- About the Lecture
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About the Lecture
High hopes meet high frustration in this panel, whose participants collectively yearn for a new vision to guide our space program. Andrew Chaikin recommends a three-step self-help regimen to move the program forward: lowering the cost of access to space (the going rate is 10 thousand dollars per pound!); embracing “outside-the-box” ideas; and engaging in a national conversation about space. Supriya Chakrabarti predicts that in around 30 years, NASA will be deploying robotic terrestrial planet finders and using the moon for both tourism and commercial development like mining. This will be possible if in the short term space scientists look for low-cost launch options, which might include exploiting existing missile technology. Richard Binzel puts the odds of a civilization-threatening asteroid impact in the next 100 years at one in a million, but believes the odds are a whole lot better that human beings will be exploring asteroids in space. We’ve got a leg up since we’ve already sent robot reconnaissance to the moons of Jupiter. If we’re worried about catastrophic asteroid strikes, Binzel says, we should start taking incremental steps, such as putting nuclear reactors in space to power vehicles for long inter-planetary journeys.Related Videos
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Rodney Brooks
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A New Age of Exploration: From Earth to Mars
Dava Newman
June 7, 2008
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- About the Speakers
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About the Speakers
Moderator: Dava Newman Sm '89, PhD '92
Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems Director of Technology and Policy Program and MacVicar Faculty Fellow
Dava Newman specializes in investigating astronaut performance across the spectrum of gravity. She is currently the Principal Investigator (PI) on the MICR0-G space flight experiment to quantify astronaut intravehicular activity (IVA) onboard the International Space Station. Previously, she has been the PI for Space Shuttle experiments dealing with load sensors and astronaut workloads.
Newman earned a Ph.D. from MIT in Aeronautics, Biomed and Engineering.Andrew Chaikin
Author, Air and Space: The National Air and Space Museum Story of Flight
Supriya Chakrabarti
Director, Center for Space Physics
Boston UniversityRichard Binzel
Professor, Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences, MIT
- About the Host
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About the Host
Technology and Culture Forum
Video Player
Space Exploration: The Next 100 Years
- Moderator: Dava Newman Sm '89, PhD '92
- Andrew Chaikin
Supriya Chakrabarti
Richard Binzel - October 23, 2003
- Running Time: 1:36:00
