very small that was astronaut Neil
Armstrong’s reaction upon looking back
at the Earth from the moon in July 1969
it’s easy to see and understand what he
meant well none of us can go to space or
not many of us can go to space we can
all see space and when we pause and take
a moment to look up something magical
happens it happened to me a couple years
ago when I bought my first telescope my
brother and I were messing around with
our typical impatience and trying to see
what we could see in the night sky and
suddenly we settled on something that
was bright and distinctive and so I
grabbed the focus and I pulled it in and
suddenly I realized what I was looking
at that was Saturn the rock star of
planets live for the first time in my
life the first time outside of a
photograph there was this you know
cosmic celebrity sitting there seeing
that iconic beautiful planet suspended
in the void instantly changed my
perspective and it filled me with a
sense of wonder and by Wonder I mean
that wow this is crazy I don’t even know
how to explain what I’m feeling sense of
awe the kind that encompasses your whole
being it was electric
yet at the same time it was very
humbling this is a little bit closer to
not the one you see from Cassini but
actually I find this even more beautiful
and mysterious like this and not far
away from there at least through the
telescope in real life it’s actually
quite far I saw this little guy or giant
thing Jupiter and four of its 83 moons
it’s crazy the moons they just look like
little gems floating around this
beautiful planet I can’t fully explain
what happened to me in that moment but
the experience has sent me on a two-year
journey of discovery I’ve met rocket
scientists and a couple rockets artists
engineers and along the way started a
company I bought a telescope to look at
the night sky but actually what I
discovered was Wonder and now I want to
share Wonder with the world in hopes
that others may come to understand its
potential and its power the change in
perspective the vastness of space in our
place in it it registers in the deepest
part of our being and it has for a very
long time
we know from ancient cultures that the
mystery of the night sky inspired
calendars science math and art as humans
grond us to understand what they were
looking at cathedrals have even been
built to take advantage of this response
according to author Jesse Prince the
grand voluminous spaces and soaring
arches can inspire even the
non-religious I believe space is the
ultimate universal form of wonder it’s
I took I spent a little time making a
compilation of the recent eclipse that
we hopefully some of you guys
experienced this past summer and these
responses I think summarized it much
[Applause]
[Music]
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[Music]
it’s pretty amazing I mean I hope I hope
some of you got a chance to experience
the shadow of totality and while
experiences like that are an experience
of wonder like that are amazing they’re
actually good for you as well
according to dr. Keltner from UC
Berkeley a professor of psychology
they’re people who have experiences of
wonder and awe think more critically act
more ethically exhibit generosity and
have a better connection to the world
and ourselves and that seems like a
pretty good thing to have I believe
wonder also has the power to stimulate
curiosity and creativity and 2,000 years
ago cicero wrote this and i find it
fairly compelling so our company is
creating experiences to incite wonder
and demonstrate that space is a pretty
great place to find it the moon is a
constant source of Marvel for probably
almost everyone so why don’t we create
another one intentionally just for the
joy the Wonder moon is a satellite of
and it we actually made in the name of
wonder beauty and possibility and it
will not look like a disco ball in space
but don’t actually hate that idea it’s
not it’s not that bad
what the Wonder moon will be though is
like all of our everything of our
projects it will be a a combination of
art plus science time space free for
everyone to view it will be a
collaboration between artists and
engineers it will take advantage of
light microgravity radiation changing
temperatures and even send images of
itself floating above space back to
earth like a celestial selfie I guess
and there’s other ideas out there as
well
a guy intentional gatherings of
like-minded souls under the night sky to
share the effects of the Stars we look
up to look within or bring in telescopes
to refugee camps gifts of curiosity
connection and hope to places where were
they needed the most I believe the world
needs a bit more wonder perhaps now more
than ever and while logic may not
inspire change I think space definitely
can but don’t don’t wait for my projects
all you need to do is actually go
outside and look up take a moment to
free yourself in the patterns of
everyday life pause and capture what you
can from the Stars and let your mind
take you into the vastness of space and
maybe maybe you’ll discover what I did
one of the great secrets of our species
that feeling small and being small or
not the same thing
Thanks [Applause]