Space X to fly first private passenger around the moon

[Orionblamblam]

Inspired by a certain scene from the Fifth Element perhaps?

I wondered that. Consider, though: 5th E featured a goofy looking alien... singing - amazingly well - *opera.* If Basquiat and Warhol are anything to go off as far as assuming what we can expect from the forthcoming trip, I won't be surprised if we get serenaded from the vicinity of the moon with the dulcet tones of Yoko Ono.

 

[_Del_]

The man's paying for the flight, he can take who he likes.

I don't much cotton the "divide" talk, there are astronaut artists, and more terrestrial artists who also intelligent scientists, engineers, or architects...

I think we can do without the "hurr durr, fire liberals into space" or "airlock the dumb artists" talk around here. Thought we were better than that.

The B-Ark, space goat, telephone sanitizer talk is a literary reference. I didn't see anyone say,"hurr durr, fire liberals into space". I didn't see anyone making it political before this post tried to. There are plenty of "B-Arkians" from both sides the political divide.

 

[Dragon029]

There will be hardly any crew the ship is quite capable of flying itself without the need for many humans. All Space X vehicles are designed to fly themselves with minimal human interaction that’s what Musk was taking about when talking partly about cutting edge technology. We aren’t talking the Apollo system here you know.

I'm gonna postulate that there will be at least two actual spacecraft crew for the lunar flight. It was mentioned that Maezawa purchased all the passenger seats. No mention of crew. Regardless of automation and testing there is no way such a large and complex machine is going to be sent into the cosmos without real astronauts knowing what they hell is going on at all time.

The BFR is designed to seat around 100 passengers reasonably comfortably, so 9 artists (even with their own in-flight studios) will still leave room for at least a couple dozen crew if they want.

Also Musk mentions during the Q&A session:

The FH and Dragon would have only enabled 2 passengers. BFR allows many more. Maybe a dozen is better than 100 though. On a first flight, whehf, we gotta get that one right. Probably not wise to have 100 on this flight. We'll have extra supplies and tools to ensure mission success.

So they're going to have maintenance equipment and supplies onboard, and I doubt Yusaku or his friends are going to be the ones making emergency repairs to the ship if something goes wrong - his mention of a dozen passengers might perhaps be alluding to there being something like 3 engineers onboard as well.

 

[Orionblamblam]

So they're going to have maintenance equipment and supplies onboard, and I doubt Yusaku or his friends are going to be the ones making emergency repairs to the ship if something goes wrong - his mention of a dozen passengers might perhaps be alluding to there being something like 3 engineers onboard as well.

Elsewhere I was asked if a passenger seat was offered to me, whether I'd go. Basically... "yeah, I guess so." But now that I think of it, if instead of a passenger seat I was offered a *crew* assignment, there to actually do a job and do it well and responsibly based on my talents and the specialized training that I would have to get from SpaceX... my answer suddenly goes to "hell, yes!"

 

[starviking]

There will be hardly any crew the ship is quite capable of flying itself without the need for many humans. All Space X vehicles are designed to fly themselves with minimal human interaction that’s what Musk was taking about when talking partly about cutting edge technology. We aren’t talking the Apollo system here you know.

Until there are Apollo 13 moments requiring STEM skills and test pilot steel.

By the way I’ve based my comments about Space X have said about the autonomous nature of Dragon 2.

Point taken. However, the longer flight will present more opportunities for things to fail or fail to perform to expectations (Which has been pointed out in a new post). Also, like Dragon 2, crew controls will be there for use if necessary.

 

[ADVANCEDBOY]

I am not so sure they will fly anywhere beyond LEO. We have to consider the radiation could fry them. VABs, bremsstrahlung, solar flares, galactic cosmic radiation- all pose a risk of health damage.

 

[Dragon029]

We have people who spent even longer beyond LEO and who are still living at 88 years old today. For trips to Mars (and possibly this trip as well) the BFR will also be fitted with a solar radiation saferoom (surrounded by either lead or [more likely] water) where the ship can protect everyone from a solar flare.

 

[Archibald]

Reading the thread at Nasaspaceflight.com I was reminded of this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js3vKe3MNoM

 

[Flyaway]

Considering he might be paying up to a billion dollars for this flight which will greatly contribute to actually building BFS/BFR he can take who he likes on this flight.

 

[Orionblamblam]

he can take who he likes on this flight.

Agreed. It's just that the stated goal of providing inspiration via his choice of guest may or may not prove successful.

 

[sferrin]

I am not so sure they will fly anywhere beyond LEO. We have to consider the radiation could fry them. VABs, bremsstrahlung, solar flares, galactic cosmic radiation- all pose a risk of health damage.

I'm sure none of that has ever occurred to them. I mean going to Mars you'd never experience any of that. /sarc

 

[ADVANCEDBOY]

Going through VARBs to and back will make them accumulate around 200 rems by most conservative calculations which will cause nausea and vomiting. Vomiting in a space suit is a mission failure. That is considering that VARBs wouldn`t be energized even more by a solar flare at that period of time. CGI today is indistinguishable from reality. Just saying.

 

[Orionblamblam]

Going through VARBs to and back will make them accumulate around 200 rems by most conservative calculations which will cause nausea and vomiting.

The Apollo astronauts did so just fine. The SpaceX trajectory certainly doesn't spend any more time in the Van Allen belts than the Apollo craft did. This is not a problem to worry unduly about. The Van Allen belts are the result of the Earths magnetic field that traps electrons (outer belt) and protons (inner belt)... *not* gamma rays or neutrons. Electrons and protons are *easy* to shield against.

From the Wiki on the Van Allen belts:

A satellite shielded by 3 mm of aluminium in an elliptic orbit (200 by 20,000 miles (320 by 32,190 km)) passing the radiation belts will receive about 2,500 rem (25 Sv) per year (for comparison, a full-body dose of 5 Sv is deadly). Almost all radiation will be received while passing the inner belt.[31]

The Apollo missions marked the first event where humans traveled through the Van Allen belts, which was one of several radiation hazards known by mission planners.[32] The astronauts had low exposure in the Van Allen belts due to the short period of time spent flying through them. Apollo flight trajectories bypassed the inner belts completely, and only passed through the thinner areas of the outer belts.[25][33]

Astronauts' overall exposure was actually dominated by solar particles once outside Earth's magnetic field. The total radiation received by the astronauts varied from mission to mission but was measured to be between 0.16 and 1.14 rads (1.6 and 11.4 mGy), much less than the standard of 5 rem (50 mSv) per year set by the United States Atomic Energy Commission for people who work with radioactivity.[32]

 

[ADVANCEDBOY]

Call me crazy, but doesn`t it seem weird, that Apollo astronauts didn`t care about radiation. Van Allen sends his Geiger raccoons in VARBs, they get jammed, he concludes that there is too much radiation going on. Then he retracts his statement, saying everything is fine, as long as it is not me going through those pesky VARBs. Later Apollo dudes travel through space like some Avengers without even being interested in reporting radiation levels back to mother earth.
Particle fragmentation from aluminum LEM? Meah, boring! Let`s drop a falcon feather. How about radiation sources on the lunar surface or radiation bouncing back from the lunar surface? Meeh! Booooooring! Let`s drive around in that space Jeep. Guys, did you take the Geiger counter with you? Naaaah, why would I, I took a golf club! Folks, we just detected a gargantuan solar flare, which will chip in at your tin can in 5 minutes, could you report your radiation levels? Not interested, we are busy slurping Tang and not seeing stars.
Guys, could you give me the battery readings on your Jeep once in a while, how are they doing in that vacuum and scorching sun? Is it you again with that boring science stuff? We are trying to do here some serious rooster tails, back off, Houston! )))))))

 

[Archibald]

He should bring the Daft Punk.

 

[Orionblamblam]

Honestly: are you play-acting as a know-nothing whackadoo conspiracy theorist? That there pile of word salad is grade-A gibberish, son.

Everyone: if you ever worry about the Van Allen belts, consider one thing: the Apollo astronauts. How many of them died young? How many of them made it to life expectancy... or even further?

Apollo 8:
Borman - Alive at 90
Lovell - Alive at 90
Anders- Alive at 84

Apollo 10:
Stafford - Alive at 88
Young - Died at 87 (pneumonia)
Cernan - Died at 82 (???)

Apollo 11:
Collins - Alive at 87
Armstrong - Died at 82 (complications from bypass surgery)
Aldrin - Alive at 88

Apollo 12:
Gordon - died at 88 (cancer)
Pete Conrad - died at 69 (motorcycle accident)
Alan bean - died at 86 (illness)

Apollo 13:
Swigert - Died at 51 (cancer)
Haise - Alive at 84

Apollo 14:
Roosa - died at 61 (pancreatitis)
Shepard -died at 74 (leukemia)
Mitchell - died at 85 (cancer)

Apollo 15:
Worden - Alive at 86
Scott - alive at 86
Irwin - died at 61 (heart attack)

Apollo 16:
Mattingley - Alive at 82
Duke - alive at 82

Apollo 17:
Evans - died at 56 (heart attack)
Schmitt - alive at 83

Twelve dead so far out of 24, three from cancer. Three early deaths out of 24 from cancer doesn't really seem to be that big of a bump in health risk, considering that 22.5% of deaths in the US are due to cancer. The twelve out of 24 still alive are all older than the US male life expectancy of 78. Five of the twelve who have died exceeded the expected life expectancy, so 17 out of 24 exceed the stats.

Perhaps passing through the van Allen belt is *good* for your health?

 

[Flyaway]

he can take who he likes on this flight.

Agreed. It's just that the stated goal of providing inspiration via his choice of guest may or may not prove successful.

It seems according to Twitter he maybe looking for one or two experienced astronaut types. Also via Twitter even before that Scott Kelly threw his hat into the ring.

 

[Archibald]

The entire Apollo 8 crew is still alive. Aged 264

 

[Flyaway]

SpaceX’s BFR rocket and spaceship look more real than ever in new 4K renders

Described by CEO Elon Musk as “the first [completed] cylinder section” of SpaceX’s first BFR spaceship prototype, Teslarati’s West Coast photographer spotted the massive 9 meter (~30 foot) diameter carbon composite structure – looking exactly as it appeared in photos SpaceX provided during the Sept. 17 reveal – inside the company’s dedicated BFR fabrication tent.

 

[Dragon029]

Yusaku has invited "First Man" director Damien Chazelle to join him on the trip during an interview about the movie and the #dearMoon project. It's unclear whether Chazelle is going to go (in the video he says he'll have to talk to his wife about it), but it's interesting nonetheless:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjoZUPVEtcQ

Chazelle directed and produced First Man, but was also a director for Whiplash and La La Land, and has had parts (writer, etc) in a few other movies like 10 Cloverfield Lane, etc.

 

[antigravite]

Yusaku has invited "First Man" director Damien Chazelle to join him on the trip during an interview about the movie and the #dearMoon project. It's unclear whether Chazelle is going to go (in the video he says he'll have to talk to his wife about it), but it's interesting nonetheless:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjoZUPVEtcQ

Chazelle directed and produced First Man, but was also a director for Whiplash and La La Land, and has had parts (writer, etc) in a few other movies like 10 Cloverfield Lane, etc.

This proposal is made at 5'40…

A.

 

[Byeman]

Call me crazy,

Exactly. Nothing you post is rational.