Last month, NASA powered up the Orion Spacecraft for the first time, bringing renewed attention to a new and
exciting era of space exploration – a human mission to Mars.
We cannot understate
just how incredible this is!
We've been
fascinated with the sky above for thousands of years. In 1961, technology
turned that fascination into reality when humans first escaped gravity to enter
into space. Eight years later, we landed on the moon.
In the nearly 50
years that followed, our ambitions have grown from humans orbiting the Earth,
to orbiting the moon, to landing on the moon, to now traveling to Mars.
Sustainability in Space
During the last
several months, John Mandyck, Chief Sustainability Officer of United Technologies, has been talking to sustainability experts
from around the world about how we can make Earth a better, healthier planet. But
how important is sustainability once we venture into space? And what goes into
designing the support systems to sustain human life for the travel, landing and
walk on Mars?
Turns out, sustainability
is probably THE most important part of space travel!
Gary Adamson is a
30-year engineering veteran for UTC Aerospace Systems -- the
same company that has provided hardware on every manned NASA platform since
Apollo, and the life support systems that kept John Glenn alive as he first
orbited the earth and that enabled Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the
atmosphere-less moon. UTC Aerospace Systems has also been there for every Space
Shuttle mission.
On our latest
podcast, we go into detail about how we can sustain life itself on the human
mission to Mars, and learn the lessons for sustainability we can apply back
here on Earth.
All this from a
leading engineer helping to design the life support systems for the most ambitious
human voyage of all time.
You can find The
Race to 9 Billion and previous episodes on iTunes, Google Play,
and www.raceto9billion.com. Join the conversation on
Twitter @JohnMandyck and tell us what you think.
