Moon To Mars Part 2: #DearMoon

"Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds! Shine." —Gautama Buddha

Welcome back to our second episode of Moon to Mars: a special Matthew Blog Production! Today we will be diving deep into the dearMoon project. dearMoon had its roots in 2014, when Japanese billionaire Yusaku Meazawa was wondering how it felt to see the moon in a different perspective. Then, in 2017, he launched dearMoon, which sends artists, painters, musicians, authors, etc. to the moon to experience the strange sights of lunar orbit and make arts about their experiences. The project was unveiled in September 2018 and was scheduled to launch in 2023. It has since been indefinitely delayed until Starship completes development. The project objective is to have eight passengers travel with Maezawa for free around the Moon on a six-day tour. Maezawa said that they expect the experience of space tourism to inspire the accompanying passengers in the creation of something new. If successful, the art would be exhibited some time after returning to Earth with the goal of promoting peace around the world. The crew consists of these artists:

• Yusaku Maezawa: Mission Commander and Founder

• Steve Aoki: American DJ and Music Producer

• TOP ( Choi Seung Hyun): South Korean rapper and singer-songwriter

• Yemi A.D: Czech entrepreneur and artist

• Rhiannon Adam: Photographer and artist

• Tim Dodd: American YouTuber

• Karim Iliya: Photographer

• Brendan Hall: American Filmmaker

• Dev Joshi: Indian Actor On February 27, 2017, SpaceX announced that they were planning to fly two space tourists on a free-return trajectory around the Moon, now known to be billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, and one friend.[5] This mission, which would have launched in late 2018, was planned to use the Crew Dragon 2 capsule already developed under contract for NASA's Commercial Crew Program and launched via a Falcon Heavy rocket. Maezawa hopes to launch the mission in 2026. Ad Astra, Matthew