According to entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Yuri Milner, it is;
“Are we alone?”
He expanded on this during an interview at the recent TechCrunch ‘Disrupt’ conference.
This talk about space has come at a convenient time for me. I recently visited the Kennedy Space Centre whilst on holiday in America.
The history of NASA and space exploration is incredible, seeing first hand some of the equipment and vehicles that have travelled into space and onto the moon was amazing. However, despite NASA ending its space shuttle program, the future of space exploration is perhaps at its most exciting time.
The time is right
In his interview, Yuri explains how our technology is now advanced enough to communicate across our galaxy and, soon, into the next! Meaning that if another planet is as advanced as our own, communication between them and us is possible, maybe in the not too distant future.
Space exploration is also now becoming a viable business option. The future of space vehicles and endeavours now lie with commercial companies including; Spacex, Virgin, Boeing and Amazon has recently announced their intentions to enter the adventure. As the number of firms involved increases, so should the number of advances.
So what’s next?
The aims of those involved does vary. Elon Musk, CEO of Spacex, has expressed his interest to reach Mars, whilst Virgin wants to allow the average person to go on trips into space.
Whilst both these sound out of this world, pardon the pun, they are more feasible than people first think and I wouldn’t be surprised if they are achieved in my life time – that sounds like a big statement, but I have faith!
In the meantime, the commercialisation of space has allowed for the average Joe like myself to explore space NOW. My favourite way is with virtual reality – I will let this Kickstarter campaign speak for itself!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1035872323/spacevr-step-into-space