Naveen Jain, Fiona Harrison & Will Pomerantz on Exploring and Commercializing Space

Entrepreneur, philanthropist and Moon Express co-founder Naveen Jain thinks that only generalists and  entrepreneurs will ever be able to stop whining and boldly go forward into space to begin collecting the new knowledge and skills necessary to start solving our pressing Earthbound problems.



And some of his best comments; along with others from Will Pomerantz, the VP of special projects for Virgin Galactic; and Fiona Harrison, a professor of physics and astronomy at the California Institute of Technology; are available online at FORA.tv as part of its coverage of the recent Atlantic Magazine Big Science Summit.

Naveen Jain.

Even better, the Atlantic has condensed the essence of their hour long discussion into the optimistic and easily digestible October 30th, 2012 article on how "the Space Race Is On: Both NASA and private enterprise look to the stars for new areas of exploration."

According to the article:

The Space Race -- both in terms of manned travel and remote sensing expeditions -- is as competitive now as during the days of Sputnik. Some new astronauts never leave the ground, but their remote probes travel hundreds of thousands of miles, sending back hi-res images and collecting terabytes of data.

Jain, with his wealth and international connections (including his Moon Express partnership with Bob Richards, the founding director of the space division of Vaughn, Ontario based Optec Incorporated) is an obvious person to track in the emerging newspace industry.

The American "mass" media seems to be in the midst of finally getting the hang of this. Kudos to the Atlantic.