The ''dearMoon'' project was a proposed lunar tourism mission conceived and financed by Japanese billionaire

Yusaku Maezawa is a Japanese billionaire entrepreneur and art collector. He founded Start Today in 1998 and launched the online fashion retail website Zozotown in 2004, now Japan's largest. Maezawa introduced a custom-fit apparel brand Zozo and at-home meas ...

. It would have seen Maezawa and eight civilian artists fly a

circumlunar trajectory In orbital mechanics, a circumlunar trajectory, trans-lunar trajectory or lunar free return is a type of free return trajectory which takes a spacecraft from Earth, around the far side of the Moon, and back to Earth using only gravity once the ...

around the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

aboard a

SpaceX Starship Starship is a two-stage fully reusable launch vehicle, reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle under development by American aerospace company SpaceX. On 20 April 2023, with the Starship flight test 1, first Integrated Flight Test, Starship b ...

spacecraft. Maezawa said he expected the experience of

space tourism Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. Tourists are motivated by the possibility of viewing Earth from space, ...

to "inspire the accompanying passengers in the creation of something new". The project was unveiled in September 2018 and initially scheduled to launch in 2023. Due to delays in the development of Starship, it was delayed, then cancelled entirely in June 2024.

History

On February 27, 2017,

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

announced that they were planning to fly two space tourists on a

free-return trajectory In orbital mechanics, a free-return trajectory is a trajectory of a spacecraft traveling away from a primary body (for example, the Earth) where gravity due to a secondary body (for example, the Moon) causes the spacecraft to return to the primar ...

around the

, now known to be billionaire

, and one friend.How SpaceX's 1st Passenger Flight Around the Moon with Yusaku Maezawa Will Work
. Tariq Malik, ''Space.com''. 18 September 2018. This mission, which would have launched in late 2018, was planned to use the

Crew Dragon Dragon 2 is a class of partially reusable spacecraft developed, manufactured, and operated by the American space company SpaceX for flights to the International Space Station (ISS) and private spaceflight missions. The spacecraft, which consi ...

capsule already developed under contract for

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Commercial Crew Program The Commercial Crew Program (CCP) provides Private spaceflight, commercially operated human spaceflight, crew transportation service to and from the International Space Station (ISS) under contract to NASA, conducting crew rotations between t ...

and launched via a

Falcon Heavy Falcon Heavy is a super heavy-lift launch vehicle with partial reusability that can carry cargo into Earth orbit and beyond. It is designed, manufactured and launched by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket consists of a center core ...

rocket. As well as being a source of income for the company, any mission would serve as technology development for SpaceX's further plans to colonize Mars. At the time of the 2017 announcement,

was still under development and the Falcon Heavy had yet to fly. Industry analysts noted that the schedule proposed by SpaceX might be too ambitious, as the capsule was expected to need modifications to handle differences in flight profile between the proposed lunar flight and its main use for crew transfer to

space station A space station (or orbital station) is a spacecraft which remains orbital spaceflight, in orbit and human spaceflight, hosts humans for extended periods of time. It therefore is an artificial satellite featuring space habitat (facility), habitat ...

s orbiting Earth. In February 2018, SpaceX announced it no longer had plans to certify the

for human spaceflight and that lunar missions would be flown on Starship (then called '' BFR''). Starship is expected to have a pressurized volume of , large common areas, central storage, a galley, and a

solar storm A solar storm is a disturbance on the Sun, which can emanate outward across the heliosphere, affecting the entire Solar System, including Earth and its magnetosphere, and is the cause of space weather in the short-term with long-term patterns compr ...

shelter. Then, on 14 September 2018, SpaceX announced that the previously contracted passenger would be launched aboard Starship to fly by the Moon in 2023. The project was unilaterally cancelled by Maezawa in May 2024. Starship development had fallen significantly behind the original SpaceX aspirational date for the flight in 2023—with the lunar flight likely delayed to the 2030s—and Maezawa's net worth had also halved since the time when the DearMoon venture was announced in 2018.

Crew

The project was announced in 2018 with the original intent to bring a crew of artists to the Moon. In this latest release, Maezawa calls for applicants to make up a crew of eight individuals from around the world for the week-long lunar trip. On February 7, 2019, the ''dearMoon'' YouTube channel posted a video in which Maezawa discusses the movie ''First Man'' with director

Damien Chazelle Damien Sayre Chazelle (; born January 19, 1985) is an American filmmaker. He directed the psychological drama ''Whiplash (2014 film), Whiplash'' (2014), the musical romance ''La La Land'' (2016), the biographical drama ''First Man (film), First ...

and lead actor

Ryan Gosling Ryan Thomas Gosling ( ; born November 12, 1980) is a Canadian actor. His work includes both independent films and major studio features, and his accolades include a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Awards, a ...

. In the video, Maezawa officially invites Chazelle to come with him on his ''dearMoon project'', making Chazelle the first person to be publicly invited to go. However, Chazelle answered that he had to think about it and discuss it with his wife. On March 3, 2021,

announced that eight members of the public will be selected to fly on ''dearMoon''. On July 16, 2021, Yuzaku Maezawa uploaded a video that reveals 1 million people have joined, but there was still no information on who won the 8 seats. On December 8, 2022, the crew of the mission was announced, along with two backup crew members. ;Primary crew ;Backup crew

Objective

The ''dearMoon project'' passengers would have been

and eight accomplished artists that Maezawa had invited to travel with him for free. Maezawa expected this flight to inspire the artists in their creation of new art, which will be presented some time after their return to Earth. He had hoped this project will help promote peace around the world.

Mission profile

Initially proposed to launch in 2023, the

circumlunar In orbital mechanics, a circumlunar trajectory, trans-lunar trajectory or lunar free return is a type of free return trajectory which takes a spacecraft from Earth, around the far side of the Moon, and back to Earth using only gravity once the ...

mission was expected to have taken 6 days to complete, following a free-return trajectory similar to that of

Apollo 13 Apollo 13 (April 1117, 1970) was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo program, Apollo space program and would have been the third Moon landing. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, but the landing was abort ...

. NASA is expected to launch

Artemis 2 Artemis II is a planned mission under the NASA-led Artemis program, set to be the second launch of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the first crewed flight of the Orion (spacecraft), Orion spacecraft. Scheduled to launch in early 2026, ...

on a similar trajectory in February 2026, with a crew of four.

Cancellation

The mission was cancelled on 1 June 2024, due to Starship's developmental delays. The cancellation was announced on the project website and on X. The cancellation notice stated "Arrangements were being made with SpaceX to target the launch by the end of 2023. Unfortunately, however, launch within 2023 became unfeasible, and without clear schedule certainty in the near-term, it is with a heavy heart that Maezawa made the unavoidable decision to cancel the project".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:dearMoon project SpaceX human spaceflights Cancelled space missions Crewed missions to the Moon Tourism on the Moon Lunar flybys Space tourism SpaceX Starship Private space missions