We have entered the era of New Space … when commercial interests, long eager for access to space, have been given the green light and are finally making headway.
This raises the question: Will the routine use of space by commercial enterprise be what it is currently advertised to be? Will mining asteroids save the Earth? Will moving human civilization to Earth-orbiting space colonies or terraforming and colonizing Mars avoid human extinction from natural disaster? And what of space tourism, or the 60,000+ internet satellites that are currently planned for low Earth orbit? Is any of it even realistic?
What will all this mean for humanity?
Tune in to hear our speaker, a long-time, award-winning veteran of solar system exploration describe her take on recent developments in space exploration and what it means for human existence, now and in the future.
Carolyn Porco is a planetary scientist and explorer, and a popular public spokesperson on science, planetary exploration, and the future of humanity. She was the leader of the imaging science team on the Cassini mission at Saturn from 2004 to 2017, and an imaging scientist on the celebrated Voyager mission to the outer solar system in the 1980s. Asteroid Porco 7231 is named in her honor.
She has co-authored over 130 scientific papers in planetary science and her popular science writings and Op-Eds have been published in such distinguished publications as the London Sunday Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Houston Chronicle, Guardian, New Statesman, Arizona Daily Star, Scientific American, American Scientist, and the PBS and BBC websites. Over the years she’s earned the titles of “Fifteen People the Next President of the United States Should Listen To” (Wired), “50 People Who Matter Today” (New Statesman), and “25 Most Influential People in Space” (TIME).
This talk took place on September 2, 2021, and was part of the Skeptical Inquirer Presents series. Learn more at [ Ссылка ]
