An artist and former Coronado resident is shooting for the moon—literally. Judy Joy Jones is a finalist in the dearMoon project which aims to fly the first civilian mission to the moon. Eight crewmembers will be chosen to fly to the moon and back in a weeklong trip in SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft. The anticipated launch date is in 2023.
Jones says she heard about the project online and immediately applied because learning about space has been a lifelong passion.
“I think I should be chosen because the main focus of my life growing up was space exploration,” Jones said. “My inspiration to apply was my older scientist and inventor brother who had me looking at the stars through a telescope he built when I was two years old. I knew one day I would live on other planets.”
The project winners will be announced in June. They will join Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa on the flight. He is funding the trip and says he wants people of all kinds of backgrounds to join him on the trip in order to inspire future works of art.
“These artists will be asked to create something after they return to Earth, and these masterpieces will inspire the dreamer within all of us,” Maezawa said at a press conference in 2018.
This shouldn’t be a problem for Jones, who is a published author, poet and painter. She says she started her art career while living in Coronado during 1980s. She has fond memories from that time, from learning from Navy SEALs and swimming laps in the Coronado pool to swimming in the La Jolla Rough Water Swim.
She also says Coronado’s laid-back feel enhanced her creativity.
Jones is excited at the prospect of creating art based on traveling to the moon.
“It would be my honor to join this project and create a celestial landscape that will inspire humanity through my art and music,” Jones said. “My mind is already exploding with ideas to create from flying among the stars!”
For more information on the dearMoon project visit the website.
To learn more about Judy Joy Jones, you can visit her website.
