The Dawn of a New Space Era: Maggie Aderin-Pocock at TEDxHousesofParliament 

I love hearing Maggie Aderin speak-so inspired!

Even looking (relatively) short-term, it's a good idea. The act of trying to make environments more accessible and safer creates loads of new innovations that can help outside of that environment, like memory foam coming from NASA trying to make safer craft cushions. By looking at challenges from different angles, we find solutions that are answers to other problems. Space means improved telecommunications, travel speed, scientific knowledge, and access to more resources that are depleting here.

This is a fascinating talk on a fascinating topic by a wonderful, brilliant person. Anyone who takes a Clanger with them to do a TED talk is okay by me! She is, however, wrong. Manned spaceflight on the scale she's describing will never be commercially viable, unless an unforeseen leap in technology takes place, such as a device that reduces the impact of gravity on an object. Even Aderin-Pocock's reality TV idea would not recoop the cost, and would be dependent on a fickle public maintaining their interest in reality TV (and on the overlap on the Venn diagram between Star Trek fans and Big Brother fans being quite a lot fatter than it is.) The cost of spaceflight will not fall because there needs to be good socioeconomic reasons for the cost of technology to fall, and there just aren't for spaceflight.The costs will always outway the benefits if we measure benefits in terms of material gain. The only commercial spaceflights will be available to hyper-rich, mostly white Etonians who are going up there for a lark because having foxes ripped to bits got dull. That's hardly Rodenberry's future as I understand it. We have to go in the opposite direction entirely. Take capitalism out of learning, so that getting more money is no longer the goal of being educated. Bring up a generation who want to go to the stars, because why would any sane human not want to go to the stars? Make money not the point, because as long as money is the point, large-scale manned spaceflight will always cost more than it makes.

Brilliant

Go Dr. Maggie Adherin Pocock

For a planet to be habitable, not only it has water in liquid form and atmosphere, it also have to have magnetic field to protect from dangerous cosmic rays.

Am I the only one here because school has told me to watch this?

I believe she is actually Tommy Cooper's daughter - I can hear his influence. She has recently been awarded the FSC.

11:10 I don't see any border even now.

NOP I ALSO HAVE TO WHACH THIS BEACUSE OF SCHOOL

People saying "fix all the problems here on earth before bothering with space travel" is one of my pet hates. If we "sort this planet out first" then we will NEVER go into space. 5 Billion years from now we'll still be trying to sort out Earth's problems, and still failing miserably, and then the sun turns into a red giant and that's all she wrote. Actually, long before 5 billion years. An asteroid will get us first at some point, if we're still stuck here "sorting this planet out". Humanity must spread across multiple planets to safeguard itself against the possibility of going extinct due to an asteroid strike or suchlike wiping out all life on one planet. Sorting out all the problems on Earth can wait. In fact it probably won't ever happen.

11.12

As interesting as it is, I honestly do not understand why we pay/or are prepared to pay the money that we do, to travel into space to visit different planets or other activities. Isn't it more important to sort this planet out with the issues that it had before we venture out? Is it really worth the cost? That's my opinion anyway. God video though.

Your opinion is shared by many. And it's the same opinion expressed when Magellan and Columbus were seeking funding. That opinion has always been on the wrong side of history. Exploration has always led to innovation, from better clocks to better ships for commerce to better medical technology to better solar cells, all of which propagate to benefit the general population. Spend a few minutes on the "NASA Spinoffs" page.

Why is she wearing that? Why is she holding those? SUBTEXT PLEASE?!?

Why no boarders? I know what the disadvantage is. If an planet was discovered with alien races that has boarders with big differences between the them that would be a much more diverse and interesting planet than if they were all the same. If we find a lost race of people in the Amazon rain forest would she want to bring them to London to integrate? That would obviously be wrong on every level. Leave them be. Boarders between countries are great and necessary. She didn't think that through.

10:45 Better not show this to Elon Musk! Because if you do he'll redesign the BFR once again!