Billionaire Maezawa chooses his passengers for Starship lunar flight
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa yesterday announced the eight passengers he will take with him on his private Starship flight around the Moon, its launch date still not set.
The full list of ten (including the two back-up passengers) is a wide mixture of individuals with a wide range of disciplines coming from a wide range of countries. For those interested in space, the one name that stood out and was very familiar was Tim Dodd, created of Everyday Astronaut. He created a video describing his selection as well as Maezawa’s entire project, which I have embedded below:
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. All editions can also be purchased direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from me (hardback $24.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $5.00). Just email me at zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa yesterday announced the eight passengers he will take with him on his private Starship flight around the Moon, its launch date still not set.
The full list of ten (including the two back-up passengers) is a wide mixture of individuals with a wide range of disciplines coming from a wide range of countries. For those interested in space, the one name that stood out and was very familiar was Tim Dodd, created of Everyday Astronaut. He created a video describing his selection as well as Maezawa’s entire project, which I have embedded below:
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. All editions can also be purchased direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from me (hardback $24.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $5.00). Just email me at zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
Congrats to Tim. I’m sure he’s ‘over the moon’ right now.
Tim Dodd is an excellent choice. One of his strengths is that he is not an engineer, so when he explains something on his videos, he has researched it extremely thoroughly. That makes his willingness to do the research his strength in that area. Another of his strengths is his ability to explain things clearly. I expect him to produce many informative videos on the entire process and experience.
Two others are filmmakers and two more are actors, so I expect great things from them over their careers. The photographer had better document the heck out of the whole thing, including the training, otherwise I will be disappointed in her as a choice. The musician, dancers, and athlete, if they fly, should likewise get creative about how to express their experiences.
So far, the other civilian flights on Dragon have had technical goals. This one is strictly societal to the point of being touristy. I once worked in the same department as an astronaut (although not with him), and he said that after a flight all you have is your memories and photographs, so make many of both. It will be interesting to see how creative they are during the voyage.
All the choices are entertainers, mostly artists of one type or another. They tell stories for a living. Even though Tim has already started telling his stories, I cannot wait to hear, read, or watch the stories. Dear Moon has also started with the stories, as we can now meet these new astronauts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11hVwdl2S68&list=UULFnvMg1mBgLa_N5G1_6gnbIw&index=1
https://www.youtube.com/@dearmoon2023
Truly, we civilians want to know what it is like for civilians to go to the Moon. We want to live the dream, even if it is only vicariously.
Edward noted: “Truly, we civilians want to know what it is like for civilians to go to the Moon.”
I thought Heinlein had covered that. It would be interesting to compare the actual experience with the imagined one.
Since the government slow walked approvals so that SpaceX would not launch Starship 20 on Super Heavy 4 before SLS launched, we have to ponder whether Dear Moon will be allowed to fly before Artemis II. Isn’t it too bad that we have to wonder these things rather than think of it as a competition or a cooperation?