TEDxSanJoseCA - Jeff Greason - Rocket Scientist: Making Space Pay and Having Fun Doing It

[cleogonzalez614]

This is a "pretty" video. =p

[GveMeLbrtylGveMeIPad]

Inventors are simply brilliant technicians- it's often not really fair or even a good idea to ask them for their views outside their specialty.

[SonOfTerra92]

There is no western civilization ... only human civilization. our story is theirs and theirs is ours. It will be one species sharing the common identity of the same homeworld that will be leaving Earth for the stars ...

[itostrong923v]

I am at the strange part of Youtube yet again.

[spoddie]

Fail.

We cannot kick start life as described by Jeff Greason. Mars can never have an atmosphere because it has no magnetosphere - the solar wind strips off any build up of gas.

[jaeLAX23]

@spoddie It's rather Mar's has a weak magnetosphere. It doesn't have enough Thorium mass to sustain an atmosphere for longer than 1000 yrs. If however Thorium mass is added it can sustain an atmosphere permanently.

/watch?v=WKG6wZtcVVQ

[spoddie]

@jaeLAX23 I love hearing from crackpots, especially thorium crackpots. Shall we just back up a truck full of thorium and dump it into Mars' core? Can you explain in your own words how thorium can sustain an atmosphere? Please use scientific principles rather than fancy video effects.

[jaeLAX23]

@spoddie Having a bad day? I can send you a PDF if you want. Shoot me an email address. In my own words though, well in short, many factors go into a planets ability to retain an atmosphere, e.g. mass, distance from sun, rate of heat loss, geomagnetism etc. Molten metals moving in complex convection currents generate geomagnetism. Thorium, uranium and K-40 enable these convection currents and in addition the radiodecay heat keeps the core hot and the cycle flowing. Earth is Th reactor

[jaeLAX23]

@spoddie Again I'll be more than happy to send you the PDF. And the LFTR works! It was up and running for 4yrs before the Cold War necessitated it's shutdown. And here's the nuclear engineer community discussing it's viability. From what I understand, if the political will was present these reactors could be rolled out in 5 yrs time.

bravenewclimate(dot)com/2011/1­1/17/ifr-lftr-exchange/

[1977Melville]

Does Greason and/or his company have a website?

[JDNuvo]

I love Rocket Science Barbie and they call me j lo. Can I go into space?

[outrageousgriot]

There is a lot of truth to what this mam says. Though I may disagree with his skepticism regarding global warming, this is an idea that I haven't thought... Immigration to mars... How fascinating.

[outrageousgriot]

Was this a video advocating a mans love for capitalism or the emergence of an entire new industry - capitalist rocket flights... But I'll be honest there is a lot of truth to what ts

[ThatAdelaideGuy]

As a 17 year old I assure you. There will be no Dark Age

[jegolan]

How can anybody not like this? It's just mind-boggling. It's as if those 'dislike' people are anti-human.

[ebsm93]

6:34 - BOOM!!

[truevoice08]

Don't take the blessings of civilization for granted. The world envisioned by Greason is possible as long as people remember the principles of sound economics. I highly recommend Jeffrey Tuckers book "It's a Jetson's World". Free to download online

[gratmaleezie]

Who would Dislike this? Such inspiration.

[plainstudman]

@CptFrenchFry out of all the comments on youtube and my years of being a youtube user your comment is one of the best ever i have seen. i have always been a space lover and i am glad i have seen this comment because you say it in a way that is very easy to understand......most people would rather live in security and comfort even though thats not really a life thats lived, basically i think they are pussies, at least thats my opinion....but again great comment man

[TheCapitalistdog]

Capitalism FTW!!!

[wazfrmoz]

As a 17 year old, i feel proud to be the next generation of individuals who i hope will change the world like never before

[ekim1966]

An example of objectivism at its finest. Here is a man of  the mind! True innovators like him, and others, will save us from the next dark ages imposed by the troglodytes who believe the earth is 6,000 years old, and that a blastocyst is a person. Men and women like him ask not "who will let me?" but "who will stop me?"

[IRUKANJI]

@ekim1966

You're using a guy whose expounding solid conservative economic principles as a a pulpit for petty bickering with people of religion over issues that are neither critical nor in any way relevant to the problem of putting people into space? Hell we need less people to be aborted so we can have more people to work on building rockets cheaply!!!

[ekim1966]

@IRUKANJI Re: petty bickering... I was speaking of the difference between honest unbiased scientific discovery and the pseudo-science of mysticism. The latter of which has been trying to worm its way into our educational (and legal) system for years. Both statism and mysticism infantilize human beings. If we leave the nest, we should be "adults". And yes, sound economic principles must be founded on free, honest exchange by free people. Also, I'm not really worried about a human shortage.

[emschafe]

@ekim1966 As a rocket scientist and a Christian, I know you are wrong. We will never get to mars if hedonist atheist tear society apart with their selfish ways. Most Christians don't think the world is 6000 years old or even close to it. The day you succeed in reducing a person to a pile of cells is the day civilization falls.

[ekim1966]

@emschafe It is you who equate Christianity with troglodytism, not I. Hedonism is not rational self interest, it is acting on the pleasure of the moment. It is not synonymous with Atheism, which is the lack of belief in gods. Hedonism is not an attribute of Atheists, who are mostly very rational. I never insinuated that human beings are nothing more than a pile of cells, but that a group of undifferentiated cells isn't a man any more than an acorn is a fully formed oak. Straw man fallacy.

[MONDARIZDK]

Honestly this might be the lamest TEDx Talk I ever heard. "Terraforming Mars is no more ambitious than building railroads across the Sierra Nevada" - What a fucking idiot.

[topikamew]

Great and inspirational speech. The capitalism he is pointing out is the freedom to create and innovate products competitively to maximize our potential as humans to be able to get the vast amount of resources/land out there in space.

Think about capitalist vs communist countries. The reason all bad things happen is because of human vanity and deceitfulness, not the idea of how wealth should be earned.

Cool spaceships and a great idea. I would love to fly out into space one day, wouldn't you?

[Matic293]

Competition, capitalism and the free market produce war, poverty, inequality, corrupt human values and environmental destabilization. What you see on Earth will be reflected into space if we allow people such as this man to achieve their intentions. THE UNIVERSE WILL NOT BE CAPITALIZED. Pun intended.

[Yosemited]

@Matic293

GOOD THING YOU WROTE ALL THAT USING PRODUCTS SPAWNED BY CAPITALISM

WHAT YOU DESCRIBED IS IRRESPONSIBLE CAPITALISM

[hughtub]

@Matic293 What you said is provable bullshit. War is created by government, NEVER the free market (free market = our freedom to transact freely, create services/products w/o interference, and the freedom to NOT pay for frivolous services we don't want... including most wars). Socialist governments - the opposite of free market - have killed in the 20th century alone, over 100 million people. How fucking dare you link human freedom as the root of war and all things evil.

[strapt313]

@Matic293 Stop drinking the Kool-aid kid. All that you think you know is wrong.

[cdbob]

This is a fantastic speech

[cupmyplums]

I'm sure I'm wrong but could they possibly have over-estimated the numbers of people prepared to pay huge sums of money for a twenty minute flight?

[AlexWearsHatsArt]

@cupmyplums I thought the idea was that it would cost much less than 'huge sums of money' to be a part of these trips. Not to say they wouldn't be rather expensive for the first while, but I think his vision is to have the flights into LEO (I think that's what he was suggesting with the 'lynx' project he is working on') just as routine as a flight aboard an airliner.

[petekuhn]

Nice use of Thomas Hobbes!

[fuunguus]

This is great and all, but I don't like the focus on colonizing Mars. Mars is a hostile planet, with virtually no atmosphere (1% atmosphere density compared to ours), and it has no protective magnetic field so even tho we manage to terraform Mars, it wouldn't last long. Also, there is little point in colonizing Mars, cause where would we go from there? We would just be stuck in another gravity trap. We need to colonize space, or more specifically, asteroids, now that would fuel human progress!

[kittehjam]

@fuunguus But if we can colonise Mars, then we can increase the cost of living on Earth to such a degree that all the poor people will have somewhere to live :)

[fuunguus]

@kittehjam Wut. There is much more space to live on out in the asteroid field, and it only takes twice as long time to go there as it takes to go to Mars. ION thrusters can make that trip only last 2 months or less, that is nothing! If we colonize one of the asteroids that have metal cores or contain 30% iron, we'll have materials in huge quantities to build whatever we want. Mega telescopes, cities, and all the space ships we want. This should be the future of humanity, not Mars!

[kittehjam]

@fuunguus I was merely being sarcastic :) alas, colonising both would not be out of the question

[someuser91]

meh... space flight is pointless

space ships are toys for the rich

[AlexWearsHatsArt]

@someuser91 'Toys for the rich'. Hell no. You seemed to overlook a lot of other applications. Pay closer attention to the video.

[tonybeir]

Guys you have a guy with a stake in the private rocket business arguing that you need private business to take us to space... this is such bullshit. NASA HAS COMPETITION! every single project Nasa does competes with alternative projects it's just all under one roof... Sure you can make nasa more competitive with itself and more efficient... but that doesn't mean we now need profiteering for space

[tonybeir]

we're missing capitalism? give me a fucking break... what an idiot. What we're missing is good governance

[MrDinoSayRawr]

amazing information thank you for sharing it

[pandaownsyou]

Can anyone who knows more than me tell me if the propellent cost he mentions is the cost to put the weight of a person into space or the weight of a person and the required machinery as well?

[andyandyband]

Mother Creator

~~ is smater then a rocket scientist ~~

[News107]

watch Dr al najjar scientist of space .

[arlpainbringer]

That was wonderfull, thank you

[Mikeumus]

Perfect. Thank you for giving this talk Jeff Greason.

[NathanDahlin]

Jeff has identified the problem with NASA and how we should go about fixing it in order to continue exploring space. It turns out the answer isn't exactly rocket science!

(Wait...or is it?)

[quotoo]

This guy exemplifies all that is BAD inthe purported "NEWSPACE" community.

All broad=brush with no specifics.

It is not about the "HOW" ,it's about the "WHAT".

All the great, cheap rockets in the world aren't answering the fundamental question of what the hell we can produce out there that warrants the enormous risk and costs associated with space endeavors?

[ToxinMortalis]

@quotoo You really didn't watch the video, did you. All your questions are answered.... if you actually watch the video.

[Tesuji96]

Hooray for hard-nosed dreamers like this. Go, man, go!

[Gscully2003]

where do I sign up? Need a network engineer?

[Gscully2003]

where do I sign up? Need a network engineer?

[tim5208686]

First of all, stop insulting the so called "Dark Ages". The so called "Dark Ages were a time of peace in Europe compared to what followed the "Dark Ages". And there were advances in technology, techniques and production.

Now..Dr. Robert Zubrin has a workable plan to get to Mars, terra form it, then safely return. All NASA has to do is implement it.

[PatriotsRepublic]

@tim5208686 wow, you really don't get it do you? NASA is a dead end!!! NASA is a useless cause. NASA isn't the answer, it is the problem. If we completely deregulate the space industry, we'll get all our needs met much more quickly. If we stop robbing from industry in the form of taxation, we'll see industry flourish and all people's welfare increase for the better. Statism like you propose and idolize with your "Dark Ages" comment is a dead end for humanity and should be allowed to die!

[tim5208686]

@PatriotsRepublic See my reply to Whiteshark27. I am not a "Statist", and "Statism" was not the governing principle of the Middle Ages. Subsidiarity was the prevailing political philosophy of the age.

[whiteshark27]

@tim5208686 What advances? We ARE talking about the age that followed the Black Plague right?

[tim5208686]

@whiteshark27 Actually no. the so called "Dark Ages" are another term for the Early Middle Ages to the High Middle Ages (roughly the mid 5th century to the 15th century). What followed the so called "Dark Ages"--the Anabaptist Rebellion, the Peasant Revolt, Lutheranism, Calvinism, the police state and the looting of England under Henry VIII and Elizabeth, the massacre of the Irish by the English under Cromwell, The Thirty Year's War, the French Revolution, etc.--was the true dark period.....

[tim5208686]

@whiteshark27 ...Compared to all that, I'll take the so called "Dark Ages" any time. I didn't even mention the Nepolionic Wars that followed the French Revolution and The Terror. And What followed that?, the Revolution of 1848, the rise of Marxism, WW I and the Russian Revolution, the reaction to the rise of Marxism, WW I and the Russian Revolution--what we know as Fascism/Nazism and WWII--, the Sexual Revolution and the destruction of the family unit, and now Globalism and Militant Jihadism....

[tim5208686]

@whiteshark27 ...Again, I'll take the so called "Dark Ages".

I'm not against going to Mars, I'm in favor of it. Dr. Robert Zubrin has a workable plan. (Search "The Case for Mars" or "Robert Zubrin" or "Mars Society"on Youtube.) Zubrin's plan will work rather NASA implements it or a private organization does. But can we please stop believing that we are so "enlightened" compared to those primitives in the "Dark Ages". Stop the Whig History.

[smf36]

Jeff stressed the importance of creative destruction, a notion that drove the engine of america before too big to fail, GM bailouts, Tarp bank rescues and the like. I really like this guy. A breath of fresh air. Our current hope and change age of selective prosecutions, american decline, and spanking our friends while feeding carrots to our enemies needs to end soon lest we truly enter a dark dark time.

[celebrim1]

Ok, let me at least give a hint while you are thinking about it: Why is the Drake Equation not only extraordinarily bad science (so bad that it makes Intelligent Design seem benign by comparison) but in fact utterly destructive to the very notion of what science is? The answer to that question is in my opinion critical to what Sagan was popularizing, and it definately was not science.

[quantumG]

@celebrim1 how about you just answer the question? Or are you just not honest enough you've painted yourself into a corner?

[celebrim1]

Rather than just hitting me with a bunch of unthinking punctuation, it would be nice if you'd think about why I said what I said. What is it about Sagan that might be construed as a departure from science as the basis of engineering or science as the basis of understanding, and instead might be seen as science being employed as a front for or justification for beliefs not held on the basis of reason? What about Carl Sagan ought to seem in retrospect particular to the New Age culture of the time?

[wickiezulu]

Glad to see some still believe that Humanity should endeavour to reach beyond the Stars, in order to continue humanity’s growth and evolution. I am pretty disgusted with how over the years certain anti-human movements are dragging humanity backwards, keeping us confined to Earth and eroding the resolve to push frontiers, just to bring about their idealised dystopian futures of either a pristine feral Earth without man, a theocratic Arrakis-like Earth or a boot stamping on a human face forever.

[celebrim1]

The Dark Ages did begin in 1968. We are fighting against the post-modernists that would drag us back into the Dark, and they come in many different shades and some are harder to identify than others. They are many and there is almost certainly some branch of them that almost everyone has been influenced by without realizing it from obvious ones like Pat Robertson to seemingly progessive scientific ones like Carl Sagan.

But we will not go silently into the night.

[bs152115]

@celebrim1 are you saying carl sagan dragged us backward?! What?!

[nudenut]

Awesomely inspiring! Would love to get him to present this to a Mars Society audience here in NZ!

[jdorritie]

Liberty and innovation hand in hand, spoken as clearly as I've ever heard it. Truly inspiring.

[LTF85199]

wow, what a great speech

[ikluft]

Jeff is a fantastic speaker. A lot of us can sound enthusiastic but he gets the point across. If you like what you see here, more can be found in the video "Mojave Air & Space Port 2011" - Jeff and other XCOR folks also appear in that video.

[stardolphin2]

This just can not be said loud enough, or often enough...



[Kulumuli]

I like this guy.