Spacemen have responded to the news rapper B.o.B. has started his own crowdfunding to launch his own space balloons, blimps, drones and satellites to ‘prove the Earth is flat’.
Apparently B.o.B – real name, Bobby Ray Simmons Jr – wants to use his own satellites to ‘find the curve’ and has set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for his project.
The rapper revealed he was a ‘flat Earther’ on Twitter back in 2015, so this latest move shouldn’t really come as much of a great surprise really.
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But now, Terry Virts, a Nasa astronaut, feels he can save B.o.B a ‘lot of money’ and probably a lot of time as well.
He tweeted:
I can save BoB a lot of money – The Earth is round.
I flew around it.
I can save BoB a lot of money- The Earth is round. I flew around it. https://t.co/F7qAovPEng @bobatl @BBCWorld
— Terry Virts (@AstroTerry) September 27, 2017
And as if that wasn’t enough of a shut down, Buzz Aldrin, the legendary Apollo XI and Gemini 12 astronaut, went and got involved as well.
Buzz added:
I did too. It’s called an orbit: the curved path of a celestial object around a star, planet, or moon.
Boom!
I did too. It's called an orbit: the curved path of a celestial object around a star, planet, or moon. https://t.co/h8GQJadfxD
— Buzz Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) September 27, 2017
B.o.Bs GoFundMe page is asking for donations so he can ‘purchase and launch multiple weather balloons and satellites into space, for experimental exploration’ and ‘find the curve’.
He already donated $1,000 to the cause to get it going, and will apparently be keeping his fans updated with step-by-step documentation of the process.
So far, he’s raised just over $5,000 of a $1 million target so there’s quite a way to go yet.
https://t.co/nVrU6PCPAh pic.twitter.com/9BVLsXMOVQ
— B.o.B (@bobatl) September 27, 2017
In a video posted on his Twitter account, B.o.B. explained why he’d raised his initial target of $200k to $1 million:
I’d like to thank everybody who donated to the cause, your donations are greatly appreciated.
However, I made a few alterations to the campaign by raising the original amount from $200k to a million because I feel like a lot of people made a lot of valid suggestions.
So I have come to the conclusion that instead of just sending one satellite or several satellites into space, I will be raising funds to try every available experiment and test, including but not limited to weather balloons, drones, blimps even, high altitude balloons or whatever else or any type of suggestion that anybody has.
I’ll be documenting this whole process and I will keep everybody updated on this road to a million and how the funds will be used to research and come to a conclusion.
Thank you all for participating.
In a much earlier interview, the Metro reported B.o.B. said:
No matter how high in elevation you are… the horizon is always eye level… sorry cadets… I didn’t wanna believe it either.
Don’t believe what I say, research what I say. I’m going up against the greatest liars in history… you’ve been tremendously deceived.
He posts plenty of tweets about how the Earth is flat, including this one, where he says: ‘Science said it, not me’.
Science said it, not me pic.twitter.com/rmdm67iHm6
— B.o.B (@bobatl) August 31, 2017
While it’s good to see people getting involved with experiments and space, something tells me this is going to be a bit of a let-down for those who contribute.