EVE Fanfest 2013 Videos

[Streetwind]

I'm sure that most of you will have heard of EVE Online, space drama sandbox extraordinaire. The Iceland-based developers of said MMO host a convention in Reykjavík every year, called Fanfest. During Fanfest 2013, there was (for the first time, but hopefully not the only time) a series of panels under the motto "Making EVE Real", where guest speakers from private companies were invited to talk about topics that appear in the game, but may soon exist in real life as well. And thankfully, these panels were recorded on video and made available online.

I personally found watching these panels great fun, and I think that anyone with an interest in near-future space development (or in the case fo the first video, something more theoretical) will enjoy them as well. What do you think? Do these speakers have a point? Can what they plan to do, really be done? Or are they crazy and will go bankrupt in short order? And if they suceeded, what would it mean for space development in the coming years?

It may also be fun looking up where these companies are now, almost a year later...

Video 1: Richard Obousy of Icarus Interstellar wants to travel faster than light. (Brief audio issue at the start, gets fixed after a minute)

Video 2: Chris Lewicki of Planetary Resources wants to go asteroid mining.

Video 3: Michael Laine of LiftPort wants to build a space elevator... but not the way you think.

Fanfest 2014 is coming up in May, I believe. Let's hope they have another series of interesting guest speakers there. Because one thing is for sure... we seem to be on the cusp of an era of private space development enterprises. The number of ambitious startups will only go up in the near future.

Edited February 15, 2014 by Streetwind