Science Guy Bill Nye tells Planetary Society that he hopes an Australian will get to walk on Mars
ONE of the most dapper guys on the planet — with one of the biggest brains — really hopes an Australian will get to walk on Mars. VIDEO: Bill Nye’s awkward Adelaide elevator moment
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ONE of the most dapper guys on the planet — with one of the biggest brains — really hopes an Australian will get to walk on Mars.
Bill Nye is known as the Science Guy. He has more than 5.3 million Twitter followers, and he’s one of the headline acts at the International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide this week.
More importantly, he’s the chief of the world’s biggest non-profit space organisation, the Planetary Society.
He’s not being flippant about an Australian on Mars; there are plans to be orbiting the Red Planet in a decade and to descend to the surface not long after that.
And he says the national space agency plan announced this week was the best thing Australians could do to get involved in space.
“You’ll find it’ll be the best brand Australia has — people will celebrate it, it will inspire young people, it will inspire all of Australia’s citizens,” he said on Tuesday.
“I remind all Australians that any picture you’ve ever seen from space, whether it was taken by Apollo 8 … or from Saturn last week, all those pictures go through Canberra — you couldn’t do it without Australia.”
He said Mars was the big hope for finding intelligent life out there, saying everyone has the same two questions: Where did we come from and are we alone in the universe?
“Mars is the next destination for humans so I hope an Australian astronaut gets to walk on Mars,” he said.
“(Life on Mars) won’t change everything but it will transform humankind. I hope Australian astronauts are part of that.”
On more Earthly matters, Professor Nye, asked about the current debate over energy generation, said Australia had a good line in renewable energy jobs that couldn’t be exported.
“In Australia, you have all the energy you need in the wind and the sun, geothermal and tidal energy, to run the whole place.
“I’m sure people will figure this out soon enough,” he said.
“I love you all. But coal is the worst thing to burn.”