A massive rocket is art in motion — and the beginning of a galactic library — the future is now.
I still can’t get over how awesome it was to witness history earlier this month when Elon Musk and SpaceX launched their Falcon Heavy rocket into space. It was incredible on so many levels.
First, that’s a huge rocket! Falcon Heavy is the world’s most powerful rocket and it was built and launched by SpaceX at a fraction of the cost that it takes NASA or any other space agency or space company to launch.
Space X Falcon Heavy Test Flight
Second, it’s art in motion! This was the inaugural test flight of Falcon Heavy so they had to add some kind of ballast to test the ship. Instead of placing some arbitrary piece of lead, metal or rock, Elon placed his personal midnight cherry red Tesla Roadster and “Starman” at the wheel and a few other cool items on-board for the ride. It was pure marketing genius, and perhaps will be the most successful car advertisement in history. But it’s more than that. By adding something as familiar as a car and a human-like figure into space, it connected us all to the flight. We could suddenly imagine ourselves as Starman, sitting in the roadster looking back at Earth as we make our way toward the asteroid belt. It is simply beautiful to watch Starman’s journey through space with Earth as a backdrop and admittedly, David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” makes this space exploration all the more enjoyable.
Third, the beginning of The Solar Library™! My friend Nova Spivack is the founder of the Arch Mission Foundation whose goal is to permanently preserve history & knowledge across time and space for future generations. The first installment of The Solar Library™ was launched on this flight. The first books in the Solar Library are Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. The Arch libraries are in the form of data crystals that last billions of years and the foundation plans to use whatever type of material is the best available for content delivery at the time of future flights.
I have had a passion for space and the private spaceflight industry for many years. I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to invest in Moon Express whose mission is to “redefine possible” by returning to the moon with the rover they are building. Coincidentally, Moon Express headquarters and testing facility is based out of Hangar 17 & 18 on Cape Canaveral, Florida, right next to SpaceX. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make the launch, but Bob Richards (CEO) and the rest of the Moon Express team had front row seats.
Now that Elon is making access to space easier and cost-effective for humanity, I can’t wait for Moon Express to hitch a ride and see the lander on the moon.
Besides SpaceX and Moon Express, some other efforts that I continue to follow that are worth checking out are Virgin Galactic, LightSail 2 (see Professor Stephen Hawking Welcoming VSS Unity in this video), Bigelow Aerospace, Rocket Lab, Relativity Space, and of course Blue Origin. (If I am missing any exciting new space efforts please let me know.)
This marks the dawn of a new era in the space industry, both for private and public space companies. Congratulations again to Elon Musk, Gwynne Shotwell and the entire SpaceX Team for their continued dedication toward humanity’s future and the possibility of becoming a multi-planetary species.
All this may seem overly futuristic, but it is very real and with the explosion of exponential technologies such as AI and robotics, the space industry will continue accelerating at hyper-speed pace.
It’s getting really exciting!
Klee