[Music]
imagine waking up in the middle of the
night realizing that the thing you’ve
been working on for 15 years doesn’t
even exist panic right pinch yourself to
make sure you’re not dreaming well this
happened to me see this whole time my
only claim to fame was getting
introduced at events as a space industry
expert and now I know that the space
industry it isn’t even a thing
let me explain my passion and focus my
whole life has been the space industry I
wanted to be an astronaut as a kid I
went to school study that aerospace
engineering I worked on space industry
projects and space industry companies
now 15 years ago if you told someone you
worked in the space industry it was
pretty easy to know what you were
talking about there wasn’t that much
going on there was three things you’re
either building satellites launching
rockets or working for NASA that’s it so
for me I landed the job at Boeing
building commercial communication
satellites but after a few years the
space industry started to change a
billionaire named Dennis Tito paid 20
million dollars for his own private trip
to the space station Scaled Composites a
company in the Mojave Desert built
spaceship one and became the first non
government-funded team to build a
vehicle capable of taking a person into
space companies like SpaceX and Blue
Origin and others got started and what
became a new wave of commercial space
activity now about this time I had a
hunch that the space in is she was going
to need more people who understood how
to build and operate businesses so I
left my engineering career behind and
went off to business school to get a MBA
I told the admission folks that I wanted
to be an astronaut
while I was in business school I saw
more and more companies getting started
in space and also started to see
investors who wanted to put money into
space companies they had a real hard
time finding each other though so I
started a company called space angels
whose job was to help investors find the
best startups in the space industry and
since then it’s about 2006 there have
been 200 space startups that have raised
money from outside investors now that’s
a lot of companies in a short period of
time
so what drove that growth there are
primarily two things that caused this
new wave of commercial space growth
first is that the cost of getting stuff
into space came down it still was really
expensive but it started to come down a
little bit started heading in the right
direction but second there was a
revolution in satellite technology see
back in the NASA era of space
exploration everything that went into
space was big really expensive because
it had to be super reliable you know
there’s a saying you’ve probably heard
it failure is not an option right well
those of us who actually build
spacecraft have a different saying it’s
one failure is not an option success
gets really expensive and this bore
itself out throughout the whole space
industry everything going to space was
big and expensive this is what
satellites looked like they’re the size
of school buses this one had a mass of
5,000 kilograms it cost 500 million
dollars to design and build and then
another 70 million dollars to launch
into space on its own dedicated rocket
now with numbers like that and that many
dollar signs it’s hard for entrepreneurs
really to do anything so the space
industry was just governments and really
big companies but here’s what happened
entrepreneurs some funded by space
angels looked at this but they didn’t
see a foam they saw a satellite now
think about this smartphone has
everything you need in a satellite it’s
got a computer
it’s got data storage dead batteries
communication system could send radio
signals sensors like cameras it even has
accelerometers and it was exactly which
direction is pointing in you practically
is a satellite so people started
thinking about
differently some people even sent
cellphones into space and we started
taking taking advantage of these new
commercial electronics and building
satellites in a different way and now
today satellites look more like this
they weigh just a couple of kilograms
cost less than a hundred thousand
dollars to build and only two hundred
thousand dollars to launch into space
because you could fit dozens if not
hundreds of them on the same same rocket
so I had a front-row seat for this
satellite technology revolution I got to
see you know firsthand what these two
different types of satellites look like
but think about it the cost of a
spacecraft went down by ten thousand
times it’s it’s it’s truly a revolution
and it unleashed a wave of
entrepreneurship in the space industry
that has kept going space angels has
invested in dozens of space companies
taking advantage of this technology and
I have the privilege of working for one
of them today it’s called planetary
resources and our vision is to create
the capability to mine asteroids for
valuable resources so it sounds great
right so my passion my work are aligned
completely getting to work in the space
industry doing what I love the industry
is doing well and growing everything’s
very exciting you know living the dream
not so fast though I was talking to a
friend recently about the types of
companies that space angels invests in
and she asked me a question and the
question was how do you know if a
company is a space company so it seems
like a simple question right but let me
tell you this is the type of question
that wakes you up in the middle of the
night and makes you question everything
you’re doing I’d rethink everything
because there wasn’t an easy answer
there’s so many different types of
companies doing different things in
space it’s hard to find something that
tie it ties them all together and that
made me realize two things first I’m not
a space industry expert and second it’s
because space isn’t an industry space is
a place not an industry of course right
there in space is just a place you can
do stuff
it’s a place to do business so I thought
well maybe that’s okay that space isn’t
an industry because new industries
actually are created all the time but
how often is it that we find a new place
to do things you know finding new places
to do business sexually significant
turning points in history and
civilization let’s go back to the age of
discovery North America right has ties
between Europe and North America grew
trade increased and new business
opportunities arose but those business
opportunities weren’t the North America
industry that’s silly right they were in
existing industries like logging and
farming and shipbuilding and shoemaking
industries that already existed not in
North America North America was the
platform for growth for these new for
these new companies something captain
more recently where we found a new place
to do business you can consider the
internet a new place to do business
right here’s some Internet companies
Amazon is Amazon in the internet
industry
not really it’s in the e-commerce cloud
computing industry Expedia Airbnb not in
the Internet industry they’re in the
travel industry what about uber uber
would never have existed if it weren’t
for the internet but not an Internet
company it’s a transportation company
right you get it North America the
Internet space they’re all places places
to do business companies use these
places as a platform and just like that
space is just a place it’s a place to do
business and even a lot of people who
work at space companies like me still
consider space to be its own standalone
industry but I think that as space
companies get bigger and more successful
space starts looking less like its own
industry and more like its own economy
because places don’t have industries
they have economies and the space
economy is poised for significant growth
but you don’t have to take my word for
it there’s already two people you know
well that are having an outside impact
on the growth of the space economy Jeff
Bezos and Elon Musk
both are channeling billions of dollars
of their own money and other people’s
money into the space economy and both
share a similar vision of the future of
what that space economy will look
like it’s a simple vision millions of
people living and working in space
millions of people living and working in
space now Bezos and musk don’t agree on
all the finer details like where those
people are what they’re doing how they
got there but pretty much everyone in
the space economy today agrees with this
vision is working to make it happen so
will that look like millions of people
living and working in space there’s
about 3.7 million people living and
working in the Seattle metropolitan area
think about all the people and processes
and systems that it takes to keep an
operation like that running right now
today there are six people living and
working in space six it’s the crew of
the International Space Station so I
admit we’ve got some work ahead of us
but what’s gonna cause the space economy
to grow from six people to sixty to six
hundred to six thousand six million it’s
gonna be companies in the same
industries that power our earth economy
today just at the line looking to do
business in space it’ll be energy
companies looking to do business in
space transportation companies looking
to do business in space hospitality
transportation extraction information
construction mining companies looking to
do business in space all looking up for
the next growth opportunity
let’s take energy energy is the largest
industry on earth over a trillion
dollars in revenue annually and growing
every year
humans are prolific energy consumers and
that won’t change in space even a
population of a few thousand people
living and working in space will require
an enormous amount of energy now some of
that energy can come from the Sun using
solar power but in order to move people
and things around in space you need to
use chemical rockets and Rockets need
fuel in order to get that fuel we’re
gonna have to source it on earth load it
into rockets and launch it into space at
over $10,000 per kilogram
so that need for energy isn’t going to
be satisfied it’s gonna be a significant
hurdle for the growth of the space
economy but there’s a better way to get
the resources to fuel the space economy
by mining them from space all the
valuable resources on earth are valuable
in nearly limitless quantities in space
on asteroids and the moon and other
celestial bodies Goldman Sachs earlier
this year released a report that said
asteroid mining was more realistic than
perceived with cost comparable to
traditional earth mines the government
of Luxembourg believes so strongly in
the future of space mining that they’ve
invested 227 million dollars into their
space resources initiative to make
Luxembourg the center of the space
mining industry and it’s working
multiple companies both new and existing
have moved to Luxembourg and set up shop
there including Planetary Resources
making Luxembourg one of the premier
places on earth to do business in space
now asteroid mining is not about going
out and finding platinum and gold and
precious metals and bring it back to
earth
that’s not what it’s about it’s about
living off the land and our vision and
the vision for space mining is about
finding resources in space to use in
space to fuel that space economy it’s a
way to get resources that we don’t have
to rely on stuff on earth being launched
into space at great cost we can find
what we need that’s that’s stuff that’s
already outside the gravity of Earth and
that’s why the first thing we’ll mine
and the most valuable resource in space
is water h2o you can take water and
break it down into hydrogen and oxygen
and then you’ve got rocket fuel hydrogen
oxygen was used to launch all the space
shuttle missions it’s the most
chemically efficient rocket fuel and
once we have a source of fuel outside of
Earth’s gravity in space the space
economy can grow really rapidly we can
move things and goods around in space
with relative ease and at low cost
we’ll build stuff in space we’ll start
building infrastructure in space the
construction industry actually rivals in
energy industry for the largest on earth
and that rivalry will continue in space
but at first in order to build stuff in
space we’ll have to get stuff on earth
launch it up into space until or unless
we can find a source of building
materials in space
well asteroids come to the rescue again
what’s next as will send 3d printers to
metallic asteroids and start printing
out space stations it sounds far-fetched
right well what if I told you that
planetary Resources has already proven
in a lab that you can take a metallic
meteorite grind it up put it into a
commercial 3d printer and print out
structural components it’s already been
done so as you can see our preconception
about our economy it can’t be limited to
just what we can do and dig up from here
on earth it’s got to include the whole
solar system and it will so think about
how your life will change when that
happens I believe that the lives of
everyone in this room really everyone on
the planet will be affected for the
better by our global infrastructure and
economy expanding into space remember
the vision millions of people living and
working in space millions will build
self-contained societies you know so far
as of today only 536 people have ever
been to space everyone else and the
whole history of humanity has lived
their entire lives with their feet
firmly planted here on earth no I think
that soon our children or grandchildren
will live in a time when an entire human
lifetime can be lived without ever
setting foot on this one planet we call
home and I think that’s a good thing you
know people are affected positively by
going to new places right think about
travel you remember the first time you
travel to a foreign country it changes
your perspective a little bit
150 years ago well in space travel was
still just science fiction
Mark Twain talked about travel in a way
that I think is relevant to this Twain
said travel is fatal to prejudice
bigotry and narrow mindedness broad
holds some charitable views of men and
things cannot be acquired by vegetating
in one little corner of the earth all
one’s lifetime now I completely agree
with Twain on this next to space my
other passion is international travel
and my wife and I are really proud to
have been able to travel together to 49
countries and every time we go to a new
place it changes our perspective a
little bit gives us little greater
appreciation for what’s different and
what’s the same no space it’s the
ultimate place to travel to and
something really special happens when
people go to space and are able to see
the earth from afar for the first time
psychologists even have a term for it
it’s called the overview effect and it’s
what astronauts describe when they go
into space for the first time and see
the earth in its entirety they have an
epiphany a rush of emotions seeing this
small planet in the vast darkness of
space Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell he
was the sixth person to walk on the moon
he said something that I hope is true
and that gives me great hope for what
the space economy and space can do for
all of us
Mitchell said about looking at the Earth
from space you develop an instant global
consciousness a people orientation an
intense dissatisfaction with the state
of the world and a compulsion to do
something about it now I look forward to
living in a world where millions of
people have been to that place thank you
you
[Applause]
imagine waking up in the middle of the
night realizing that the thing you’ve
been working on for 15 years doesn’t
even exist panic right pinch yourself to
make sure you’re not dreaming well this
happened to me see this whole time my
only claim to fame was getting
introduced at events as a space industry
expert and now I know that the space
industry it isn’t even a thing
let me explain my passion and focus my
whole life has been the space industry I
wanted to be an astronaut as a kid I
went to school study that aerospace
engineering I worked on space industry
projects and space industry companies
now 15 years ago if you told someone you
worked in the space industry it was
pretty easy to know what you were
talking about there wasn’t that much
going on there was three things you’re
either building satellites launching
rockets or working for NASA that’s it so
for me I landed the job at Boeing
building commercial communication
satellites but after a few years the
space industry started to change a
billionaire named Dennis Tito paid 20
million dollars for his own private trip
to the space station Scaled Composites a
company in the Mojave Desert built
spaceship one and became the first non
government-funded team to build a
vehicle capable of taking a person into
space companies like SpaceX and Blue
Origin and others got started and what
became a new wave of commercial space
activity now about this time I had a
hunch that the space in is she was going
to need more people who understood how
to build and operate businesses so I
left my engineering career behind and
went off to business school to get a MBA
I told the admission folks that I wanted
to be an astronaut
while I was in business school I saw
more and more companies getting started
in space and also started to see
investors who wanted to put money into
space companies they had a real hard
time finding each other though so I
started a company called space angels
whose job was to help investors find the
best startups in the space industry and
since then it’s about 2006 there have
been 200 space startups that have raised
money from outside investors now that’s
a lot of companies in a short period of
time
so what drove that growth there are
primarily two things that caused this
new wave of commercial space growth
first is that the cost of getting stuff
into space came down it still was really
expensive but it started to come down a
little bit started heading in the right
direction but second there was a
revolution in satellite technology see
back in the NASA era of space
exploration everything that went into
space was big really expensive because
it had to be super reliable you know
there’s a saying you’ve probably heard
it failure is not an option right well
those of us who actually build
spacecraft have a different saying it’s
one failure is not an option success
gets really expensive and this bore
itself out throughout the whole space
industry everything going to space was
big and expensive this is what
satellites looked like they’re the size
of school buses this one had a mass of
5,000 kilograms it cost 500 million
dollars to design and build and then
another 70 million dollars to launch
into space on its own dedicated rocket
now with numbers like that and that many
dollar signs it’s hard for entrepreneurs
really to do anything so the space
industry was just governments and really
big companies but here’s what happened
entrepreneurs some funded by space
angels looked at this but they didn’t
see a foam they saw a satellite now
think about this smartphone has
everything you need in a satellite it’s
got a computer
it’s got data storage dead batteries
communication system could send radio
signals sensors like cameras it even has
accelerometers and it was exactly which
direction is pointing in you practically
is a satellite so people started
thinking about
differently some people even sent
cellphones into space and we started
taking taking advantage of these new
commercial electronics and building
satellites in a different way and now
today satellites look more like this
they weigh just a couple of kilograms
cost less than a hundred thousand
dollars to build and only two hundred
thousand dollars to launch into space
because you could fit dozens if not
hundreds of them on the same same rocket
so I had a front-row seat for this
satellite technology revolution I got to
see you know firsthand what these two
different types of satellites look like
but think about it the cost of a
spacecraft went down by ten thousand
times it’s it’s it’s truly a revolution
and it unleashed a wave of
entrepreneurship in the space industry
that has kept going space angels has
invested in dozens of space companies
taking advantage of this technology and
I have the privilege of working for one
of them today it’s called planetary
resources and our vision is to create
the capability to mine asteroids for
valuable resources so it sounds great
right so my passion my work are aligned
completely getting to work in the space
industry doing what I love the industry
is doing well and growing everything’s
very exciting you know living the dream
not so fast though I was talking to a
friend recently about the types of
companies that space angels invests in
and she asked me a question and the
question was how do you know if a
company is a space company so it seems
like a simple question right but let me
tell you this is the type of question
that wakes you up in the middle of the
night and makes you question everything
you’re doing I’d rethink everything
because there wasn’t an easy answer
there’s so many different types of
companies doing different things in
space it’s hard to find something that
tie it ties them all together and that
made me realize two things first I’m not
a space industry expert and second it’s
because space isn’t an industry space is
a place not an industry of course right
there in space is just a place you can
do stuff
it’s a place to do business so I thought
well maybe that’s okay that space isn’t
an industry because new industries
actually are created all the time but
how often is it that we find a new place
to do things you know finding new places
to do business sexually significant
turning points in history and
civilization let’s go back to the age of
discovery North America right has ties
between Europe and North America grew
trade increased and new business
opportunities arose but those business
opportunities weren’t the North America
industry that’s silly right they were in
existing industries like logging and
farming and shipbuilding and shoemaking
industries that already existed not in
North America North America was the
platform for growth for these new for
these new companies something captain
more recently where we found a new place
to do business you can consider the
internet a new place to do business
right here’s some Internet companies
Amazon is Amazon in the internet
industry
not really it’s in the e-commerce cloud
computing industry Expedia Airbnb not in
the Internet industry they’re in the
travel industry what about uber uber
would never have existed if it weren’t
for the internet but not an Internet
company it’s a transportation company
right you get it North America the
Internet space they’re all places places
to do business companies use these
places as a platform and just like that
space is just a place it’s a place to do
business and even a lot of people who
work at space companies like me still
consider space to be its own standalone
industry but I think that as space
companies get bigger and more successful
space starts looking less like its own
industry and more like its own economy
because places don’t have industries
they have economies and the space
economy is poised for significant growth
but you don’t have to take my word for
it there’s already two people you know
well that are having an outside impact
on the growth of the space economy Jeff
Bezos and Elon Musk
both are channeling billions of dollars
of their own money and other people’s
money into the space economy and both
share a similar vision of the future of
what that space economy will look
like it’s a simple vision millions of
people living and working in space
millions of people living and working in
space now Bezos and musk don’t agree on
all the finer details like where those
people are what they’re doing how they
got there but pretty much everyone in
the space economy today agrees with this
vision is working to make it happen so
will that look like millions of people
living and working in space there’s
about 3.7 million people living and
working in the Seattle metropolitan area
think about all the people and processes
and systems that it takes to keep an
operation like that running right now
today there are six people living and
working in space six it’s the crew of
the International Space Station so I
admit we’ve got some work ahead of us
but what’s gonna cause the space economy
to grow from six people to sixty to six
hundred to six thousand six million it’s
gonna be companies in the same
industries that power our earth economy
today just at the line looking to do
business in space it’ll be energy
companies looking to do business in
space transportation companies looking
to do business in space hospitality
transportation extraction information
construction mining companies looking to
do business in space all looking up for
the next growth opportunity
let’s take energy energy is the largest
industry on earth over a trillion
dollars in revenue annually and growing
every year
humans are prolific energy consumers and
that won’t change in space even a
population of a few thousand people
living and working in space will require
an enormous amount of energy now some of
that energy can come from the Sun using
solar power but in order to move people
and things around in space you need to
use chemical rockets and Rockets need
fuel in order to get that fuel we’re
gonna have to source it on earth load it
into rockets and launch it into space at
over $10,000 per kilogram
so that need for energy isn’t going to
be satisfied it’s gonna be a significant
hurdle for the growth of the space
economy but there’s a better way to get
the resources to fuel the space economy
by mining them from space all the
valuable resources on earth are valuable
in nearly limitless quantities in space
on asteroids and the moon and other
celestial bodies Goldman Sachs earlier
this year released a report that said
asteroid mining was more realistic than
perceived with cost comparable to
traditional earth mines the government
of Luxembourg believes so strongly in
the future of space mining that they’ve
invested 227 million dollars into their
space resources initiative to make
Luxembourg the center of the space
mining industry and it’s working
multiple companies both new and existing
have moved to Luxembourg and set up shop
there including Planetary Resources
making Luxembourg one of the premier
places on earth to do business in space
now asteroid mining is not about going
out and finding platinum and gold and
precious metals and bring it back to
earth
that’s not what it’s about it’s about
living off the land and our vision and
the vision for space mining is about
finding resources in space to use in
space to fuel that space economy it’s a
way to get resources that we don’t have
to rely on stuff on earth being launched
into space at great cost we can find
what we need that’s that’s stuff that’s
already outside the gravity of Earth and
that’s why the first thing we’ll mine
and the most valuable resource in space
is water h2o you can take water and
break it down into hydrogen and oxygen
and then you’ve got rocket fuel hydrogen
oxygen was used to launch all the space
shuttle missions it’s the most
chemically efficient rocket fuel and
once we have a source of fuel outside of
Earth’s gravity in space the space
economy can grow really rapidly we can
move things and goods around in space
with relative ease and at low cost
we’ll build stuff in space we’ll start
building infrastructure in space the
construction industry actually rivals in
energy industry for the largest on earth
and that rivalry will continue in space
but at first in order to build stuff in
space we’ll have to get stuff on earth
launch it up into space until or unless
we can find a source of building
materials in space
well asteroids come to the rescue again
what’s next as will send 3d printers to
metallic asteroids and start printing
out space stations it sounds far-fetched
right well what if I told you that
planetary Resources has already proven
in a lab that you can take a metallic
meteorite grind it up put it into a
commercial 3d printer and print out
structural components it’s already been
done so as you can see our preconception
about our economy it can’t be limited to
just what we can do and dig up from here
on earth it’s got to include the whole
solar system and it will so think about
how your life will change when that
happens I believe that the lives of
everyone in this room really everyone on
the planet will be affected for the
better by our global infrastructure and
economy expanding into space remember
the vision millions of people living and
working in space millions will build
self-contained societies you know so far
as of today only 536 people have ever
been to space everyone else and the
whole history of humanity has lived
their entire lives with their feet
firmly planted here on earth no I think
that soon our children or grandchildren
will live in a time when an entire human
lifetime can be lived without ever
setting foot on this one planet we call
home and I think that’s a good thing you
know people are affected positively by
going to new places right think about
travel you remember the first time you
travel to a foreign country it changes
your perspective a little bit
150 years ago well in space travel was
still just science fiction
Mark Twain talked about travel in a way
that I think is relevant to this Twain
said travel is fatal to prejudice
bigotry and narrow mindedness broad
holds some charitable views of men and
things cannot be acquired by vegetating
in one little corner of the earth all
one’s lifetime now I completely agree
with Twain on this next to space my
other passion is international travel
and my wife and I are really proud to
have been able to travel together to 49
countries and every time we go to a new
place it changes our perspective a
little bit gives us little greater
appreciation for what’s different and
what’s the same no space it’s the
ultimate place to travel to and
something really special happens when
people go to space and are able to see
the earth from afar for the first time
psychologists even have a term for it
it’s called the overview effect and it’s
what astronauts describe when they go
into space for the first time and see
the earth in its entirety they have an
epiphany a rush of emotions seeing this
small planet in the vast darkness of
space Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell he
was the sixth person to walk on the moon
he said something that I hope is true
and that gives me great hope for what
the space economy and space can do for
all of us
Mitchell said about looking at the Earth
from space you develop an instant global
consciousness a people orientation an
intense dissatisfaction with the state
of the world and a compulsion to do
something about it now I look forward to
living in a world where millions of
people have been to that place thank you
you
[Applause]
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