I help bridge bold space ideas to reality. Former NASA Engr/Flight Director, Planetary Resources CEO/co-founder. Building tools from lessons learned both ways.
Seattle, WA
Joined June 2008
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Chris Lewicki retweeted
A dream 10 years in the making is now real.
ESA is opening Hera to the global software community.
#AI, #robotics, #autonomy, image processing, #gaming— your code could run in deep space, 150 million km from Earth.
Your code. Our spacecraft. Deep space🚀
#OpenSource #SpaceTech
🚨 OPEN CALL: Run your code in deep space!
For the first time, we are opening access to a living mission. We’ll be turning our Hera asteroid mission into a flying software lab 150M km from Earth. Open to AI, robotics, gaming, etc!
💻 Submit your idea esa.int/Enabling_Support/Spa…
ALT Hera spacecraft beside impact crater on asteroid
Chris Lewicki retweeted
The Orteig Prize put Lindbergh across the Atlantic and ignited the airline age. The Kremer Prize produced human-powered flight. The Ansari XPRIZE opened private spaceflight.
Today, we're announcing The Boom Prize: $750k in cash and $50k in Boom stock for the first American amateur-built radio controlled airplane to break the sound barrier.
Judges are @rookisaacman, @lrocket, @DJSnM, and Phil Condit.
The prize is co-sponsored by Alex Gerko, @ElectricCapital, @caffeinatedcap, @balajis, @Denver_Ventures, and @joshbuckley.
Rules and registration on the Boom website.
This is going to be exciting!
Chris Lewicki retweeted
China's Tianwen-2 probe is matching orbits with space rock (469219) Kamo'oalewa, in a 0.90 x 1.10 AU x 7. 8 deg solar orbit. The rock is about 20 meters across and has a mass around 7000 tonnes, and is the smallest asteroid so far to have been visited by a spacecraft
Chris Lewicki retweeted
I don't mind living in a society that allows a man who employs more than 110,000 people, pioneered electric cars, and whose rockets we take to the moon, to be the world's first trillionaire.
Chris Lewicki retweeted
No, you don't get it.
He does not have $1 trillion sitting in cash, it is 99% stock in his companies.
To make that wealth liquid would mean selling all that stock which would swiftly destroy *both* the companies (Tesla, SpaceX, others) and the wealth. If he sold it all, he'd end up with maybe $100b max, several hundred thousand people would be out of work, the companies ruined and many of their suppliers also ruined.
Okay, but now Elon has $100b in cash, and can "solve the world's problems".
$100b divided by the world's 8 billion people is $12
If you were in charge, several of the most innovative industrial companies in the world would be destroyed, hundreds of thousands out of work, and space would again close to human civilization for another generation.
But everyone on earth could have one nice meal and you could revel in your altruism.
Chris Lewicki retweeted
"The hardest part is never the technology. It's getting people's brains to keep up with it."
— Peter Diamandis, born on this day in 1961
Chris Lewicki retweeted
A startup, a skill, and a life all fail the same way: by optimizing for appearance before usefulness.
Chris Lewicki retweeted
We're partnering with @XPRIZE and Range Media Partners to launch the Future Vision XPRIZE, a $3.5 million global film competition. We're putting out a call for short films and trailers that envision an optimistic, technology-forward future, using the power of storytelling and AI tools like @FlowByGoogle.
Chris Lewicki retweeted
My definition of a planet is from a galactic perspective.
If you were approaching the Solar System, considering orbital characteristics Pluto is clearly “not like the others”, and for that matter neither is Mercury.
I might include Vesta and Ceres among the planets.
Chris Lewicki retweeted
One of the enjoyable parts of @NASAArtemis has been the eloquence of @Astro_Christina in sharing her experience and passion.
Do you have any quotes from Christina you can share?
Chris Lewicki retweeted
The @UCF Space Ideation Challenge will award $125,000 for YOUR ideas on effective space policy. An amazing group of judges will review the submissions and the winners will be recognized at #UCFSpaceWeek this fall. These ideas will be presented to national space leaders.
Be sure to follow the link to submit your idea for the Space Ideation Contest! bit.ly/3PKWP1V #BusinessKnights #ChargeOn
Chris Lewicki retweeted
You can literally write the future into existence with a story. Tell us your optimistic vision of the future— futurevisionXPRIZE.com
Technologies that started as science fiction:
Submarines — Jules Verne, 1870. Built by Simon Lake, 1898.
Rockets — H.G. Wells, 1898. Built by Robert Goddard, 1926.
Helicopters — Jules Verne, 1886. Built by Igor Sikorsky, 1939.
Tablet computers — Arthur C. Clarke, 1968. Built by Apple, 2010.
Video calling — The Jetsons, 1962. Built by Zoom, 2013.
The internet — William Gibson coined “cyberspace,” 1984. The web went live, 1991.
Humanoid robots — Karel Čapek, 1920. Built by Tesla, 2024.
Universal translators — Murray Leinster, 1945. Built by Google, 2017.
Brain-computer interfaces — William Gibson, 1984. Built by Neuralink, 2024.
De-extinction — Michael Crichton, 1990. Being built by Colossal, today.
What else?
Chris Lewicki retweeted
Yes - you do use an ID to vote in Congress..
With:
* A free ID paid for by the government.
* That they make sure you have received.
* In a voter roll you are automatically on and not purged from when eligible.
* With processes to manage your vote if you forget /lose your ID.
If you want mandatory voter ID, then include those kinds of provisions.
Otherwise you're just trying to make voter suppression easier.
Chris Lewicki retweeted
It’s great to see private initiatives investing in fundamental science, like Schmidt Sciences with its ambitious new Lazuli space telescope. Exploration and understanding of our Universe is a mission all of humanity can be part of.
science.org/content/article/…
Chris Lewicki retweeted
If you're a journalist interested in telling a balanced narrative and want the 'pro' orbital data centers logic/math, we've made it VERY VERY easy.
These articles are all open and ungated. You can just grok them if you need help parsing the numbers.
Please take the time to understand the math and physics behind the pro case before publishing the skeptic case as fact.
Launch limiters and initial math - research.33fg.com/analysis/i…
Energy Cost from space -
research.33fg.com/analysis/o…
Location for ODCs why SSO -
research.33fg.com/analysis/w…
Debunking the cooling/radiator problem -
research.33fg.com/analysis/d…
The ODC landscape/China's role -
research.33fg.com/analysis/o…
explaining the Chips for ODCs -
research.33fg.com/analysis/e…
We take pride in anchoring our analysis in physics and math. We also try to communicate any assumptions when made. We welcome genuine feedback.
It's worth noting that we layer on a lot of conservatism in our timelines. I wouldn't be all that surprised that Elon and others make our predictions look stupid.
This article @vsmason references is a waste of print space, reading time and intellectual effort. It starts with the ridiculous assumption that cost to orbit on a Falcon 9 is $3,600 per ton (hint: it's SpaceX's selling price!), and proceeds down the hopeless rabbit hole with continuing - and increasing - errors. If you want to get a rigorous "explainer on this issue" I recommend you follow and read posts by @aaronburnett on this subject. Best independent analysis on the economics orbital AI.