Taichi Yamazaki made his own telescope as a child. The impressive view of Saturn contributed to his dream of one day visiting the planet.
"I have a dream, I want to go to Saturn," said Yamazaki, a commercial astronaut and CEO of Japanese company ASTRAX. "Before I go to Saturn, I have to go to space first and do a lot of zero gravity experience."
But before humans can make it to Saturn, they have to figure out how to survive on the moon. The idea of colonizing the moon is not new. Space enthusiasts and experts from around the world met Monday at the 2nd International Moon Village Workshop and Symposium to discuss inhabiting the moon.
The Moon Village Association, or MVA, in cooperation with the University of Southern California and the National Space Society, or NSS, discussed what needs to be done first. This includes the kinds of laws that would govern inhabitants on the moon.
"Space is free by exploration for all humanity, it's intended to benefit all of humanity and its about sovereignty," space lawyer Michelle Hanlon said. "We need to make sure that our values make it to space as well and one way to do that is to make sure our laws keep up with our technology."
Living on the moon seems like a great idea, but a lot depends on how humans tackle the structure, governance and cultural choices when creating the moon village.
"Whether or not space colonization happens at all, it depends on the choices that we make now," said Nicolas Nelson, book editor and writing coach.
The presentations at the two-day symposium attempted to answer questions about moon habitation, from being culturally inclusive to how long it may take to create livable villages.
"I hope by the year 2100 we have cities on the moon and habitats," said Alex Sullivan, a graduate student from Viterbi School of Engineering. "There's a lot of engineering that has to take place first before you can build the roads, you have to be able to manufacture those bricks"
The race on living on the moon continues, but total cost continues to be a factor Sullivan said. "At the end of the day, everything comes down to money and doing it in a cost-effective manner."
The 2018 International Moon Village Workshop and Symposium focused specifically on the development and sustainability of humanity on the moon. Lunar industrialists, technologists, scientists and visionaries said they would continue to work together to learn from each other and to create plans for humanity's lunar future.
For now, Yamazaki continues to prepare and is waiting to make it to space next year. "If we can go to space easily or everybody can go to space, we feel like the earth is just one world," Yamazaki said.