5 ms·

Is Musk still planning to do his art-project lunar flyby with Starship? Haven't heard anything about that for... is it years now?

• pohl 3y ago
  I think it’s been on the back burner since he got his new hobby of complaining about generative AI being too woke.
• tjpnz 3y ago
  You mean Yusaku Maezawa's art project where applicants were literally chosen based on the number of Twitter followers they had? It's still on but will likely be closer to 2033 now than the planned 2023.
• dotnet00 3y ago
  They're still working on getting Starship to orbit, reentry and demonstrating cryogenic fuel transfer in space (there seems to be a decent chance of the first happening next month which would also allow for an attempt at the second, and maybe being able to demonstrate the third within the same ship too). Still a few steps to go before they can put a crew on-board and fly it out past the Moon. They've got to demonstrate reentry, the catching mechanism, orbital docking and refueling and life support. For the catching mechanism they're going to want a second tower, for which the parts are only just starting to arrive at Starbase, so it'll probably be at least 6 months until that's assembled, and closer to 12 until it's through simpler testing and ready to take on a real catch. So probably a good 4-5 years until they're ready to put any humans onboard, and then another year or two after that to put complete amateurs onboard.
  • idlewords 3y ago
    Their contract with NASA also requires them to demonstrate an unmanned moon landing, and I suspect that would come before dear moon unless they really want to piss the agency off.
• stevage 3y ago
  Dear Moon. It's not his project. But yes.