Chris Lewicki on Space: Stop Reading About It And Start Doing It!

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Chris Lewicki is the president and Chief Asteroid Miner at Planetary Resources – the first company that plans to locate and mine asteroids for water and precious metals. The company is backed by a number of billionaires and space enthusiasts such as director James Cameron, Google’s Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt, X Prize founder Peter Diamandis and billionaire Ross Perot Jr., along with a number of other incredible minds. As Michio Kaku once put it: “You can’t go wrong if you put together a bunch of billionaires and NASA scientists.” And so I was very excited to interview Chris Lewicki for Singularity 1 on 1.

During my conversation with Lewicki we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: how Chris got inspired to work on space exploration; his teenage “deviation” into rock-and-roll music; science fiction, Star Trek and Star Wars; Planetary Resources and its mission; the ARKYD series of spacecraft and their current Kickstarter project;  the importance of building a community; the company vision timeline; the potential for space war; artificial intelligence and the technological singularity…

My two favorite quotes that I will take away from this conversation with Chris Lewicki are:

In space it’s not about the distance; It’s really about the energy.

and

Stop reading about it and start doing it!

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Who is Chris Lewicki?

Mr. Lewicki holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Arizona. Chris has been intimately involved with the lifecycle of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers and the Phoenix Mars Lander. Chris performed system engineering development and participated in assembly, test, and launch operations for both Mars missions. He was Flight Director for the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, and the Surface Mission Manager for Phoenix. The recipient of two NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals, Lewicki has an asteroid named in his honor: 13609 Lewicki. At Planetary Resources, Mr. Lewicki is responsible for the strategic development of the company’s mission and vision, engagement with customers and the scientific community, serves as technical compass, and leads day-to-day operations.

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