Why We Go -- Leaving Our Beautiful Home and Exploring Outer Space: Will Pomerantz at TEDxPCC

William Pomerantz is the Vice President for Special Projects at Virgin Galactic. William's thrilling answer to the question, "Why is it worth it to explore outer space?" leaves every audience member with a zero-gravity buzz!
Will is a graduate from Harvard University, the NASA academy, and the International Space University. Some of the 'Special Projects' Will has worked on are the LauncherOne small satellite launch vehicle and the use of SpaceShipTwo as a research platform, among others. Will is a Trustee of the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS), the world's largest student space organization. He is also a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Space Operations & Support Technical Committee. From 2005 - 2011, he worked at the X Prize Foundation, the world-leading incentive prize organization. As Senior Director of Space Prizes, he served as the primary author and manager of the $30 million Google Lunar Prize and the $2 million Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X CHALLENGE. Will has also worked at Harvard and Brown Universities, the Futron Corporation, and the United Nations.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

[@JustBe74]

Great talk William Pomerantz. Lets see if we, as a species, can work together even more in this common goal of space exploration. #SpaceUnites

[@K.I.A22]

Joachim Baptist week I think there would be a confrontation on who gets to lead and they will fight each other.

[@jamiegodman715]

Growing up with no Apollo program success but rather the Challenger failure, I had pretty much given up hope that Mankind would ever even go back to the Moon, let alone go to Mars. However, SpaceX has rekindled my passion for space exploration and watching their success with Falcon 9 and Dragon I believe that we will become a true space fairing species. There has been more innovation in aerospace in the last 7 years than the previous 40 years combined. I am so glad that new space companies like Blue Origin, Bigelow Aerospace, SpaceX and many more are doing what Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Aerojet and Orbital ATK could never do, and that's innovate. These new space companies actually care about the exploration of space, where as Boeing and Lockmart only care about quarterly profits and cost-plus contracts. The sad part is 40+ years have been wasted with the space shuttle and expendable launch vehicles. Just imagine if the Saturn rockets had been given the opportunity to fly and innovate and be improved. The cost would have dropped for a Saturn V while the efficiency would have been increased. Eventually the Saturn stages could have evolved to be reusable. The Orion spacecraft being built today could have been flying humans in cis-lunar space for decades now if Saturn had not been cancelled. The space shuttles were great for building the ISS, but terrible for anything else. Shuttle could never have explored. Cancelling the STS program is what kick started the new space revolution we are seeing today. So I believe retiring shuttle ha been the greatest thing to happen to American aerospace and space exploration since the Apollo program. We truly live in amazing and exciting times as the new frontier which is our solar system is opening up to mankind like never before.

[@rubenbrixton620]

you all prolly dont care at all but does anyone know a trick to get back into an instagram account? I somehow lost my account password. I would love any assistance you can offer me

[@manueltrey3465]

@Ruben Brixton instablaster :)

[@alexsaldarriaga8318]

Inspiring presentation. Space unites all of humanity. I hope we can all behave and collaborate up there much better than we do down here. Thank you.

[@saud8329]

Alex Saldarriaga so true. if only we could leave our religion and ethnicity behind

[@jamiegodman715]

Alex Saldarriaga 15 nations work and live on the ISS in peace and harmony. Space has been by far the best platform for humanity to set aside their differences and learn to work together as one race, mankind!

[@JafryAdil]

Very inspiring!!

[@malcolmsmith6380]

There's trillions of dollars in heavy elements on individual asteroids and for us an effectively unlimited amount in the solar system alone. These elements are almost all in the core on earth but not in asteroids. There are also many ways to massively lower the cost and energy taken to get to space. It could be a very good environment for industry if we continue to develop the necessary technologies.

[@Lion-rf8xi]

Also With a space elevator we can just send our worst waste materials elsewhere in the solar system.

[@jamiegodman715]

Chad I don't believe a space elevator will ever be viable. But that is just my opinion based on all available facts, I could be wrong.

[@moby11000]

Our home is beautiful and has everything I need to live and enjoy my shirt life... Therefor I will not leave my home

[@erodict5840]

+MO BET The thing is, we humans have a sense of exploration, some have a stronger desire to explore than others, i'd love to travel to go to the moon

[@Morewilliam]

so I guess you will stick with your house and not leaving even it was stroke by lightning or caught on fire?

[@ozzyfromspace]

M BEE must have some really strong shirt game

[@angeliquehazard1591]

mind blowing!

[@aakrutigupta8168]

These videos of ted are so underrated it’s sad ...

[@cindyhuang1109]

Good Job buddy! You rock!

[@Cherryblossomthursday]

Inspirational!

[@phy29]

You know it exist an infinity kind of propultion that permit to go far 10 Parsec/h but your problem not the energy or carburant your problem is maths growth cascady compinaison with the precision ....

[@michaelfrymus]

So.. they paid to go into space. Are they still waiting?? I have not heard of anything recently about any updates

[@phy29]

you have not enough formula with acceleration the laws of newton not the only one think at just this each time you derivate a formula with speed you found acceleration

[@furbatamang5894]

Let’s make our gifted planet more beautiful for every living being, instead of polluting other planet..

[@furbatamang5894]

I am with him.. very beautiful thinking

[@chrisbraid2907]

We go back to Mars and find out why we left. Also why the brainiacs we were couldn’t make a go of it so went to earth to survive on a different one to our uninhabitable rock that we destroyed ....

[@longgenes2250]

Will the rich people leave us here on earth?

[@geoffjenkins4633]

+Justin The Mix I think that depends on how society views "rich".

[@klansix]

yes they will leave us. then we'll have to start working to feed the poor

[@gphilipc2031]

No, because we "Poor" and "Middle Class" are their farm crop. If they go...they are going to have to take some "crops" with them.

[@blackboxcameracom]

Can vampires live only among their own kind?

[@DarthVader20201]

Long Genes "we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one..." John F. Kennedy well replace that with Mars with Obama saying that.

[@Ash-ie1zd]

9 minutes wondering the same question

[@CoolGirl007]

He said "space is fun" But....

[@phy29]

Do you know that if you solve all the problems on Earth it stays 10 years after for human to live cause people will make more babies ....

[@sc38converter]

no way to contact him, yet he speaks truths, he is a no one .

[@chunglee6895]

Live in the cave is easy

[@sambachelder1196]

that moment when you realize markiplier has more subs, this is where our world is going guys, its not NASA its FNAF

[@arthurgreen167]

I don't buy into this fantasy. With an ecological, financial, social and spiritual crisis it is very irresponsible to initiate large projects that practically spits money into outer space. In my opinion we must to be able to maintain and appreciate the only celestial body that can support human life, learn our place within it, and become sustainable before we even begin thinking about exploring outer space (which might well be worth it scientifically or otherwise).

[@joshuagreenhouse4048]

Andy Green You might rethink what you are saying if you look up "Obayashi space elevator". It's a Japanese company that has announced that they plan to have a space elevator built by 2050. It will reduce the cost of sending a pound of material into space from about $20,000 to roughly $400 per pound. We can send so many solar panels into space and have infinite energy from the sun. In my opinion, we should put double the money into funding space and a space elevator in order to bring about free resources for everyone in the Earth.

[@arthurgreen167]

Okay, Ill check it out. But still, I think that we already have everything we need. I dont know if you have seen that picture of the actual areal needed to "feed the whole world with the energy from solar panels", but it is really quite small. The size of Luxemburg or so. The problem, materially speaking, is that it costs more energy to build these things (such as solar panels) and the infrastructure required to transport/transmit the energy in question than they actually harness. There is also a problem of power, i.e., whom are these technologies actually for seeing as they are so expensive? The problem, culturally speaking, is that we can't do more with less (in my humble opinion:).

[@nunyabidness6961]

Andy Green I have to disagree with pretty much everything going into your opinion, but first and most glaringly, your unsupported declaration that 'we already have everything we need'. Do we have at least two self-sustaining offworld colonies? No? Then in order to ensure that no single disaster or plague or whatever doesn't wipe us all out, we most certainly do not 'already have everything we need'. More importantly, a great deal, perhaps most of the higher technology that we enjoy today has it's basis in physics and other understandings garnered from observing and exploring beyond Earth. To deny it's necessity is to deny and denigrate every benefit you enjoy that are it's products. Everything from GPS to MRI. The computer you're having this discussion through...do you think that the space program, or the physicists and astronomers seeking better modeling to understand what they were seeing out in the wider universe had nothing to do with it's origins? Do you think space-based telecommunications just magically popped into existence in orbit around Earth, just waiting to route your information? You say investing time and resources into space exploration is pointless. That we need to solve our problems here first. But I'm telling you, the solution to a great number of our problems will be found out there, not down here. This is now proven historical fact. And I must ask: To what 'spiritual crises' do you refer? The one where everyone is finally waking up to realize that there is a path to truth that is full of wonder and understanding that produces real miracles, but cannot be found in any Bronze Age book of mysticism, political propaganda, and superstition? Because that's not a crisis.

[@nunyabidness6961]

Andy Green I have to disagree with pretty much everything going into your opinion, but first and most glaringly, your unsupported declaration that 'we already have everything we need'. Do we have at least two self-sustaining offworld colonies? No? Then in order to ensure that no single disaster or plague or whatever doesn't wipe us all out, we most certainly do not 'already have everything we need'. More importantly, a great deal, perhaps most of the higher technology that we enjoy today has it's basis in physics and other understandings garnered from observing and exploring beyond Earth. To deny it's necessity is to deny and denigrate every benefit you enjoy that are it's products. Everything from GPS to MRI. The computer you're having this discussion through...do you think that the space program, or the physicists and astronomers seeking better modeling to understand what they were seeing out in the wider universe had nothing to do with it's origins? Do you think space-based telecommunications just magically popped into existence in orbit around Earth, just waiting to route your information? You say investing time and resources into space exploration is pointless. That we need to solve our problems here first. But I'm telling you, the solution to a great number of our problems will be found out there, not down here. This is now proven historical fact. And I must ask: To what 'spiritual crises' do you refer? The one where everyone is finally waking up to realize that there is a path to truth that is full of wonder and understanding that produces real miracles, but cannot be found in any Bronze Age book of mysticism, political propaganda, and superstition? Because that's not a crisis.

[@arthurgreen167]

Can you please specify whom "everyone", "we" and "humanity" are? How would they be beneficial, exactly? I have a hard time believing that the achievements of the James Webb Space Telescope will change the life of the billions now working for the benefit of the rich. And why would an additional planet solve any problems at all when the dominant way of human livelihood is proven ecologically destructive (i.e., anti-life)? The evidence is all around you. Look back two hundred years in the place where you are now and I am almost certain you will find that life has declined. There is no reason to believe that living on another (I wont say additional, because it sounds too possessive) planet will bring anything but an amplification of the inequalities and the destruction we see today. What historical evidence is there that colonialisation benefits the masses? Contrary, many would say that colonialisation is an enterprise initiated and upheld by domination and abuse. Okay, so to your comments Nunya Bidness . What people think they need is after the basics first and foremost a matter of perception. To line up the likelihood of plagues, epidemics, astroid collisions and so forth is more than anything part of evidence that what the dominant culture (or modern human) fear most of all is the lack of control. It is putting the environment, or natural phenomena in opposition to human beings. Various indigenous cultures and scientists insist, still, that we to a large degree are our environment. There is, I would say, no reason to be afraid of plagues or natural phenomena if we accept this fact. The odds are astronomical... I think we should more fear man-made plagues and deceases arising for instance with the manipulation of genetic material and other violent ideas originating in the belief that we are separated from Earth. This is nothing that changes (but perhaps perpetuates) with the coloniaisation of another planet. Can you try to see that? We cannot live without Earth. It is us and it nourishes us in a way that no other planet can. In my most humble opinion, this is the first realisation that needs to sink in before anyone contemplates visiting other planets. Another point, you mention that technology originates from science. This is simply false. No technology as we know it could exist without mobilisation of capital. And capital is, once again, an idea. Right? Feel free to object. It is first and foremost a belief system (primarily concerning money) that makes some people benefit on the labour of others. If that is true; imagine the amazing amount of labour power that would be needed to technologically support the life-system of another planet; imagine the level of mental and physical control necessary to make people believe in the cause; imagine the resource requirements and the pending inequalities. I say no thank you. I will not do it on the wiff of an idea initiated by fear and a lack of appreciation of humans as a part of the universe. I have some problems with your formulation, "out there" and "down here". These are constructions that makes your argument weak. Also, please inform me about this historical fact that outer space colonialisation will improve the lives of the many? Have this happened in the past you mean? I am listening with patience.. Finally, I do not agree with your definition of a spiritual crisis.

[@shadowshow701]

Like Hollywood, do you have to be Jewish to work at NASA?

[@praetor29]

No, of course not

[@drivenlight7462]

Though we can make plenty of new discoveries by exploring space, I ultimately think it's a waste of time. I like how we have our own satellites orbiting our planet, making life easier but it's not surprising that Transhumanist want to go beyond what we're doing with technology and probe other planets and expanding ourselves across the universe. You guys can research that up for yourselves but as a Christian and someone that believes in the after life, the entire universe will be explained to those who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We simply ask and Jesus Christ will answer everything during the 1,000 year reign on the new Earth. But of course, to each their own, I'm simply stating my own opinion on space exploration,

[@joshuagreenhouse4048]

Driven Light People like yourself are the reason that our species may very well face extinction in the near future. I don't mean to be rude like I am, but what you are saying is that it's okay to destroy the environment, stay on Earth, ignore massive asteroids, burn fossil fuels, ignore global warming, and everything else; simply because you THINK it is going to be okay. For those of us that do not believe that, we know that a massive asteroid can wipe out everything on the Earth. Global warming will destroy our atmosphere and our planet. Destruction of the environment makes it harder to breathe; and space exploration is a waste of time? Space has infinite resources, and the sun alone produces more energy in two milliseconds than the whole Earth uses in one year. Infinite resources. Tell me again why it is a waste of time?

[@drivenlight7462]

Joshua Yankerman I don't believe I said anything about me being okay with the destruction of the Earth and it's environment. What I am wanting to say is that God will take care of us. He will ultimately deliver us in the end times. The difference between you and me, believers and non believers, is that I put my trust in God. While you and many others, put your trust in Man. Man can not save you from an expired Earth. Only God can, he is after all the creator and he has given promise to everyone who believes in him, that they will be saved. Now I'm not saying you are evil, nor am I saying all non believers are too. For you are not my enemy. Ephesians 6:12-13 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.… Satan is our common enemy but believe me. We everyday are in spiritual warfare. We are constantly being put to the test, against the temptations of this world. This world belongs to Satan and it is why the way the world is today. Man may continue in his efforts to go into the further corners of the universe but he will not finish it, just like the tower of Babel, when God destroyed it because if they did in those times before the Flood, anything would have been possible for Mankind. God will take care of us and that's why I believe, space exploration will not matter.

[@joshuagreenhouse4048]

Driven Light I know you mean well, you are a good Christian; just like I once was. However, because you believe that your God well deliver us, we shouldn't worry about space? I have a firm belief in evolution. It has been not only backed, checked, proven, etc, but it is happening all the time. Let me ask you this: how much study have you done on evolution? How many scientific articles have you read? Now tell me how much of the Bible you've studied. Is there a large lean one way or another? If you have only scratched the surface of evolution, I can tell you anything you would like to know-and while I don't know everything, I do know quite a bit. "God is an ever receding pocket of scientific ignorance" -Neil degrasse Tyson

[@petersidajaya5684]

Joshua Yankerman from the tone of your writing, do you believe that he doesn't believe the evolution because he's a Christian?

[@malcolmsmith6380]

+Driven Light There's trillions of dollars in heavy elements on individual asteroids and for us an effectively unlimited amount in the solar system alone. These elements are rare as for us as almost all are in the core on earth but not in asteroids. We should Invest in space to gain greater prosperity for us and almost certainly for our children. It's not about transhumanism or people's religion it's about economics and the large initial investment thats needed for a potentially much much larger return. On a global scale it a good investment opportunity simple as.