A Slack badge just reminded me that yesterday was my 13th work anniversary at @f2pool. It brought back memories of those days when I met @bitfish in early 2013 and we set off on our Bitcoin and crypto adventure together. On the high-speed train to work, I was using LRUSD to buy bitcoins in bulk across several international dealers, then selling them to novices on Taobao, converting the proceeds back into LRUSD, and repeating the cycle. On good days, I could make over a thousand dollars across multiple round trips. Thanks to the strong market in those first few months, I managed to save up $100,000, which finally gave me the confidence to take the leap. Many years later, looking around, @bitfish is still one of the best entrepreneurial partners one could ever hope to find. The only regret is that I was so focused on taking photos of the trains and train stations those days that I barely captured any other pictures for what we were actually doing in Bitcoin and crypto at the time.

When people talk about a once-in-a-lifetime trip, they often don’t realize that they may truly never return there. Many journeys that seem grand at the time eventually become ordinary parts of our lives. But even the little restaurant next to your home might, after some ordinary day, become a place you never visit again. Will space be once in a lifetime? I think not. But I really don’t know whether I will ever set foot on Bouvet again. I think Bouvet Island will very likely remain my true once-in-a-lifetime trip.

My 36th flight of 2025 was fram2. My 36th flight of 2026 is an Ultimate Aviation helicopter (ZS-RDW) flight from Icetugs Argus to Bouvet Island. This is my 1146th flight of all time. Bouvet Island (ISO 3166-2:BV) has become the 150th (of 249) country/territory I have visited. 🇧🇻

122nd & 123rd flights of 2025: Singapore Airlines Flight 319 & 736 from London via Singapore to Phuket. This is my 117th visit to the Kingdom of Thailand. It also marks that Thailand is replacing mainland China becoming my most frequently visited country/territory. 🇬🇧✈️🇸🇬✈️🇹🇭

2034 Earth–Venus–Mars opportunity looks promising. 10–15 on-orbit refueling operations may be needed to make a crewed ship full. Most can be done at an altitude of 180–200 km, made possible by Starship’s size. The final refueling may be performed at a higher altitude of ~2000 km, just below the Van Allen belt. Earth departure on 2034-08-21 from 2000 km orbit. A Trans-Venus Injection burn of ~3.7 km/s will place the ship on an Earth–Venus–Earth free-return trajectory. Venus flyby is expected on 2034-12-19, 120 days after departure. Two weeks before the encounter, if the mission proceeds as planned, a 25-m/s maneuver will shift the trajectory from Earth-return to Mars-bound. If not, the ship will free return to Earth in September 2035. The Venus gravity assist will send the ship into another Earth free-return trajectory, with Mars flyby around 2035-06-02. One week before reaching Mars, a system health check will determine whether to commit to Mars Orbit Insertion. If it’s GO, a small 10-m/s manuever will put the ship to less than 100 km altitude periapsis. Otherwise, a Mars flyby will lead to an Earth return in May 2036. The ship will enter the Martian atmosphere at about 9.4 km/s, performing an aerobrake to slow to 4.88 km/s and capture into a 100x140000 km, 7-day period high elliptical orbit. At apoapsis, a 50-m/s plane change will align the inclination with Mars’ equator, followed by additional aerobraking to remove about 650 m/s of velocity, placing the spacecraft in a 120x6128 km orbit. A 550-m/s burn at 6128 km altitude will then adjust the trajectory into Phobos orbit. The ship will stay at Phobos for about 7 days. The Mars–Phobos L1 point is only about two miles above Phobos’ surface, and Mars would dominate nearly half the sky, appearing about 80 times larger than the Moon from Earth. The ship will depart for Deimos afterward. Two burns totaling roughly 750 m/s will transfer the ship from Phobos to Deimos. And the ship will stay at Deimos for 7 days more. From Deimos, the ship will raise its apoapsis to form a 20000x140000 km altitude, 7-day orbit, requiring about 420 m/s of delta-v. At apogee, a 50-m/s burn will adjust inclination and lower periapsis to ~500 km for final Trans-Earth Injection. If time and propellant allow, the orbit can be aligned to a polar inclination for Mars ice-cap observations before departure. A Trans-Earth Injection burn at 500 km altitude, requiring 1.5–1.6 km/s of delta-v in early July 2035. If departure on the first days in July, Earth arrival is expected in December 2035. If missed that window, a March 2036 arrival may look more feasible. Nominal mission duration: 490 days, with 30 days in Mars orbit and 14 days at Phobos and Deimos. Two planets, two moons for 3.7+0.025+0.010+0.05+0.42+0.55+0.75+1.55=7.06 km/s Δv

One day, we ourselves will become a probe—like those we once chased in our youth. We won’t carry racks of specialized instruments; instead, we’ll record our journey with the iPhone in our hands.