Well fair play to Tim, there are few people as passionate as him about space flight and he does know his rockets. I suspect they will allow him to document his journey to the launch pad on his YouTube channel so that will be really interesting. He is a science communicator who is knowledgable, relatable and good at getting information across so a good choice in my opinion. We are past the days where astronauts need to be former test pilots.
Sorry, I just know the guy from a couple videos that seemed informative, what makes him a dumbass?
Personally, I would hope that in a few decades we are making industrial use of lunar resources and sending lots of dumbasses to the moon or to orbit. But maybe I’m just optimistic that way.
He acts like a child describing the model train he is getting for Christmas. It’s difficult for me to take him seriously. Obviously his presentations are possible.
I, for one, am very glad that humanity is getting comfortable enough with space that we use it for things other than the military and “serious business”.
Look, this mission isn’t about him. It will be among the last in a long series of missions designed to confirm the safety and operational paramaters of Starship. At some point, once Starships have reached orbit and even orbited the moon, the next step will be to show that it can carry crew while doing so.
This guy isn’t the objective of the mission; he’s the human version of a dummy payload you put on a new rocket. Once he’s done his job, Starships will put lots of important satellites and cargo and people into orbit for decades.
He was literally told that he is going to go to space, and not just orbit - around the moon. If he wasn’t absolutely giddy with enthusiasm, I wouldn’t really be able to relate to him at all.
And out of the people going, he’s the most likely to create something that brings the rest of us along for the ride.
I can’t think of anyone that I am more excited to see go.
Good point.
There are two documentarians, one Irish and one American, as well as a photographer. But yes, any of his efforts to document the process will undoubtedly reach us first.
As Sir Elton John put it so memorably:
it’s meant to get ordinary. If it doesn’t, we’re screwing up.
He produces very good, very thorough technical documentaries on space flight. I have no doubt that he will return with some excellent material that will become a very well crafted record of the flight. Sure, he does have a rather boyish excitement, a lot of jumping around at space launches. But that is not a bad thing.
For decades space has been the preserve of the heroic pioneer. Intrepid and glamourised spacemen, rigourously selected for their ability to test pilot these marvels of engineering. This suited the international political rivalry of the time.
The aspiration is that human space travel will mature and become a regular service for business and leisure. Air travel matured in this way during the jet age. Space travel still has a long way to go. The impetus and investment declined, once political interest moved on from superpower militaristic rivalries. The orbiting space stations became international science laboratories a mere few hundred miles up. The astronauts became engineers and scientists. Still quite elitist, only for the few endorsed by institutions with large budgets, with the odd millionaire adventurer. Just a handful of people in space at any one time.
Musk is trying to take it to the next stage and make human space travel an economic proposition by developing the technology so it is reliable and reusable, like air travel today. It went from the preserve of air pioneers like Lindberg and Earhart to regular scheduled air lines in a generation. That involved a huge amount of development in aerospace technology.
Sending the Everyday Astronaut and a collection of other individuals, who are not from established military or academic elites, around the moon will be a significant milestone. It means human space space travel has become a part of the business and commercial world.
Whether it will be a viable business, essentially a premium tourist experience, that remains to be seen. However the heavy launch satellite business requires the same reusable technology to drive down costs and this is an established business model.
I wonder who the others are? I presume they would be expected to return to create some manner of space inspired ‘content’ of some kind.
How long before we get the sort of moon service envisaged by Kubrick in 2001 Space Odyssey?
First we need a practical reason to go there. Flybys of the moon (even capturing into orbit for a few days or weeks) in spaceships is the next step for “space tourism”, perhaps, but a space station that stays around or on the moon permenantly will not be built for tourism alone. Once one exists, I’m sure tourists will go there, but it is not enough of a reason to build one in the first place.
Well here are the crew. An eclectic mix of creatives, to be sure.
Paying Space X to send them around the moon is the idea of Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa who made his fortune out of the fashion business.
Besides the Everyday Astronaut, Tim Dodds, they are
Steve Aoki, American DJ,
Yemi A.D, Czech Choreographer
Rhiannon Adam, Irish Photographer
Karim Iliya, British Cinematographer
Brenden Hall, American Film Maker
Devi Josh, India Actor
Choi Seung-hyun, Korean Rapper
the back crew members are
Kaitlyn Farrington, American Snowboarder
Myiu, Japanese Dancer
They are all seem very successful creative people, either in front of or behind the camera. They seem to have been selected to inspire others, especially the young.
I presume it will all be remote controlled and they will do little except float around in a confined spacecraft for a three days taking turns to admire the view.
I wonder how much Yusaku Maezawa is paying for this.
2023 sounds like a very optimistic Elon Musk estimate.
These are the complete opposite of the disciplined derring do of the test pilots that became astronauts in the Apollo era. These are tourists and they will certainly be dining out on the story of their adventure for many years afterwards.
I wonder if there are many here who would like to go on such a joy ride?
It’s not just a ‘joy ride’. All of them will be working on the trip. The choreographer will no doubt be working out dance routines in zero-g, the filmmakers will be documenting the trip, The musicians writing songs or performing in space, etc. They are all artists, and this is a rare opportunity to create art that no one else can.
The idea as I understand it is to inspire the world. That doesn’t happen if everyone just goes for a joy ride and says, “Cool trip.” at the end and goes home. The expectation is for lots of artistic output from this group.
All that said, I’d be shocked if this mission flew before 2025, and my best guess would be 2027-2028. Artemis itself is probably two years behind schedule for a manned landing, and DearMoon will undoubtedly take a back seat to that, And there will need to be hundreds of Starship launches before they man rate it.
It will be interesting to hear how they all going to fit in such a small space and be productive. They usually work with a lot of their own equipment, which might exceed their baggage allowance for this trip. So back to basics?
Still, if it is going to take a few years, they will have plenty of time before lift-off to work out the details.
It’s not remotely a small space. It’ll have more interior volume than a 747 (up to 1000 m^3 vs. 610 m^3, though some will undoubtedly be taken up by equipment). That’s an enormous amount of space for just 10 people.
Not if they’re trying to choreograph a 0-G dance routine 
I think you might be underestimating just how much volume that is. Here’s Skylab:
That’s “only” a 6.6 m interior diameter. Starship is >8 m. And significantly longer. You could develop a heck of a zero-G dance routine in there. Probably with dozens of people if desired.
I will suggest that some of the “art created that no one else can” will include athletic activities of a personal recreational nature. If you catch my drift.
It’s been done.
One certainly suspects as much, but… is there any actual evidence for that claim?
In related Starship news:
In my head, I read the quote in Professor Farnsworth’s voice, starting with “Good news, everyone!”