Eighteen minutes can seem like an eternity on the TED stage, or it can go by in a flash. But every now and then, someone will speak with such passion, conviction, and vision that you just know you’re hearing the worlds of a world changing individual. That was my reaction to listening to Bill Stone.

Stone is an explorer. You know, like Columbus. And as Stone’s eye is on space. The plan he laid out for commercializing space travel was so detailed, so simple, and from the standpoint of a non- scientist so achievable, I fond myself imagining a world in which space travel is common place this is now in the foreseeable future.

Simply put – Stone says that the problem with all current space exploration is that it is based on bringing with you all the fuel you need to get into orbit, and get home. You have to carry it with you, and space travel’s cost is measured by the kilogram. Simply put, it’s cost prohibitive to launch a lot of fuel with you when you go up to space. But Stone says that there has been indication's that there is a large collection of a fuel source on the Moon, in a region called Shackleton Crater. His vision is the travel to the moon, set up a mining operation, and basically build a giant orbiting gas station. The result would be that ships would no longer need to carry enough fuel to launch, orbit, and land - they would simply need a one-way tank of gass to get them into orbit. This is a wild idea, and Stone knows it. He happily suggests that we’ve become too comfortable and risk averse to explore the universe in a way that will yield ground breaking results. So, he’s prepared to lead the mission…. Do it in just 7 years, and take enough fuel to get him to the moon without resources to get him him. He will mine the fuel necessary to get his team back to earth. He’ll risk his life. And he point out that explorers – true explorers - don’t have a return ticket when they’re exploring the outer reaches of man’s known world.

Historically, space exploration, has carried all its fuel, along with enought to get home. Now Stone says risk is required: "the first expeditionary team must travel to Shackleton crater without the fuel to come back, and produce it there. It can be done in 7 years, and I intend to lead that expedition. There was a time when people did bold things to open new frontiers. We have collectively forgotten that. Now we are at a time when boldness is required again".

Is Bill Stone the next Christopher Columbus? Well, if he isn’t , I don’t know who is.

Here's a link to Stone Areospace

Here's a great link of Stone's whole talk, from Bruno Giussani on Huffington Post: LINK