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Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa on Tuesday announced his plans to recruit eight people from across the world to join him on the first civilian mission to the moon aboard SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft.
Maezawa in 2018 had purchased all the seats on the first private week-long trip to the moon and back by Elon Musk's SpaceX. In an announcement video released on Tuesday, the Japanese billionaire further detailed his plans for the mission.
A new site for the trip dubbed the ‘dearMoon’ project, details regarding the process have been provided.
“The first civilian mission to the Moon is planned to take place in 2023. The rocket developed by Elon Musk's SpaceX will make a week-long journey to the Moon and back,” reads the website.
“In 2018, Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa purchased all the seats aboard this rocket. Wishing to give as many talented individuals as possible the opportunity to go, he announced in March 2021 his plans to choose 8 crew members from across the world,” it adds.
Maezawa, in the video confirmed that the full passenger list will include 10 to 12 crew members. Out of this, Maezawa is looking for eight crewmates to join him from the general public.
He had initially announced that he wished for artists to join him on the trip. He has now broadened the criteria stating that anyone who expresses any kind of creativity is an artist. The crewmates will now be selected based on two primary criteria. Firstly, they should be confident that they can excel at what they do by going to space. The second criteria is that they can support the rest of the crew on the trip.
The eight-passenger seats will be given away for free by Maezawa.
The pre-registration for the selection process will close on March 14, followed by a screening process that ends on March 21, as per the website. They will then be given an assignment followed by an online interview. The final interviews and medical checkup will take place late in May.
The team is targeting 2022 and 2023 to focus on training once crew-mates are selected in preparation for the flight.
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