Space. The final frontier.
For generations, we have shared in the excitement of exploring strange new worlds and going where no man has gone before.
And yet, many people wonder why we should go there again.
My name is Frank Schetzing. I write books about the future.
And I would like to show you why our future lies in the stars.
Therefore, we have to look at our past.
Four billion years ago, DNA evolved in the primeval oceans. Life forms developed, failed, succeeded.
Until one chattering ape rose up and started doing what none of the others could, imagining the future.
The first pioneer was born. Because with the power to imagine the future came the power to shape it.
Pioneers are driven by special genetics.
A novelty-seeking gene is built into their DNA that makes them take risks, overcome boundaries and push humanity forward.
Pioneers have unlocked the mysteries of nature, studied the stars, turned our view of the world upside down
and created a mountain of problems for themselves.
Because what distinguishes visionaries from the majority is that they see things that others don't see or understand.
Today, Galileo's heliocentric model of the solar system and Darwin's theory of evolution are textbook stuff.
But they were bitterly contested at the time.
Even today, the public opinion often is, visions are fine, as long as they bring instant benefits.
But the course of human history has been set precisely by such far-sighted visions.
And today, we are about to realize the next one.
In 1969, one giant leap for mankind generated global euphoria.
But once the space race was won, the mission was accomplished, over and out.
Now we need new pioneers that show us the path into the future.
Visionaries such as Richard Branson, Google and Audi are driving space travel forward, and they are being criticized too.
Don't we have enough problems on Earth that we should solve first?
Yes, we do.
And that's exactly why space travel is of such an importance.
So Audi and the part-time scientists are going on the mission to the moon in humanity's best interest.
But why is the moon our next logical step?
Let's have a look at it.
Ice deposits at both poles can be used to make fuel.
Filling stations in space would dramatically reduce the cost of long-range missions to resource rich planets, for instance.
Helium-3 could provide us with clean energy for thousands of years, and on the moon alone, there are millions of tons of this stuff.
Moon telescopes could expand our knowledge of the universe tremendously, help identify habitable planets
and provide an early warning system to avert the greatest of all threats, meteorites.
Which can be warded off better from the moon.
Reasons enough for a team of German engineers to risk a return to our neighbouring satellite.
In 2009, the part-time scientists came together, inspired by the vision of putting a research vehicle on the moon.
The data and images it is to transmit back will provide us with new insights and lay the groundwork for future missions.
Audi and the part-time scientists have designed a special rover to do just that.
The Audi Lunar Quattro.
An Audi of truly universal capabilities, a masterpiece of engineer.
Equipped with Quattro, e-tron, ultra-lightweight and connectivity technology,
the Audi Lunar Quattro is ready for the moon's challenges, perhaps the car of the future.
Not the first time that space technology would enrich our daily life.
Going to the moon makes sense, and it even makes us smarter.
Whenever homo sapiens challenges his intellect, his brain takes a leap forward.
Venturing out into new terrain triggers our evolutionary development.
The Earth is our home, and so is the cosmos it lies in.
Our ancestors were driven by the desire for knowledge, and today we know we live on a fragile and vulnerable island floating in space.
The answers lie out there.
