I’m reading Rocketeers by Michael Belfiore, and a couple things so far are worth sharing:
The X-Prize was the brainchild of Peter Diamandis, who did not have $10 million of his own money, but inspired others to give to cause for which he was passionate. He was inspired by a biography about Charles Lindbergh, who was motivated to make the first flight across the Atlantic by a $25,000 prize offered in 1919 by Raymond Orteig. And, it was no small measure the consequence of Lindbergh’s fame that catapulted an entire new industry to the forefront of public conciousness.
Diamandis realized that a similar prize could possibly be the catalyst to jump-start a commercial space industry.
You can imagine the skeptics, when he went about trying to raise $10 million!
Arthur C. Clarke said in 1968: “All revolutionary ideas…pass through three stages, which may be summed up by these reactions: 1) It’s crazy – don’t waste my time. 2) It’s possible, but it’s not worth doing. 3) I always said it was a good idea.”
Also interesting is the vision from the book The High Frontier by Gerard O’Neil. Published in 1976, the book promotes a vision where space island colonies that house thousands of people. They are artificial worlds engineered with year-round sunshine, and even lakes and streams. Factories and farms would exist on nearby islands. And, all the energy the earth and the colonies need is generated by the sun. And, all raw materials and metals come from asteroids.
Free energy is available to all, which ends our dependence on fossil fuels, and improves the quality of life for all humans. The industries that cause the most pollution would be moved off of planet earth. And, there is virtually limitless space for the human population to expand.
Free energy for all human-kind is a recurring theme on sharkride:
Clean Free and constant energy.
Clean free energy tapped from the ionosphere.
With free energy and also free, ubiquitous Internet… imagine the possibilities for humans.
We have so much to look forward to!
