Jeff Bezos' Vision: 'A Trillion Humans in the Solar System'
Bezos said the Apollo program was inspirational, helping to fuel his desire and passion to make a difference in space exploration.
"I have won this lottery," Bezos said. "It's a gigantic lottery, and it's called Amazon.com. And I'm using my lottery winnings to push us a little further into space."
Bezos said he is not in the camp of the "Plan B argument" for the colonization of space — that one day Earth is going to be destroyed or uninhabitable, so we better have another place to live.
"I hate that idea … I find it very unmotivating," Bezos said. "We have sent robotic probes now to every planet in this solar system, and believe me, this [Earth] is the best one."
While we should and will colonize space (via the harnessing of solar energy and asteroid resources), Bezos said, there's also a need to avoid stagnation here on Earth by putting controls on population or energy usage per capita. That's sure to be a boring world, he said, and not compatible with freedom or liberty.
Bezos' visionary scenario is being held back by a central issue, he said.
"Space travel is just too darn expensive. And we know why it's too expensive. It's because we throw the rockets away," Bezos explained. "We're never going on to do these grand things and to expand into the solar system as long as we throw this hardware away. We need to build reusable rockets, and that is what Blue Origin is dedicated to … taking my Amazon lottery winnings and dedicating to … it's a passion, but it's also important."
"I have won this lottery," Bezos said. "It's a gigantic lottery, and it's called Amazon.com. And I'm using my lottery winnings to push us a little further into space."
Bezos said he is not in the camp of the "Plan B argument" for the colonization of space — that one day Earth is going to be destroyed or uninhabitable, so we better have another place to live.
"I hate that idea … I find it very unmotivating," Bezos said. "We have sent robotic probes now to every planet in this solar system, and believe me, this [Earth] is the best one."
While we should and will colonize space (via the harnessing of solar energy and asteroid resources), Bezos said, there's also a need to avoid stagnation here on Earth by putting controls on population or energy usage per capita. That's sure to be a boring world, he said, and not compatible with freedom or liberty.
Bezos' visionary scenario is being held back by a central issue, he said.
"Space travel is just too darn expensive. And we know why it's too expensive. It's because we throw the rockets away," Bezos explained. "We're never going on to do these grand things and to expand into the solar system as long as we throw this hardware away. We need to build reusable rockets, and that is what Blue Origin is dedicated to … taking my Amazon lottery winnings and dedicating to … it's a passion, but it's also important."
Back to the moon
Bezos also said at the gala that "it's time for America to go back to the moon, this time to stay."
"We should build a permanent settlement on one of the poles of the moon," he said. In that lunar locale, water in permanently shadowed regions, such as the bottoms of craters, can be accessed. And "peaks of eternal light" in polar regions — mountaintops or crater rims that are always bathed in sunlight — can provide solar power.
"We didn't know back in the '60s and '70s, but we know now, that the poles of the moon are extremely interesting places, and we should go back, and we should stay," Bezos said. "If we have reusable rockets, we can do it so much more affordably than we have ever done it before. We have the tools. We have the young people with a passion to do it. We can get that done today." Space
No comments:
Post a Comment