Why building a series of huge pools maybe just what we need to help tackle problems with climate change and lead us onto new voyages of discovery. Watch this enlightening talk by John as he explains how water is vital here on Earth both as a resource and training environment for humanity, as we look to begin the exploration of our solar system. John is the Chief Executive of Blue Abyss. A passionate scuba diver, who learnt to swim at 18 months old in Liberia, he has a love of both our oceans and outer space. His earliest TV memories include (at around six years of age) The Day the Earth Stood Still, various Apollo launches, and the Apollo/Soyuz link up in 1975. Influenced by those early space clips on TV and the marine equivalent of Sir David Attenborough, Jacques Cousteau, he learnt to SCUBA dive in the army where he also qualified as an instructor.
Spotting the connection between diving and exploring both on and off this planet, he remains excited by the exploration still to be done in the world’s oceans as well as humanity’s quest to colonise Low Earth Orbit, our Moon and beyond. Curiosity remains a key motivator alongside travel, to mostly hot countries.
Having left a career in the City, John created the outline and vision for Blue Abyss, which he founded in October 2014, as the world’s largest aquatic-based marine-to-space R&D and training facility and will be the world’s first commercial astronaut training centre. One year later, with a colleague, set up SeaSpace Research – to compliment Blue Abyss by facilitating research projects on behalf of SMEs.
John is married with two children and lives in Essex. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
Water — the connection between Earth & Space | John Vickers | TEDxUniversityofStrathclyde