Nov 16, 2010

Lunar Numbat's TED debut

There are few better ways to spread the word about the achievements of the White Label Space team than through a TED event.

Last month, Australians were treated to TEDxCanberra - an ideas forum based on the original premise of the Technology Entertainment and Design events that began in the US in 1984.

Lunar Numbat team leader Marco Ostini was invited to speak at the inaugural event
.

Scroll down to jump straight to the video of Marco's presentation

The Australian team is tasked with, among other things, developing the throttle control technology that will hopefully see the WLS Lunar Lander descend safely to the surface of the moon.

In typical TED style, speakers are given between three and 18 minutes. Marco used his to tell those gathered in the Australian capital "Why the world needs a Lunar Numbat".

(FYI - a numbat is an Australian marsupial that suffers from a lack of publicity in its home country. Marco's team have adopted it as a fitting mascot.)

In a nutshell, he squeezed in a wide range of issues, such as:

- Why space science is essential for ongoing human life and the maintenance
of life on Earth

- How space science has stagnated from where it should be, but latent
desires in many, such as those harnessed by the GLXP, can lead to a
reflowering of risk-taking and innovation

- White Label Space being the only team with significant Australian
presence and their development of one the most well thought out and credible
missions ready for actions

- How sponsoring the WLS Lunar mission would derive a lot more prestige
and marketing clout than the average Formula 1 race; and

- How Lunar Numbat hope to bring Open Source innovations to
space science by supporting WLS.

It's a great get for the Aussie team. The inaugural Canberra event sold out in 48 hours and Marco was invited to share his ideas alongside futurists, leading climate change experts, magicians and even the current Australian of the Year.

Check out the video of his speech in full below:

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