Featured Image Source: Elon Musk
The Chief Engineer and Founder of SpaceX Elon Musk, envisions a future where everyone can travel to the moon and Mars, he founded SpaceX with the objective to transform us into a spacefaring civilization. He believes that a future where humanity is exploring the stars is more exciting than one where we are not. Imagine if anyone could get on a spaceship, see Earth from space and experience zero gravity... Musk shared a beautiful photograph of a musician playing violin floating in zero gravity with a view of Earth out a large window, via Twitter "Starship Concerto in Zero G," he wrote -dreaming of a future where concerts can happen aboard the Starship spacecraft that is currently in its initial phase of development. Performing in a concert inside a spaceship while looking at planet Earth from space would be the most beautiful experience, that idea truly inspires the dreamer within all of us.
Starship Concerto in Zero G pic.twitter.com/gkn05I1bvZ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2020
Starship will be capable of transporting 100 passengers to the moon or Mars. A voyage to Mars could last about 6 to 8 months until arrival, so playing instruments or singing in zero gravity, will sure be a fun way the astronauts can entertain themselves during long-duration trips. In fact, the first private customer who booked a space tour at SpaceX, Yusaku Maezawa, desires to go on a voyage around the moon and he is actually helping to fund the development of Starship. Maezawa envisions transforming Starship's first crewed voyage into an art project, about a small group of artists that will travel to space showcasing their music or art in zero gravity.
Maezawa plans to invite artists of varying fields, like painters, musicians, film directors, etc. This Art project will be called Dear Moon, the mission is scheduled to happen sometime by the year 2023. Until then, there is still a lot of work to be done before embarking on the first art space voyage or zero gravity concerto. Starship's first stainless-steel prototypes are under construction at SpaceX's South Texas facilities located in Boca Chica Beach, Brownsville, Texas.
Photo: Starship Mk1 Source: Elon Musk
The prototypes that are currently under construction are named Starship SN1 and Starship SN2 which will conduct high altitude test flights. SpaceX has filed paperwork to request permission to conduct Starship SN1's first test flight to an altitude of 20 kilometers. This test launch will also involve a landing attempt. It could take dozens of prototypes until SpaceX gets the vehicle space ready. Musk previously mentioned that the company might make at least 20 Starship flight prototypes that will have different features to test out. The final version of Starship that will take artists on a voyage around the moon will be a launch vehicle consisting of Starship and a massive Super Heavy rocket booster that is needed to get the spaceship out of Earth's atmosphere. Super Heavy has not initiated construction yet, currently the company is focusing on developing Starship, they aim to design it to the point the craft becomes reliable to conduct several high-altitude flights.
About the Author
Evelyn Arevalo
Evelyn J. Arevalo joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover news as a Space Journalist and SpaceX Starbase Texas Correspondent. Evelyn is specialized in rocketry and space exploration. The main topics she covers are SpaceX and NASA.
