all of the resources that we’ve ever
used as a civilization have come from
the same place everything all the energy
the fuels minerals metals construction
materials the water the air that you’re
breathing right now every resource that
we’ve ever used has come from the same
place Earth now this actually presents a
severe problem because when we study
biological history we very quickly see
that any time there’s a dominant species
in a finite ecosystem consuming a
limited amount of resources that species
will collapse
now that collapse usually begins at 50%
when a species has converted 50% of its
environment the ecosystem becomes
unstable and it changes it’s no longer
suitable for that particular species now
here’s the scary part there’s 7 billion
people on this planet we are the
dominant species and we have converted
43 percent of the available land mass on
earth by the year 2050 there will be 9
billion people on our planet and we will
be well past 50% that means most of the
people sitting in this auditorium will
see this begin we don’t know exactly
what it’s gonna look like we don’t know
exactly what the impact is gonna be but
the worst case scenario is the end of
the human race because earth is no
longer suitable for human life now the
reason that this problem exists because
it’s in our nature human beings consume
resources they alter their environment
so they can reproduce it’s the very
definition of biological life the
problem is we’re running out of room
we’re running out of resources and now
we’re running out of time so we need a
plan what if what if there was a way
that we could make our ecosystem
bigger if we expand our view and we look
out into space we see that all the
resources we hold a value here at home
energy fuels metals water are available
in nearly infinite quantities in our
solar system what if there’s a way we
could use those resources to prevent the
collapse of our civilization now I know
that sounds impossible sounds like
science fiction but I have a different
viewpoint than you do I work with some
of the smartest people in the world
engineers who have consistently landed
robots on other planets a lot of
scientists rocket scientists data
scientists planetary scientists
artificial intelligence experts I’m the
head of strategic partnerships for the
largest asteroid mining company in the
world and I believe we can use the
resources of space to save our planet we
have proven again and again that we know
how to destroy an environment now it’s
time for us to prove that we can save it
from my vantage point I see that there’s
more computing power in your car’s key
fob then we use to send the astronauts
to the moon that means we can do
incredible things in space with cheap
affordable robots for the very first
time in history we’ve amassed the the
technological toolkit that we need to
dispatch autonomous robotic explorers
out into the solar system to find and
access these resources and put them to
work imagine a future where the
resources we need do not only come from
this planet a future where we have
access to the vast resources of space
and we are using them to improve life
here on earth that’s the future I’m
going to show you it all starts with
water see today if you want water in
space you have to take that resource you
have to load it under a rocket you have
to launch it into space and that’s a
shame because there’s a lot of water in
space there’s water and asteroids
there’s water in comets there’s water on
the poles of our Moon there’s water on
other planets water is everywhere in
space and that’s a good thing because
water is one of the most
critical resources we will need you see
this plan involves a lot of robots but
it also involves a lot of people people
will be living and working in space to
make this possible and those people need
water for sustenance for hygiene for
growing food but water in space is also
fuel if we pass water through an
electrical field we can produce liquid
hydrogen and liquid oxygen that’s high
efficiency rocket propellant so if we
source water from space and turn it into
rocket propellant we can set up fuel
depots in the solar system gas stations
and when we do that for the very first
time we have access to this new resource
base because we’re not trying to launch
all our fuel from Earth and now that we
have access we can turn our sights to
the next step construction you see
asteroids are also made of pure
high-quality metals nickel iron cobalt
platinum this is the first object that
was created from an asteroid it was 3d
printed from a meteorite it’s very heavy
it’s very strong you would never want to
launch something like this into space
from earth but if you source metals from
space and feed them to orbital
construction robots which by the way
that’s already a thing we already have
that then you can create structures that
are no longer limited by size see this
is the International Space Station this
is the most expensive object humans have
ever built it cost a hundred billion
dollars why was it so expensive well it
was created using the resources of Earth
have turned into products loaded onto
rockets launched into space and then
assembled by humans but that’s backwards
it doesn’t make sense anymore
that’s like roughly the equivalent of
you saying living in Europe and saying
I’m gonna move to the United States and
build a house there but I’m gonna ship
all the materials to build that house
across the ocean all the wood the metal
the plumbing the electrical the
showerheads
you’re gonna ship it all across the
ocean when all of the resources you need
are already there at your destination it
doesn’t make sense we can reduce the
cost and logistical inefficiencies of
building large livable structures in
space by a factor of a hundred by simply
source
we need from our destination so we can
build things in space what should we
build well energy is the single largest
driver of resource consumption in the
world we mined for coal we drill for oil
and natural gas we mined for metals to
build our wind plants we mined for
silicon to make our solar panels we
mined for nickel to make batteries so we
can store it one thing remains the same
as the population grows so does the
energy demand so does the resource
consumption that goes with it
we have always assumed that our energy
production must happen here on earth
because there’s never been an
alternative because we haven’t built one
if we use the resources of space we can
create massive kilometer scale solar
farms in space these huge facilities
will capture the energy of the Sun that
shines in space 24 hours a day and beam
that energy back to earth the technology
to do this exists today but it’s simply
too expensive when we try to use the
resources of Earth but if we use the
resources in space we can create
planetary scale macro grids
you’ve heard of the electricity grid
maybe you’ve heard of the micro grid
this is the opposite this is a planetary
scale power generation system it’s the
energy that we need and the energy is in
space it’s not the resources buried
under our feet so we have water fuel
construction capabilities now power we
have all of the utilities we need to
build cities in space orbital
megastructures spun up to produce
artificial gravity so they’re liveable
for large populations these are emerging
today as commercial space stations their
research labs for sovereign astronauts
from around the world hotels for
adventurous tourists certainly but the
primary function of these facilities
will be manufacturing we will build
things in space starts with satellites
and spacecraft why would we want to
build satellites in space well today
when we build a satellite it’s
constrained by the rocket that takes it
to space it has to be built and designed
to fit on top of that rocket and it has
to be designed to survive the violent
rocket launch through the atmosphere but
if we remove that constraint we can
build things that are as big as our
imagination and vastly more capable and
if we’ve come this far we can take the
final step and we can start to solve our
resource crisis we can move our
industrial manufacturing into space all
of it
you see manufacturing is resource
consumption we use the resources of
Earth we turn them into manufactured
products so that we can sell them and do
useful things that is what drives
commerce on earth but what if we reverse
that what if we gather and harvest all
of our raw materials and resources from
deep space and import them to an orbital
manufacturing ring around the planet and
then return only the finished products
to the surface let’s use your smartphone
as an example this was created using raw
materials from Earth yet every single
one of the raw materials in this exists
in infinite quantities in space the most
expensive component of your phone is
platinum and platinum is readily
available in near-earth asteroids
passing by us all the time this is
created here on earth using the
resources of earth and a factory that
produces emissions consumes resources
they use toxic chemicals like benzene to
produce this and that factory produce
hazardous waste
that’s the byproduct of manufacturing
that’s the bad stuff poisons toxins
heavy metals radiation the problem is
all of the hazardous waste from
manufacturing is stuck with us here in
the finite ecosystem that we live in
it’s poisoning our air our water our
fish our wildlife our food our kids do
you know where this should not be made
in the only breathable atmosphere that
we know of anywhere a resource that we
take for granted every minute of every
day so if we do this we reverse the
human supply chain we push all of our
mining and manufacturing outside the
atmosphere what have we done
we’ve now zoned the earth for
residential access only imagine if you
walked outside one day and there were no
factories no power plants no refineries
no oil rigs no pipelines to protest and
instead we simply allow the planet to
return to a more natural state we
intentionally stabilize our environment
we’d have more space here on earth more
room for the population because we’re
not trying to live on top of our
consumable resource base and to be clear
this is not a vision about scarcity and
yes we still have to conserve all the
precious resources we have here at home
but this is a vision about abundance
it’s about having access to all the
resources we need to grow as a
civilization they’re simply coming from
a different place now I know I know this
sounds impossible but it’s happening
fast faster than you could ever imagine
and it’s already started my kids are too
by the time they are in high school they
will see operational asteroid mines they
will grow up in a world knowing that the
resources we need do not simply come
from only this planet as a parent this
gives me a lot of hope because I want to
create a world for those kids that gets
better and better not worse and worse
and when someone asks them why should we
be exploring space when we have so many
problems here at home they will know the
answer to that the resources of space
are the solutions to our greatest
problems it is only by exploring space
that we safeguard this world the one
that matters the most this is what I ask
of you believe that this is possible
because for the very first time in human
history it is
possible when we access the infinite
resources of space we do so so we can
protect and preserve the single most
important asset that we know of anywhere
in the universe the only place that we
know of that can support human life our
home Earth thank you
[Applause]
used as a civilization have come from
the same place everything all the energy
the fuels minerals metals construction
materials the water the air that you’re
breathing right now every resource that
we’ve ever used has come from the same
place Earth now this actually presents a
severe problem because when we study
biological history we very quickly see
that any time there’s a dominant species
in a finite ecosystem consuming a
limited amount of resources that species
will collapse
now that collapse usually begins at 50%
when a species has converted 50% of its
environment the ecosystem becomes
unstable and it changes it’s no longer
suitable for that particular species now
here’s the scary part there’s 7 billion
people on this planet we are the
dominant species and we have converted
43 percent of the available land mass on
earth by the year 2050 there will be 9
billion people on our planet and we will
be well past 50% that means most of the
people sitting in this auditorium will
see this begin we don’t know exactly
what it’s gonna look like we don’t know
exactly what the impact is gonna be but
the worst case scenario is the end of
the human race because earth is no
longer suitable for human life now the
reason that this problem exists because
it’s in our nature human beings consume
resources they alter their environment
so they can reproduce it’s the very
definition of biological life the
problem is we’re running out of room
we’re running out of resources and now
we’re running out of time so we need a
plan what if what if there was a way
that we could make our ecosystem
bigger if we expand our view and we look
out into space we see that all the
resources we hold a value here at home
energy fuels metals water are available
in nearly infinite quantities in our
solar system what if there’s a way we
could use those resources to prevent the
collapse of our civilization now I know
that sounds impossible sounds like
science fiction but I have a different
viewpoint than you do I work with some
of the smartest people in the world
engineers who have consistently landed
robots on other planets a lot of
scientists rocket scientists data
scientists planetary scientists
artificial intelligence experts I’m the
head of strategic partnerships for the
largest asteroid mining company in the
world and I believe we can use the
resources of space to save our planet we
have proven again and again that we know
how to destroy an environment now it’s
time for us to prove that we can save it
from my vantage point I see that there’s
more computing power in your car’s key
fob then we use to send the astronauts
to the moon that means we can do
incredible things in space with cheap
affordable robots for the very first
time in history we’ve amassed the the
technological toolkit that we need to
dispatch autonomous robotic explorers
out into the solar system to find and
access these resources and put them to
work imagine a future where the
resources we need do not only come from
this planet a future where we have
access to the vast resources of space
and we are using them to improve life
here on earth that’s the future I’m
going to show you it all starts with
water see today if you want water in
space you have to take that resource you
have to load it under a rocket you have
to launch it into space and that’s a
shame because there’s a lot of water in
space there’s water and asteroids
there’s water in comets there’s water on
the poles of our Moon there’s water on
other planets water is everywhere in
space and that’s a good thing because
water is one of the most
critical resources we will need you see
this plan involves a lot of robots but
it also involves a lot of people people
will be living and working in space to
make this possible and those people need
water for sustenance for hygiene for
growing food but water in space is also
fuel if we pass water through an
electrical field we can produce liquid
hydrogen and liquid oxygen that’s high
efficiency rocket propellant so if we
source water from space and turn it into
rocket propellant we can set up fuel
depots in the solar system gas stations
and when we do that for the very first
time we have access to this new resource
base because we’re not trying to launch
all our fuel from Earth and now that we
have access we can turn our sights to
the next step construction you see
asteroids are also made of pure
high-quality metals nickel iron cobalt
platinum this is the first object that
was created from an asteroid it was 3d
printed from a meteorite it’s very heavy
it’s very strong you would never want to
launch something like this into space
from earth but if you source metals from
space and feed them to orbital
construction robots which by the way
that’s already a thing we already have
that then you can create structures that
are no longer limited by size see this
is the International Space Station this
is the most expensive object humans have
ever built it cost a hundred billion
dollars why was it so expensive well it
was created using the resources of Earth
have turned into products loaded onto
rockets launched into space and then
assembled by humans but that’s backwards
it doesn’t make sense anymore
that’s like roughly the equivalent of
you saying living in Europe and saying
I’m gonna move to the United States and
build a house there but I’m gonna ship
all the materials to build that house
across the ocean all the wood the metal
the plumbing the electrical the
showerheads
you’re gonna ship it all across the
ocean when all of the resources you need
are already there at your destination it
doesn’t make sense we can reduce the
cost and logistical inefficiencies of
building large livable structures in
space by a factor of a hundred by simply
source
we need from our destination so we can
build things in space what should we
build well energy is the single largest
driver of resource consumption in the
world we mined for coal we drill for oil
and natural gas we mined for metals to
build our wind plants we mined for
silicon to make our solar panels we
mined for nickel to make batteries so we
can store it one thing remains the same
as the population grows so does the
energy demand so does the resource
consumption that goes with it
we have always assumed that our energy
production must happen here on earth
because there’s never been an
alternative because we haven’t built one
if we use the resources of space we can
create massive kilometer scale solar
farms in space these huge facilities
will capture the energy of the Sun that
shines in space 24 hours a day and beam
that energy back to earth the technology
to do this exists today but it’s simply
too expensive when we try to use the
resources of Earth but if we use the
resources in space we can create
planetary scale macro grids
you’ve heard of the electricity grid
maybe you’ve heard of the micro grid
this is the opposite this is a planetary
scale power generation system it’s the
energy that we need and the energy is in
space it’s not the resources buried
under our feet so we have water fuel
construction capabilities now power we
have all of the utilities we need to
build cities in space orbital
megastructures spun up to produce
artificial gravity so they’re liveable
for large populations these are emerging
today as commercial space stations their
research labs for sovereign astronauts
from around the world hotels for
adventurous tourists certainly but the
primary function of these facilities
will be manufacturing we will build
things in space starts with satellites
and spacecraft why would we want to
build satellites in space well today
when we build a satellite it’s
constrained by the rocket that takes it
to space it has to be built and designed
to fit on top of that rocket and it has
to be designed to survive the violent
rocket launch through the atmosphere but
if we remove that constraint we can
build things that are as big as our
imagination and vastly more capable and
if we’ve come this far we can take the
final step and we can start to solve our
resource crisis we can move our
industrial manufacturing into space all
of it
you see manufacturing is resource
consumption we use the resources of
Earth we turn them into manufactured
products so that we can sell them and do
useful things that is what drives
commerce on earth but what if we reverse
that what if we gather and harvest all
of our raw materials and resources from
deep space and import them to an orbital
manufacturing ring around the planet and
then return only the finished products
to the surface let’s use your smartphone
as an example this was created using raw
materials from Earth yet every single
one of the raw materials in this exists
in infinite quantities in space the most
expensive component of your phone is
platinum and platinum is readily
available in near-earth asteroids
passing by us all the time this is
created here on earth using the
resources of earth and a factory that
produces emissions consumes resources
they use toxic chemicals like benzene to
produce this and that factory produce
hazardous waste
that’s the byproduct of manufacturing
that’s the bad stuff poisons toxins
heavy metals radiation the problem is
all of the hazardous waste from
manufacturing is stuck with us here in
the finite ecosystem that we live in
it’s poisoning our air our water our
fish our wildlife our food our kids do
you know where this should not be made
in the only breathable atmosphere that
we know of anywhere a resource that we
take for granted every minute of every
day so if we do this we reverse the
human supply chain we push all of our
mining and manufacturing outside the
atmosphere what have we done
we’ve now zoned the earth for
residential access only imagine if you
walked outside one day and there were no
factories no power plants no refineries
no oil rigs no pipelines to protest and
instead we simply allow the planet to
return to a more natural state we
intentionally stabilize our environment
we’d have more space here on earth more
room for the population because we’re
not trying to live on top of our
consumable resource base and to be clear
this is not a vision about scarcity and
yes we still have to conserve all the
precious resources we have here at home
but this is a vision about abundance
it’s about having access to all the
resources we need to grow as a
civilization they’re simply coming from
a different place now I know I know this
sounds impossible but it’s happening
fast faster than you could ever imagine
and it’s already started my kids are too
by the time they are in high school they
will see operational asteroid mines they
will grow up in a world knowing that the
resources we need do not simply come
from only this planet as a parent this
gives me a lot of hope because I want to
create a world for those kids that gets
better and better not worse and worse
and when someone asks them why should we
be exploring space when we have so many
problems here at home they will know the
answer to that the resources of space
are the solutions to our greatest
problems it is only by exploring space
that we safeguard this world the one
that matters the most this is what I ask
of you believe that this is possible
because for the very first time in human
history it is
possible when we access the infinite
resources of space we do so so we can
protect and preserve the single most
important asset that we know of anywhere
in the universe the only place that we
know of that can support human life our
home Earth thank you
[Applause]
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