From reality to imagination

摘要

For this IAC 2008 highlight lecture Space Exploration Beyond the Vision - Relevance, Return and Relationships G. Scott Hubbard (former director of NASA Ames Research Centre) turned around the theme of the conference and attempted to outline what he believed to be the defining factors in the next 50 years of space exploration, writes David Parkinson. In defining a reason to explore space, he suggested that it is better to give a reason that "is not just about the future but about the present". Hubbard identified three themes that will be important for space exploration -relevance (for the tax payer or investor), return and relationships. An example of relevance is predicting the effects of climate change on the human biosphere which is currently beyond the capacity of today's global models. Another example is solar power satellites, where the payoff is environmentally clean power. But he admitted that such technology development will require massive investment.