Rusty Schweickart (the first Apollo Lunar Module Pilot) and Ed Lu (the first U.S. astronaut to fly on a Russian rocket) are the co-founders of B612, a non-profit named after the asteroid home of Le Petit Prince, which is setting out to privately launch a satellite to orbit the sun near Venus, looking outward to map all asteroid trajectories that might impact Earth at some point in the next century. The computational modeling of these trajectories compounds with Moore’s Law, making it possible to look farther into the future than ever before.
And the lower launch cost of a SpaceX rocket makes the entire B612 project cost less than the new wing on the San Francisco art museum. Both are non-profit fund raises, and I donated to this one, because I want to protect all the artifacts.
As Rusty summarizes, more eloquently than I, we are at a unique period in human history where we can change the trajectory of the solar system, every so slightly, to preserve life on Earth. What a tragedy it would be to have evolved this far, and not progress to a type 2 civilization.
Photo by Julie Sparenberg
More Photos: www.facebook.com/jurvetson/posts/10153567886100611
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