Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Emerging Tech
  3. Features

Japanese billionaire faces tricky task of choosing 8 artists for his moon trip

By
Add as a preferred source on Google

He’s going to the moon (with eight artists): Yusaku Maezawa SpaceX

So, who do you think Yusaku Maezawa should take with him on his five-day round trip to the moon when he travels there aboard SpaceX’s Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) in 2023?

Recommended Videos

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Monday named the wealthy Japanese entrepreneur as its very first paying passenger for the planned fly-by of the faraway rock.

Maezawa, who made his fortune in online fashion retail, surprised the gathered crowd at SpaceX’s headquarters when he revealed that he wants to invite as many as eight artists on the once-in-a-lifetime space trip.

He said each artist should be established in a field such as painting, photography, music, movies, fashion design, and architecture, adding that he hasn’t decided who to ask yet.

It sounds rather like the “fantasy dinner guest list” game for the billionaire club, though this is for real and will … perhaps … OK, maybe … actually happen. In that case, 42-year-old Maezawa will need to choose his travel companions with the utmost care. In space, no one can hear you scream, but things could get rather raucous inside the capsule if any of those titanic egos clash hundreds of thousands of miles from Earth. If they stick a few cameras on board, it could turn out like a space-based Celebrity Big Brother. How cool would that be?

There’ll be huge pressure, too, on the artists who accept the invitation, as Maezawa wants his fellow space travelers to use their experience as inspiration for a new piece of art. Presumably, the Japanese billionaire will gracefully accept whatever each person comes up with after the trip, even if it’s a papier-mâché model of the lunar surface, or a T-shirt with a picture of the moon printed on it (perfect for a collaboration between the fashion designer and the photographer), or even a catchy song with the lyrics: “The moon is great, We love the moon, Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

But the big question is, if Maezawa invites Elon Musk — the man behind SpaceX, Tesla, the Boring Company, and Hyperloop, and who many consider as an artist of sorts — will he accept it? It would certainly be hard for the man who owns the company that built the rocket to say no. Though if he did, he’d definitely need an excuse better than “Sorry, I need to get my hair cut that day” to convince Maezawa and his fellow passengers that BFR doesn’t actually stand for Big F—— Risk.

Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Topics
Anker just exposed a big problem with portable power stations
Appliance, Device, Electrical Device

When you're shopping for a portable power station, there's one number that's almost impossible to ignore: battery capacity. A 2 kWh battery should give you roughly 2 kWh of usable power, right? Unfortunately, things aren't quite that simple. Anker SOLIX has published new efficiency data for its S Series portable power stations, and it's putting the spotlight on something that doesn't get nearly as much attention as capacity: how much of the energy stored inside the battery actually makes it to your devices.

According to Anker, portable power stations are commonly advertised with efficiency figures measured under relatively heavy loads, where they can reach roughly 89% to 92% efficiency. But that's not necessarily how most people use one during an outage. Think about what you'd actually plug in. A Wi-Fi router might sip power continuously, a refrigerator switches its compressor on and off throughout the day, and a CPAP machine could run overnight. Together, those devices may draw just a fraction of what a large power station is capable of supplying. And that's where efficiency can start slipping.

Read more
OpenAI’s first gadget sounds like a tiny expressive AI companion
The device will have a doughnut-shaped body, built-in cameras, and moving parts
OpenAI press image

For months, reports have suggested that OpenAI’s first hardware product would be a screen-free smart speaker designed to act more like an AI companion. We already knew it could understand its surroundings, be carried around the home, and proactively help users. A new Bloomberg report now gives us a clearer picture of what the device may actually look like.

As per the report, OpenAI’s first gadget will be shaped like a doughnut and measure about the same size as a hockey puck. You will be able to carry it between rooms or leave it nearby on whatever surface is convenient. The device is expected to be on the expensive side, as the company has pondered pricing it around $300 to $400. A release is currently planned for 2027.

Read more
Google Antigravity just built an AI translator that works without the internet
Electrical Device, Switch, Robot

Google has shown off a new AI project that could make language barriers a little less intimidating, and it doesn't need an internet connection to do it. The company has introduced the Gemma Translator, a compact prototype built in collaboration with Antigravity. Unlike most AI translation tools that rely on cloud processing, this device runs entirely offline using Gemma 4 E2B, Google's lightweight open model. Everything happens locally on the device, making it both portable and independent of an internet connection. The prototype is powered by a Raspberry Pi 5 and includes a microphone and speaker inside a custom 3D-printed enclosure, creating a self-contained translator you can carry almost anywhere.

AI translation, without the cloud

Read more