The self-proclaimed “Dogefather” and CEO of Tesla inc. Elon Musk, had tweeted in April that he will be putting a “literal Dogecoin on the literal moon”. Musk himself has stated that not everything he says should be taken too seriously, but this tweet was clearly no joke.
The “DOGE-1 Mission to the Moon” will be launched in the first quarter of 2022, with SpaceX, Musk’s commercial rocket company, accepting Dogecoin as payment to fund the mission.
The mission will be led by a private Canadian company by the name of Geometric Energy Corporation, which is an intellectual property, manufacturing, and logistics firm originally founded with the idea of inventing renewable energy technologies. The company has since expanded to various other divisions which include energy, software, medical industries, and space.
The announcement was made on Sunday, May 9th, the day after Musk’s Saturday Night Live debut, which saw Dogecoin dropping more than a third of its value due to Musk calling it a “hustle” while hosting the popular live sketch comedy television show.
Elon Musk discussing Dogecoin while hosting Saturday Night Live.
According to an article from CNBC, one Wall Street analyst had predicted that an SNL sketch on cryptocurrencies would probably go viral for days and would further motivate Musk’s army of followers to drive up the price of Dogecoin, but the price fell by almost 30% an hour after the show had started. The digital currency has been recovering since and is still up around 11,000% from the beginning of the year.
Dogecoin hit a record high on Thursday above $0.73 and has increased by more than 800% in the last month. Dogecoin is now the fourth-largest digital currency in the world, with a market cap of $73 billion.
Musk’s electric car manufacturer Tesla Inc had purchased $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin in February and announced that it would be accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment for its cars, which was a huge step toward mainstream acceptance and saw the Bitcoin price hitting a record high of nearly $62,000. Perhaps the announcement of DOGE-1 could have the same effect on Dogecoin.
Canada’s Geometric Energy Corporation’s lunar mission will see a 40-kilogram Cubesat launch on a Rideshare Falcon 9 launching to the Moon early next year. The spacecraft will “obtain lunar-spatial intelligence from sensors and cameras on-board with integrated communications and computational systems,” according to a press release on PR Newswire.
“Having officially transacted with Doge for a deal of this magnitude, Geometric Energy Corporation and SpaceX have solidified Doge as a unit of account for lunar business in the space sector,” according to Geometric Energy’s Chief Executive Officer, Samuel Reid.
SpaceX has already scheduled a lunar mission for “Intuitive Machines” next year, which may turn out to be the same launch as DOGE-1. The company has had various Moon missions scheduled for quite some time but it’s not yet clear if DOGE-1 is a modification to existing plans.
SpaceX launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas.
The DOGE-1 mission and SpaceX’s series of reusable Falcon rockets is another example of SpaceX lowering the cost of space travel and accessibility.
“This mission will demonstrate the application of cryptocurrency beyond Earth orbit and set the foundation for interplanetary commerce,” according to SpaceX Vice President of Commercial Sales, Tom Ochinero. “We’re excited to launch DOGE-1 to the Moon!”
Leave a Reply