Sibley School Seminars: Mason Peck - How to Build Your Own Lunar Homestead (and Advice about TED Talks)

Description

How to Build Your Own Lunar Homestead (and Advice about TED Talks)
Mason Peck
Stephen J. Fujikawa '77 Professor of Astronautical Engineering, Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University

ABSTRACT
This colloquium has two aspects.  First, Dr. Peck will offer a TED-style talk on space technology that supports a sustainable future for humans on the moon. Then he’ll offer some perspective on giving these talks, of which he’s done four in the “TEDx” construct—not all successfully, he claims. 

The first lunar homesteaders have already been born. By 2040 they’ll likely make the moon their home, even if only temporarily at first. Our pursuit of a sustained presence will be successful thanks to commercial approaches to engineering components, operations, and even entire space systems. That perspective has already overtaken the traditional, artisanal, expensive, and unsustainable practices that have characterized space technology to date: we already launch over 10 times more commercial spacecraft every year than we do government-funded military, intelligence, and science-focused spacecraft. That experience will shape how these settlers live off the lunar landscape. They’ll survive thanks to a half-century of lunar and planetary science, but they’ll thrive by implementing low-tech solutions such as geothermal power, habitats comprised of rubble, and familiar construction machinery.  These lunar settlers  need to know how to bootstrap a settlement using what’s available in situ, and not depend on Earth to sustain it. This talk offers some advice to that end.

A TED Talk is at most 18 minutes. This unpaid talk is carefully choreographed, rehearsed, and workshopped. While many contend that TED has benefited the world, giving us access to high-impact ideas presented by compelling speakers, others have called the construct a "monstrosity that turns scientists and thinkers into low-level entertainers, like circus performers.” Peck asserts that the truth is somewhere in between. TEDx is an independent event with the same format and expectations. For example, Cornell holds a TEDxCornell event.  Peck will offer some lessons learned—some at personal cost—about over/under preparation, how to think about a TED audience, and how one might interact with the organizers.

Cornell Engineering Community