#108 Thomas Zurbuchen: Adventures in Astrophysics

Knowledge Project

Key Takeaways The most important question is: “Is somebody else watching the other way?” – Dr. ZurbuchenLife, like planetary systems, might also be distributed in the universeInternational coordination in space is critical for our future However, we see some countries that are making us question whether they’re serious about the peaceful utilization of spaceThings will only heat up because the mining approach to the “world in space” is inevitableThis is especially true of colonizing Mars and mining asteroidsThe toughest part of research is walking the edge between irrelevance and the seemingly impossibleThis requires building programs that push that edge at the maximum speed viable and require that you learn how to failTwo red flags that he tries to keep an eye out for when running an organization:Dishonesty, or over-exaggerating your comfort level Blindness, or forgetting you might not be seeing some part of your trade space“The priority is mission success. We will not rush and make stupid mistakes because every one of these mistakes in that environment costs us hundreds of millions of dollars. Saving a day and having six months to fix a mistake, it’s just a bad thing.” – Thomas Zurbuchen

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Thomas Zurbuchen is currently Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA, where he seeks answers to big questions about the universe and our place in it. Previously, he was a professor of space science and aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan and a founding director of its Center for Entrepreneurship. In this episode, Thomas and Shane discuss the origin of his passion for astrophysics, commercial spaceflight, exciting experiments going on at the International Space Station, the challenges of space flight, how he makes decisions, whether humans will ever live on Mars, and more.

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