Google E Schmidt NASA 50Th Anniv Lecture Series
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Google, Inc. Eric Schmidt at NASA 50th Anniversary Lecture Series Joanne: Good afternoon everyone. My name is Joanne McGuire. I am the Executive Vice President of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company and I am just very pleased to welcome all of you to this second in a series of distinguished lecture series, co-sponsored by NASA and Lockheed Martin Corporation, in honor of NASA’s 50th Anniversary. These lectures are designed to highlight the extraordinary ways in which our nation’s space program has brought both tangible and inspirational benefits, not just to the American public, but to the world at large. I’d like to ask all of you to please join me for a moment in congratulating NASA for nearly 50 years of really truly remarkable achievements. All of us at Lockheed Martin are proud to have been a strong and trusted partner of NASA since its inception and this lecture series is the latest manifestation of our half century relationship. As NASA’s partner on the Orion crew exploration vehicle, we anticipate our stars will continue to shine together for many decades to come. There is no question that the greatest discoveries are yet to come, as NASA and our nation pursue a bold new era of exploration. Joining us today is Shanna Dale, Deputy Administrator for NASA. Shanna, we’re delighted to be partnered with NASA for this special lecture series and to have partnered with NASA for these many years on our nation’s vital space achievements. Today, our latest achievement is securing the services of Dr. Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google with us today as our distinguished speaker. We’re honored to have you with us today, Dr. Schmidt, and we look forward to hearing your comments. To introduce our speaker, it’s my great pleasure to have Congressman Bart Gordon, Chairman of the US House Committee on Science and Technology and Dean of the Tennessee Congressional Delegation. Congressman Gordon’s commitment to responsible, bipartisan efforts to advance science, technology and education, have been really the hallmark of his Congressional service. He is highly regarded for his work on issues important to NASA and has fought for additional funding to ensure that the agency maintains a robust and balanced set of programs in science, aeronautics and human space flight. Congressman Gordon, please. Bart: Thank you so much Ms. McGuire and more importantly, I want to thank Lockheed and the News Museum for your hospitality here tonight, or today. Maybe – oh, there’s the Capitol there too. That was good timing. Thank you for that. And NASA, thank you for putting together this 50th anniversary lecture series. In that regard, it’s interesting to note that the House Science Technology Committee is also celebrating a 50th anniversary this year. Both NASA and our committee are children of Sputnik. And as the inspiration for so many of the folks that were early involved in the NASA program. Page 1 Google, Inc. Eric Schmidt at NASA 50th Anniversary Lecture Series And it’s my great pleasure to be able to introduce Dr. Eric Schmidt today. I can really think of no one that is more appropriate in speaking to us today about inspiring innovation and exploration as it is Dr. Schmidt. I have a long history of his, or a long sheet of his resume, but I think it’s – rather than take his time, you can all Google him. I’m sure he’s heard that before. But you know, he really is in a rarified air of those CEOs that have been able to take a company and take it from a noun to a verb. My generation, I still say can I Xerox this or may I have a Band-Aid or a Kleenex. And so now you have joined that very small realm of verbs or nouns to verbs. And I think also that Google exemplifies the critical importance of innovation and R&D to – that is necessary if we’re going to continue the quality of life that we have in this country. I was talking to Ms. McGuire, she has a 7-year-old daughter, I have a 6-year-old daughter and I’m very concerned that when you look around the world now, there are almost 7 billion people in the world, half of which make less than $2 a day. And if our daughters were going to be able to inherit a nation with a standard of living that’s going to be even better than ours, then we have to do it through innovation and research. We have to be making 50 or 100 widgets for every one widget they’re making elsewhere. And that’s why I was reading today about cloning. I don’t know whether Dr. Schmidt we can clone you or not, but we’re going to have to have increased really emphasis in this country on research and development so that our kids won’t become the first generation of Americans to inherit a national standard of living less than their parents. It’s a real challenge. You’re going to be a part of being able to solve that challenge and I’m glad you’re here and I’m sure people are glad that I’m not going to take any more time from your speech. I will say that hopefully we might get you cloned some day, but we can’t – and we can clone animals now, but we can’t clone Congressman and I’m in the middle of a vote and so I’ve already missed the first two and so I’m – please accept my apologizes, I’ll look forward to hearing your remarks that I’m sure are going to be re-telecast later. So thank you all. Eric: Well, thank you very much Congressman, in your busy schedule, to come. This is a Congressman who has led a lot of the most important fights for NASA, for science and for space exploration. His service is phenomenal. I want to congratulate NASA for its 50th year anniversary. NASA has been a part of all of our lives for so much of the fantasy and the excitement in being an American and being a citizen of our great country. I want to talk today about architectures and how systems will work over the next 50 years. I want to think that architectures of how we go about science and exploration and technology will be different. It will have to think about it in a different way. I think that the Internet will show a new approach for us, how we Page 2 Google, Inc. Eric Schmidt at NASA 50th Anniversary Lecture Series can actually build these systems. Those of you in the audience are people who actually are in charge of how the system will evolve over the next 50 years, now is the time to think about how to design it so that we have a tremendous next 50 years. The next set of missions, that the President and others have articulated, Mars and so forth and so on, will span many generations, just as the Internet has. And I want to take you through some of my observations on that. I also want to take a minute and congratulate the museum. Shelby and the team here are in the process of getting organized launching this formally later this spring. This is a phenomenal accomplishment by all the people involved in this and it’s a strong testament to America, to the principles the country has been founded and all the things that we care about. And I’m very, very proud to have been invited to actually participate in this, I think one of the major public events here. So let’s talk a little bit about NASA and what I’m going to do is have Robin get started, Robin Ziegler, get started and we’re going to do a few demos here to give you a sense of what is possible now with some of the things that NASA has been doing. As a pilot, I’m very actually grateful for everything that NASA has done. And I think one of the things that people always forget is how much impact NASA has had on things other than space – digital fly-by wire systems, wind sheer and icing. Perfect, good opportunity today to take advantage of these new systems built by NASA. Jet engine combustors, engine nozzle chevrons, all of these interesting parts of the technology that you all simply consume – as consumers you don’t even notice it. But when I think about NASA and I think about Google, I think about both as being in the business of making things that were amazing commonplace. If you look at the history of aviation, which I know something about, people were terrified with this sort of weather before NASA came along. It was actually a series life-threatening problem and now we can deal with it. That’s an amazing achievement. It happens every day. And it’s going to continue, given the leadership of NASA and the mission of NASA and the things that NASA is trying to do. When I think about Google, we try to do the same thing. We try to do things that are amazing, things which were amazingly impossible 10 years ago are now routine. I was trying to think of an ahomym(?), I thought well, what is the most interesting query that I can give? And I thought how long will I live? Seems like the most important question you could ask Google.