We have entered the era of New Space, when private interests have been given the green light and are finally making headway into the commercialization of the final frontier. It's already past the time for tough questions. Will mining asteroids really save the Earth? Can humans avoid extinction by moving our civilization to Earth-orbiting space colonies or terraforming and colonizing Mars? What about the hype over space tourism, or the tens of thousands of internet satellites planned for low Earth orbit? Is any of it even realistic? The speaker will give us her take on the recent developments in space exploration and what it means for all of humanity, now and into the future.

The speaker is Carolyn Porco, an award-winning planetary scientist and explorer and a popular public spokesperson on science, planetary exploration, and the future of humanity. She is a visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley and a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences. She was the character consultant on Carl Sagan's 1997 film 'Contact' and the science consultant on the 2009 film 'Star Trek'. Asteroid Porco 7231 is named in her honor.

This video, based on a Zoom event that took place on 09/03/22, was produced by Neeti Sonth, and is presented by the Mt Tam Astronomy Program.