Dedicated plane! Japanese billionaires and their assistants fly into space, next year they may become the first person to travel around the moon in business

3, 2, 1, launch!

In July of this year, we witnessed two billionaires, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos flying to the edge of space on a space rocket. The two successful flights also opened the curtain of the commercial manned space travel competition. Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are not giving way to each other, trying to make more people feel the space.

Just now, another billionaire broke the record created by the two. The Russian Soyuz was successfully launched. The 46-year-old Japanese billionaire Maezawa Yusaku and his assistant boarded the spacecraft together. Accompanied by Sulkin, they flew to the International Space Station together.

The entire flight takes about 6 hours. After arriving at the International Space Station, Maezawa Yusaku and his team will stay on the space station for 12 days. He has also become the first Japanese to board the International Space Station at his own expense.

Dedicated plane, flying to the International Space Station

Previously, Bezos and Branson’s space tourism project touched the Carmen Line (100 kilometers above sea level) as far as possible. 400 kilometers away from the ground.

This also led to a huge difference between the preparation, training, launch flight, residency and the final return journey between the two. Branson and Bezos could only experience the weightlessness of a few minutes to tens of minutes, while Maezawa Yusaku was able to do so. The space station stayed for 12 days, enjoying the beauty of the rising and setting of the sun in the vast space, and even looking back, there was a chance to see the small blue planet, which was so beautiful.

Of course, it is not cheap to see the endless space up close. Maezawa Yusaku purchased space station travel services through the space travel company Space Adventures. The specific price has not been announced yet.

However, the price of seats on the Soyuz spacecraft purchased by NASA for American astronauts was as high as 81.7 million US dollars per person .

Even the price of Virgin Galactic tickets after the price increase (approximately US$450,000) is far from the amount spent by Maezawa Youza. Traveling to the space station is destined to be a game for a very small group of people.

The manned spacecraft responsible for this trip to the International Space Station is Russia’s Soyuz. This series of spacecraft has performed more than 140 missions so far. It is known for its relatively low cost and reliability. The version of the Soyuz MS-20, the rocket is even engraved with the iconic MZ logo made by Maesawa Yu.

In addition to Maesawa Yusaku, the photographer and assistant Yozo Hirano, and Russian astronaut Alexander Misurkin, who has two space navigation experiences, participated in the space travel itinerary of the International Space Station.

Join a professional astronaut, not only to ensure Yusaku Maezawa and others safety, according to Xinhua News Agency reported , MISEREOR gold will also serve as Russia's space TASS correspondent, sustained release relevant dynamic living and working in the International Space Station.

From flying into space to staying on the space station, it is a difficult task for Maezawa Yusaku and his assistants. Both the body and the mind will face huge challenges.

As early as June of this year, Maezawa Yusaku and his assistant went to Russia's Gagarin Astronaut Training Center for pre-departure training. He also posted a number of training programs on social media, such as the use of spacesuits, inverted sleep training, High-altitude weightless training and so on.

From the video he shared, it can also be found that training is not easy. Even the most familiar high-altitude weightlessness training requires a number of well-trained aerospace staff to assist Maezawa Yusaku and his assistants to roll and hit in the air. .

As the protagonist of this trip, Maezawa Yusaku acted very relaxed and excited. His many years of dreams are finally coming true. Before the flight, he asked the public for 100 things to do in space, serious or not. Marginal things are fine, such as:

When you fart in space, do you move forward?

What happens when you play Pokémon GO in space?

Call someone from space…

It just looks very interesting. During the 12-sky station residence time, Maezawa Yusaku will try to complete some of the challenges, and will also make the relevant experience into a video and post it on his YouTube account.

The Japanese richest person who knows how to "play"?

Speaking of Maezawa Yusaku, the founder of Japanese fashion e-commerce group Start Today Co and art collector is his biggest label. The former has accumulated a lot of money for him and is also the capital for his dream of going to space. According to Forbes Its net assets are estimated at 1.9 billion U.S. dollars.

The latter made him quite romantic in the eyes of the public. Since high school, Yusaku Maezawa formed a band with his classmates and became a drummer. The company name Start Today also originated from the punk band Gorilla Biscuits. A song by Let's Start Today.

In 2017, Maezawa Yuzuo also spent more than 100 million U.S. dollars to photograph a painting by artist Jean Michel Basquiat. In 2019, Yoshizawa Yusaku released another tweet stating that 100 fans would be selected from the reposted fans, and each one would be given 1 million yen. This move directly allowed Maesawa Yousaku to break through the reposting record on Twitter, which is called bold and unrestrained.

In order to love, Maezawa Yusaku always regardless of the cost.

When I was a child, I fell in love with the moon.

In 2018, SpaceX announced the signing of the first moon travel order. It is expected to launch a large Falcon rocket (BFR) to the moon in 2023 for a week-long space flight. Maesawa Yusaku will become the first lunar passenger.

Like most ordinary people, when childhood dreams are about to come true, they can't help but share with relatives and friends. Maezawa Yusaku has slightly expanded the scope of sharing. He shares with the world through social media and video platforms.

Before the launch of the Soyuz, Yusaku Maezawa shared his training life on YouTube and introduced his training spacesuit. The elastic straps on the legs can fine-tune the length of the spacesuit, because the human body may grow after entering space.

Before wearing a space suit, you need to put on special underwear. Wearing a heavy space suit also requires special training. It takes a lot of physical effort to identify each part and put it on and take off.

In this respect, Maezawa Yusaku and Musk are quite similar. They share their love with people through the Internet. Whether it is Weibo or YouTube account, Maezawa Yusaku maintains a high update frequency and frequently introduces his training. Life and preparation.

The various shared videos of "Happy" overflowing the screen by Maesawa Tomomi actually showed the difficulty and danger of traveling to the International Space Station. In addition to completing 100 days of training at the Gagarin Astronaut Training Center, he also had to go to Houston, USA NASA completes training.

According to Maesawa, traveling to the international station is to prepare for a trip around the moon:

If I want to guide my dearMoon crew on our lunar trip scheduled for 2023, why not fly to space to experience it first?

The dearMoon project was initiated by Maesawa Yusaku. He hopes to invite 6-8 artists to participate in SpaceX's space voyage around the moon in 2023, and try to create unique works during the voyage.

This is not over yet. Last year, Maezawa Yusaku also said that he would cooperate with the Japanese AbemaTV video platform to launch a live dating show and choose a female partner to travel around the moon with him. The news soon swept Japan, totaling 2 More than 10,000 women signed up for the event.

However, Maezawa Yusaku finally chose to temporarily give up and end the event, leaving only a piece of chicken feathers.

A new round of moon competition

S Starship (Starship) is the next-generation manned spacecraft system designed by SpaceX. According to Musk’s announcement, it will replace the Falcon 9 , the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle, and the Tianlong spacecraft to perform earth orbit operations . Missions, including the missions to orbit the moon made by Maesawa You, and missions to Mars will also be completed by this spacecraft system.

The starship system includes a first-class super-heavy thruster and a second-class spaceship starship. According to SpaceX's vision, its specifications are luxurious. The rocket and spacecraft are 120 meters long and have a carrying capacity of more than 100 tons, which will be the largest in the history of the world. Powerful launch vehicle.

The payload of the starship spacecraft has reached 1,100m³, which can accommodate more tourists and cargo. According to Musk’s vision, the spacecraft can carry more than 100 passengers in the future, and the ticket cost can also be reduced to 200,000 US dollars, making it more common People also have the opportunity to go into space and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

At present, the starship system is still being improved, and related prototypes have been tested for dozens of times, many of which have been destroyed, and there is still a long way to go before they are officially put into use.

This means huge challenges and efforts. Musk once said that the initial development cost alone is as high as 5 billion US dollars. And SpaceX's competitors, Blue Origin and Bezos, are not to be outdone. They have developed a rocket system called "New Glen" to prepare for the earth's orbit.

The creation of Blue Origin by Bezos is closely related to his ultimate dream of "colonizing the moon." It and SpaceX are both important participants and competitors in NASA's Artemis project to return to the moon.

Interestingly, Bezos once brought NASA and US government agencies to court because of his dissatisfaction with SpaceX for obtaining an exclusive order from NASA. This indirectly led to the suspension of the cooperation between SpaceX and NASA, and eventually NASA turned to 5 companies including Blue Origin. The signing of contracts with a total value of US$156 million ended.

Although the order was received, NASA's plan to return to the moon was delayed as a result. It was unable to allow American astronauts to land on the moon in 2023 as planned, and could only be postponed. By mistake, Maesawa Yusaku may be the first person to return to orbit the moon next year following the end of the American Apollo mission to the moon in 1972.

According to the forecast report issued by UBS , the space travel market will reach 3 billion U.S. dollars by 2030, and the growing revenue will promote the continuous investment of private space companies such as Blue Origin and SpaceX. The continuous pursuit of "will also attract NASA to keep advancing, and the moon will once again become one of the ultimate goals of space exploration.

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