting any people on-board,\u201d likely including a flight around the moon without any passengers before committing to launching Maezawa\u2019s circumlunar mission.<\/p>\n

Musk went out of his way during Monday\u2019s announcement to say SpaceX\u2019s top priority remains the debut of the Crew Dragon spacecraft for NASA, which awarded Musk\u2019s company a $2.6 billion contract in 2014 to develop and fly the human-rated capsule on crew rotation missions to the space station. He also cited national security satellite launches for the U.S. military as a key focus for the company in the near-term.<\/p>\n

The BFR initiative currently represents less than 5 percent of SpaceX\u2019s expenditures, Musk said, but that will increase once engineers wrap up development of the Crew Dragon, perhaps as soon as late next year.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Musk said this is a cylinder section for the first prototype of BFR. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAs fast as we can make it go, we\u2019ll make it go,\u201d Musk said of the BFR. \u201cWe\u2019re pedal to the metal. We just need to make sure we have our priorities right. Our priority is the NASA crewed mission (and) our satellite customers. Those are our current priorities. Once we are confident that that is taken are of, then we\u2019ll ramp up BFR big time, get the Starlink system active. Hopefully, that does the trick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assuming the BFR\u2019s circumlunar passenger flight is not delayed, it would launch a year after NASA currently plans to send a team of astronauts around the moon on the agency\u2019s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft.<\/p>\n

Like some of SpaceX\u2019s rocket and spacecraft projects, the SLS and Orion programs have suffered years of delays. The first combined test flight of the Orion capsule with NASA\u2019s new mega-rocket, which in its inaugural configuration will have a payload capacity somewhat less than BFR\u2019s, is now planned no earlier than 2020 on an uncrewed mission, followed by the first piloted voyage two years later.<\/p>\n

NASA has outlined plans to use the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft on a series of human missions in the 2020s to construct a mini-space station in a distant orbit around the moon. The so-called \u201cGateway,\u201d comprising parts from NASA\u2019s current space station partners in Canada, Europe, Japan and Russia, will host astronauts for months-long stays, eventually operating as a staging base for robotic and crewed landings on the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

NASA has spent more than $20 billion on the SLS and Orion programs, along with their associated ground systems the Kennedy Space Center, since 2012. Flight hardware for the first two SLS\/Orion flights is in assembly and production.<\/p>\n

How SpaceX\u2019s plans fit \u2014 or don\u2019t fit \u2014 into NASA\u2019s exploration strategy remains uncertain, but Musk has more prominently highlighted the BFR\u2019s ability to land on the moon, as a stepping stone to Mars, since NASA started working on the Gateway concept and the Trump administration directed the space agency to return astronauts to the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

Musk said his vision for SpaceX remains a human mission to Mars, and expanding human presence into the solar system.<\/p>\n

But first things first.<\/p>\n

He emphasized the upcoming first demonstration flights of the Crew Dragon spacecraft as \u201cfundamental to the future of SpaceX,\u201d adding that the capsule\u2019s first unpiloted launch into Earth orbit is scheduled for December \u2014 a month later than previously announced \u2014 and the Crew Dragon\u2019s first test flight with NASA astronauts is still expected in the second quarter of 2019.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: Updated with BFR design details. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk (left) and Yusaku Maezawa, founder of the Japanese retail website Zozo, announce plans for a private lunar mission at SpaceX\u2019s headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Credit: Stephen Clark\/Spaceflight Now Promising to take a half-dozen or more artists with him on the journey, Japanese […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2873,291,1045,1545,377,625,1563,316],"class_list":["post-13592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-bfr","tag-commercial-space","tag-elon-musk","tag-human-spaceflight","tag-japan","tag-moon","tag-solar-system","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13592"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}