MOGULS SEASON 1: ROCKET MEN
MOGULS is a documentary series profiling the most impactful thoughtleaders in the world who are the changemakers of the future.
SEASON 1 LOGLINE
In the new age of adventure capitalism, the world’s richest billionaires, not nation states, will pioneer humanities quest for exploration amongst the stars.
SUMMARY It’s been 45 years since man last walked on the moon and the space race slowed to a crawl . The Apollo missions were described as the last great optimistic act of the 20th century, and then was followed by an era of public indifference. But we stand at the dawn of a new space era, which is defined more by commercial gain and personal vanity. Space is no longer the exclusive playground of nation states, as tech billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Paul Allen, Richard Branson have joined the game. They dream of space tourism, almost instant worldwide travel, asteroid mining, mars colonization and more. This is the new space race, pioneered by billionaire
ROCKET MEN
AT FUTURISM, WE COVER ROCKET LAUNCHES... NOT IPHONE LAUNCHES
SEASON 1 FORMAT Rocket Men is a 6 part series that blends the best elements of documentary filmmaking with cutting-edge visual effects that illustrate our inevitable futures. Our story will follow the Space Race from day one, giving backstory and context to our ambitions and attitudes in America. Flashing forward to present day, we will focus in on today’s current pioneers who are financing the next evolution of the space race, this time, pitting ambitious billionaires with deep pockets and deeper egos against one another for humanities benefit. We will track their stories, sometimes in real time, so our audiences can feel the real life drama, high stakes and mind blowing visuals we’ve never experienced first hand before.
EPISODE BREAKDOWN Episode 1: The “Space Race” Soon after World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union became locked in a global conflict pitting democracy against communism. Space became a critical theater in this Cold War, as each side competed to best the other’s achievements in what became known as the “Space Race”. With their countries reputations and potential future at stake, the US vowed to pioneer space technology and be first to the moon. In this episode we cover the history and context that fueled the Space Race leading us ultimately to the second generation of space pioneers, the Rocket Moguls.
Episode 2: Death and Rebirth The US has declared victory, yet the race continues. But who can win a race in which no one competes? This “Dark Age” in space innovation almost screeches to a halt after a series of misfires, including the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster. But from the ashes rises the Phoenix, and rebirth is upon us. Several billionaires throw their hats in the ring; including Richard Branson, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos with Yuri Milner and Paul Allen shortly to follow. Whether they all knew it or not, they kickstarted Space Race 2.0.
Episode 3: Fueling the Fire The new age of adventure capitalism is here, and our modern day moguls have taken center stage. This billion dollar endeavor has become more than just a business to Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos who now exchange competitive and borderline hostile tweets, prompting cries of a space rivalry. Meanwhile, Richard Branson promises space flights to all and sells tickets to anyone who can afford a $200,000 flight. Yuri Milner and Stephan Hawking reveal their unique approach for mankind, while Paul Allen ups the ante with the world’s largest airplane. Space Race 2.0 is about to take off, and the public has no idea what is in store.
EPISODE BREAKDOWN CONT. Episode 4: Failures and failures. In 2014, after numerous Virgin Galactic delays, the SpaceShipTwo experimental spaceflight test vehicle suffered a catastrophic in-flight breakup and crashed in the Mohave Desert, killing one pilot. Branson vows Virgin Galactic will recover from the setback. Meanwhile, Elon Musk announces he will put the first man on Mars, further stoking the rivalry between him and Bezos. Bezos promises he will sell and put forth $1 billion of Amazon stock each year into Blue Origin, while also buying large chunks of land off the Texas and Florida Coasts, investing further in his hopeful success.
Episode 5: Space Coast Booms (literally) The Space Coast has seen growth unlike they have seen since the original space race, with engineers, mathematicians and rocket scientists flooding the region for new, high paying jobs. SpaceX lands two Falcon Heavy Rockets side by side in the unprecedented feat, making every international news top story. Blue Origin, behind in technological capabilities, responds by landing its rocket for the first time. On the other side of America, Paul Allen prepares test flights for the Stratolaunch, edging closer to its initial voyage in 2019. Future potential is high, with SpaceX and Blue Origin scheduling almost one rocket launch per week in 2018, an idea that seemed impossible only a few years ago.
Episode 6: To the Future and Beyond Billions if not trillions of dollars have been invested in humanities future tied to our inevitable exploration of the stars. Although these dreams are not yet realized, the plans are well on their way. Assuming our technology will advance at current trends, we will see the first man on Mars in our lifetime. Not to mention vacations to the Moon, 35 minute LA to Tokyo rocket flights and even the mining of asteroids. We will dive further into these concepts and visualize to our audience how they will exist in the near future.
THE SETUP Soon after World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union became locked in a global conflict pitting democracy against communism. Space became a critical theater in this Cold War, as each side competed to best the other’s achievements in what became known as the Space Race. On October 4, 1957, a Soviet R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile launched Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite and the first man-made object to be placed into the Earth’s orbit. Sputnik’s launch came as a surprise, and not a pleasant one, to most Americans. In the United States, space was seen as the next frontier, a logical extension of the grand American tradition of exploration, and a symbolic war they didn’t want to lose. In 1958, the U.S. launched its own satellite, Explorer I, designed by the U.S. Army under the direction of rocket scientist Wernher von Braun. That same year, President Dwight Eisenhower signed a public order creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a federal agency dedicated to space exploration.
“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard...”
THE SETUP (cont) Then, in May 1961 President John F. Kennedy made the bold, public claim that the U.S. would land a man on the moon before the end of the decade. In February 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth, and by the end of that year, the foundations of NASA’s lunar landing program–dubbed Project Apollo–were in place. December 1968 saw the launch of Apollo 8, the first manned space mission to orbit the moon, from NASA’s massive launch facility on Merritt Island, near Cape Canaveral, Florida. On July 16, 1969, U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins set off on the Apollo 11 space mission, the first lunar landing attempt. After landing successfully on July 20, Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon’s surface; he famously called the moment “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” By landing on the moon, the United States effectively “won” the space race that had begun with Sputnik’s launch in 1957. From beginning to end, the American public’s attention was captivated by the space race, and the various developments by the Soviet and U.S. space programs were heavily covered in the national media. This frenzy of interest was further encouraged by the new medium of television. Astronauts came to be seen as the ultimate American heroes, and earth-bound men and women seemed to enjoy living vicariously through them.
SPACE RACE 1950 - PRESENT DAY
50’s
60’s 1961 - Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes first person to orbit earth
1957 - Russia launches Soviet R-7, world’s first satellite and first man made object launched into Orbit
1961 - President Kennedy makes bold public speech claiming US will land on Moon before end of decade
1958 - NASA Founded by President Eisenhower 1957 - Space Race officially begins
1969 - Neil Armstrong becomes first Man on the Moon
1959 - First photograph of Earth from Orbit
1969 - US declares themselves winner of “Space Race”
70’s
80’s
90’s
1971 - First space station established
1986 - Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
1995 - First Orbit of Jupiter
1975 - Infamous “handshake in space” signifying US and Russian improvement on relations
2000’s 2000 - Jeff Bezos founds Blue Origin
2011 - Paul Allen announces Stratolaunch Systems
2001 - First landing on an Asteroid
2015 - Space-X lands Falcon 9 rocket, proving rockets can now be re-usable
2002 - Elon Musk founds Space-X
2016 - Yuri Milner & stephen Hawking announce Breakthrough Starshot
2004 - Sir Richard Branson founds Virgin Galactic
2016 - Blue Origin lands its New Shepherd rocket successfully
2008 - Falcon 1 reaches space
2017 - Space-X re-uses a rocket for the first time
2010 - SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft capsule returns from ISS, making it the first time a private spacecraft returned from orbit
2017 - Blue Origin launches “mannequin Skywalker” into space
2017 - Stephen Hawking says “I am convinced that humans need to leave Earth.”
FUTURE OF SPACE RACE 2018 - Stratolaunch reveals Black Ice spaceplane
2020 - First Asteroid mining test samples taken
2018 - Virgin Galactic VSS Unity accomplishes first powered flight
2019 - First Stratolaunch test flights commence
2020 - Blue Origin launches New Glenn rocket
2021 - India’s first manned space flight
2022 - SpaceX first man on Mars
2025 - Blue Origin launches Blue Moon lunar delivery program
2036 - Breakthrough Starshot obtains images of Alpha Centauri
2042 - NASA Uranus Mission
ELON MUSK & SPACEX The Pioneer: Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX
“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor� - Elon Musk
The Mission: Space Exploration Technologies Corp., doing business as SpaceX, is a private American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars. SpaceX has since developed the Falcon launch vehicle family and the Dragon spacecraft family, which both currently deliver payloads into Earth orbit. Projected Outcome: SpaceX aims to put the first man on Mars Decrease payload costs by 10x
PAUL ALLEN & STRATOLAUNCH The Pioneer: Paul Allen, Vulcan Aerospace The Mission: Stratolaunch is the world’s largest aircraft by wingspan and is the largest all-composite plane ever built. Utilizing six Boeing 747 engines for a payload capacity of over 500,000 lbs. and an operational range of approximately 2,000 nautical miles, Stratolaunch is capable of delivering payloads to multiple orbits and inclinations in a single mission. Stratolaunch’s reusability and air-launch capabilities enable us to take an airport-style approach to operations for launch services. Stratolaunch will take off from a runway, rather than a logistically vulnerable fixed range, which allows us to avoid hazards such as inclement weather, airborne traffic and heavy marine activity. Stratolaunch’s airborne launch platform significantly reduces the risk of costly delays or cancellations. Projected Outcome: Stratolaunch’s air-launch platform will make access to space more convenient, reliable, and routine. Normalizing access to low Earth orbit has the potential to redefine humanity by creating more opportunities for commercial, philanthropic and governmental organizations to collect rich and actionable data and drive advancements in science, research, and technology from space.
“Any crusade requires optimism and the ambition to aim high” -Paul Allen
JEFF BEZOS & BLUE ORIGIN The Pioneer: Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon The Mission: Founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the company is developing technologies to enable private human access to space with the goal to dramatically lower costs and increase reliability. Blue Origin is employing an incremental approach from suborbital to orbital flight, with each developmental step building on its prior work. Jeff Bezos originally committed to $500 million dollar investment in 2014 and is selling approximately $1 billion in Amazon stock each year to privately finance Blue Origin.
“It’s time to go back to the moon... but this time to stay” -Jeff Bezos
Projected Outcome: Blue Origin will enable affordable space tourism
RICHARD BRANSON & VIRGIN GALACTIC The Pioneer: Richard Branson, Chairman of Virgin Group The Mission: Virgin Galactic is a spaceflight company within the VirginGroup. It is developing commercial spacecraft and aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists and suborbital launches for space science missions. Virgin Galactic plans to provide orbital human spaceflights as well. Projected Outcome: Virgin Galactic aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists and suborbital launches for space science missions, as well as provide orbital human spaceflights.
“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over” - Richard Branson
STEPHEN HAWKING AND YURI MILNER & BREAKTHROUGH STARSHOT
The Pioneer: Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner, dotcom The Mission: On Aprl 12, 2016, famed cosmologist Stephen Hawking and investor Yuri Milner unveiled Breakthrough Starshot, a $100 million project to develop the tech needed to send a probe to Alpha Centauri on a 20-year journey.
“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change” -Stephen Hawking
Projected Outcome: The space program aims to fly tiny “nanocrafts” to a nearby star system powered by ground-based lasers.
THE DOCUMENTARY
IN ORDER TO FULLY CAPTURE THE INCREDIBLE IMAGINATION, EVOLUTION, PROGRESS AND POTENTIAL EXECUTION OF THESE MISSIONS AND FUTURE ONES, WE PLAN ON COMBINING THE BEST OF HIGH-END DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING PARTNERED WITH CUTTING EDGE VFX TO VISUALIZE AND IMAGINE OUR FUTURE PROJECTIONS FOR ROCKET FLIGHTS.
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