John Thornton said his company's goal is to make the future of space exploration more accessible to the rest of the world.
As the CEO of Astrobotic Technology Inc., a North Side-based company that is creating space robotics technology for lunar missions, Thornton said the future of the very work being done now by the Pittsburgh company rests on those who come on to take the jobs next. Finding ways to encourage people to pursue space research as a career is crucial, Thornton added as he spoke during a VisionPittsburgh event Thursday at the Duquesne Club hosted by the Pittsburgh Business Times.
Vision Pittsburgh John Thornton of Astrobotic
"We want to make it accessible to our region, to our next generation and make it possible for people to start to recognize that space is not owned by some old guys living and working in an ivory tower somewhere that I can never touch," Thornton said. "Space is done here; space is done down the street."
Those efforts start with the company's Moonshot Museum, which is halfway through its $2.7 million capital campaign fundraising effort. Expected to open in the third quarter of 2022, the soon-to-be under construction exhibition and events area will be housed inside Astrobotic's headquarters, allowing those in attendance to see first-hand the development of future technologies and products that will someday end up on the moon. The company plans to participate in its first of such moon-launching efforts in 2022, with another one to follow in 2023.
"The big idea here is we have a big glass window wall that you can look right into our clean room and where we're actually building the spacecraft. That means that our kids and whole neighborhoods can walk right up to the glass and imagine themselves being the person on the other side building that spacecraft … it's like box seats at the Super Bowl," Thornton said. "I just think that that experience is incredibly important. It's the inspiration that drives us. I think we have an opportunity to do just that with the Moonshot Museum."
But there's plenty of space in space for others to participate in Astrobotic's mission. A future Mars exhibit that will be a five-minute walk down the street at the Carnegie Science Center also plays to that messaging, Thornton said. And while on that walk between the two locations, Thornton pondered, why not turn it into a space walk of its own, with objects and sightings throughout set to a scale that can help better contextualize the vastness of space.
The capstone of these efforts for now, Thornton said, would be the installation of an actual lander on the roof of the company's headquarters. While it's still pursuing funding opportunities to do so, Thornton said he envisioned such an attraction would be one that becomes a symbol of Pittsburgh and a symbol of the high-tech activity that occurs in the region.
"It's about inspiration," Thornton said. "When you talk to people who work in space or in technical fields, they almost all have that spark moment. Apollo was that spark for a whole generation that pushed people into the sciences and math and technical activities. For me, my spark moment was when the Mars lander landed on the surface of Mars for the first time and deployed a small rover to drive across the surface … my dream is that moon landings happen at the space company next door, and that it's a spark for a whole generation of Pittsburghers here in town."
