'This Could Be the Most Important Thing on Earth'

摘要

Former NASA astronaut and international space station crew member Edward Lu has a new calling. As chief executive of the nonprofit B612 Foundation, Lu is overseeing a relatively modest $450 million project to fly an infrared space telescope, called Sentinel, that would hunt for potentially dangerous asteroids. The foundation takes its name from French aviator and author Antoine de Saint- Exupery's novella "The little Prince," about a pilot who crash-lands into the desert and finds a young boy who has fallen to Earth from his home world, a tiny asteroid called B612. Saint-Exupery's story, ostensibly written for children, is about bringing meaning to life. Lu's mission is to save it.