Experts Bill Nye, Fabien Cousteau and Kathy Sullivan feature in first episode of new series
In a new three-part series, CNN’s Saved by the Future meets some of the biggest names in science and technology to spotlight the breakthrough innovations that could transform our lives in decades to come.
In the first episode, host Nicki Shields introduces conversations with Bill Nye, Fabien Cousteau and Kathy Sullivan, three leading figures who transport us beyond the world as we know it and into the possibilities of the future.
Known best as a TV personality, climate change advocate and social media sensation, Bill Nye “The Science Guy” speaks to CNN about his role in the future of sustainable space exploration. Nye is CEO of the Planetary Society, which successfully launched its LightSail 2 spacecraft in 2019.
The spacecraft is powered by solar winds from the sun, meaning by design, it will never run out of fuel. Nye discusses the domino effect this science has had on the building blocks for future technology, “If you want to go to another solar system, if you want to go to another star, a solar sail spacecraft is the only practical idea anybody has.”
For Fabien Cousteau, the grandson of renowned explorer Jacques Cousteau, the future of ocean exploration rests on advancements in automation and underwater mobility, “I’m a firm believer that humans and technology must work together in order for us to really go further down that path of exploration and discovery. And one of the things that we’re missing is a modern undersea laboratory, a modern undersea habitat.”
In 2014, Cousteau and his crew spent 31 days living under the ocean in an underwater habitat known as ‘Aquarius’. He reveals to CNN that an even bigger version, dubbed Project Proteus, is already in the works and details the impact such developments could have on humankind’s understanding of our own oceans.
Finally, the programme meets scientist and former NASA astronaut Kathy Sullivan, who earlier this year became the only person to have both walked in space and visited the deepest known point in the ocean.
Sullivan explains to CNN that the oceans are in need of a major technological upgrade: while satellites in space are able to communicate a snapshot of the weather on earth, a networked ocean blanketed with sensors could help accurately understand the state of our earth months, even years, in advance, “My dream would be that we can have usable information about our planet and its environmental conditions as readily at our fingertips as we have sports scores today.”
