The Pursuit of Life and Rocket Fuel on Two Moons
“There was a time when people did bold things to open new frontiers. We have collectively forgotten that. Now we are at a time when boldness is required again.”
Bill Stone, 2007
Unexpected ideas come from inspired leaders driven to achieve the unachievable. Bill Stone is one of those leaders.
Stone has a fascinating background. He has led and participated in many international deep cave expeditions including the deepest caves known to man. His company Stone Aerospace develops equipment for exploring new frontiers – initially deep caves, but now also space. Stone Aerospace’s inventions and products include propulsion units, autonomous robotic vehicles, 3-D mapping systems, communication systems, and life support systems.
But it is Stone’s future planned missions that are really exciting, and at the same time mind blowing in terms of their magnitude, complexity, and risk.
Searching for Life on Europa
Stone Aerospace has built and is testing an autonomous robotic vehicle – the DEPTHX, which may one day be sent by NASA to explore an ice covered ocean on Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter. Scientists believe there is strong possibility of life in the ocean, and there is hope that such a mission would return the first proof of life off Earth.
Mining Earth’s Moon for Rocket Fuel
And if that isn’t enough, Stone is also planning an expedition to mine the Earth’s moon for rocket fuel by 2015. Previous research indicates that there may be 10 trillion tonnes of water buried at Shackleton Crater on the South Pole of the Moon. The plan would be to mine the water and separate it into liquid oxygen and hydrogen – the ingredients for rocket fuel. The fuel would not be returned to Earth, but rather used to stock spacecraft fueling stations in low Earth orbit. Stone has set up the Shackleton Energy Company to raise capital and then commercialise this venture.
To me Bill Stone is an inspiring leader. His missions seem impossible, but yet you can’t help but get caught up in the magic of the vision. It probably doesn’t matter if he pulls it off or not. He is setting bold targets and sending us off on a new journey of exploration and discovery that may just shatter our conservative beliefs about what is possible.
Watch the below TEDTalk video clip of Bill Stone’s presentation to the TED conference. It is 17 minutes long and worth every minute.
More details about Bill Stone’s missions can be found in the CDNN article Visionary Bill Stone counting on unmanned vehicles.
Related Posts:
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment