Asymptotia

Bill Stone is quite an engaging speaker, it has to be said. I heard him on the BBC World Service, being interviewed about his hopes and plans to change the way we do things in space. It is a spirited case that he makes, where he deliberately invokes the spirit and the words of Sir Ernest Shackleton and other great explorers going off into the unknown. The audio is here. (If you come to this late, search their archive here.)

Then I checked and sure enough there was a TED talk from him last year. See here. You can see him in action as well, although the BBC interview is complementary and brings out several more aspects of the ideas, and the man himself, with much more focus on the moon aspects. On the TED talk, do listen for the chuckling of the audience when he mentions that the best way to do things is have the first mission go out without the fuel to return. (They’ll have to mine everything from the moon, manufacture their fuel, and return…)

He ends with the excellent advertisement that Sir Ernest Shackleton was said to have used all those years ago for his Antarctic exhibition (most sources suggest that this is somewhat apocryphal):

“MEN WANTED: FOR HAZARDOUS JOURNEY. SMALL WAGES, BITTER COLD, LONG MONTHS OF COMPLETE DARKNESS, CONSTANT DANGER, SAFE RETURN DOUBTFUL. HONOUR AND RECOGNITION IN CASE OF SUCCESS.

-cvj

On this day on Asymptotia...

• Sketching - 2009
• Mass Matters - 2008
• Randall on Colbert - 2008
• Dusty Eye - 2007

Some Related Asymptotia Posts (not exhaustive):

• From the Earth to the Moon