Another Round of Blossoming Moon Shots!

Flowers are in bloom all around the Chelsea Flower Show this week, with the masses strolling down from Sloane Square to marvel at some of the elaborate displays of nature’s greatest colour show. Although definitely full of colourful characters, things are not so lovely and pompous around the geopolitical scene at present…Turbulence abounds! We’ve just seen Putin succeed in his negotiations with the Chinese to conclude a massive ($450bn over 30 years) gas deal..Prince Charles also helpfully and ever-so-subtly comparing him to Hitler in recent conversation…no abating of tension between Western influence in Ukraine trying to counter the perceived threat of Russian Soviet-era manoeuvres, continued volatility in global markets as some rise to new record highs (US) others seem stagnated (Japan) and a muddle of indications making for difficult interest rate decisions (Eurozone)…and..stop press..an admission that the Mediterranean diet’s mix of olive oil, salad and plenty of fish…is indeed healthy..thanks for the confirmation! Nowhere seems safe, disease-spreading mosquitoes are threatening southern Europe and moving into the UK, even a report on bird migration sadly implicates modern day buildings in causing mass in-flight-deaths-by collision due to confusing reflections from an abundance of glass window panes. Stop checking yourselves out birds..vanity is a sin!  

What do Chelsea flower displays, Google’s founders and the likes of Elon Musk have in common? Well..the human attribute of putting on something special and trying to amaze and delight for the benefit of others. Dream big, reach beyond your grasp, push it to the limit, go beyond the comfort zone - all adages intended to keep an individual aspiring to greatly ambitious goals and aims. The current (newly-recycled) moniker for such “out there” enterprises by a budding generation of well-meaning and extremely well-funded philanthropic adventurers…“Moon Shots”. When you consider that Google is the world’s most valuable brand…once again taking the top spot after losing out to Apple for the last few years and with notably almost 80% of firms that dominate the 100 most valuable brands being either US or European…one might suggest that it is the “right thing” for such a highly regarded and financially powerful firm to create inspiration for a new generation (the same way the likes of Rockefeller and Carnegie did in the early 1900s). Without inspirational leadership and dreams being turned into reality by determined groups with limitless resources, much of the innovation witnessed in the 20^th Century would likely not have been realised…certainly not in such a compressed time (some may predictably argue the “creative destruction” of two atrocious World Wars here – and they would be correct). From industrial production techniques to aviation, home comforts to nowadays commonplace breakthroughs in power production and medicine, the world owes plenty to the altruistic and wondrous characters that have never accepted “no” for an answer and dared to dream big for us all. We pin our hopes and those of humanity on a new generation of hoody-wearing Moon-Shot protagonists now.

Whereas a wonderfully creative flower display will elicit delight and surprise for some, wildly aspirational space travel dreams and re-usable rocket schemes (such as those touted by the Space X and Virgin Galactic endeavours), carry the dreams of bringing space to the masses and - maybe a little more down-to-earth, the next generation of air-travellers. Just as those A380s are being equipped with totally legitimate mile high clubs (have a look at Etihad’s enticing double bed in its new Residences class!) the new pioneers of our time are thinking about travelling from Hong Kong to New York in a flash – under 2hours to be more precise. That would be incredible. It has been long known that flight through the stratosphere (where the air is at its thinnest) and taking advantage of the earth’s natural rotation would allow for the longest flight routes to be made in relative blink-of-the-eye time. With Elon Musk’s Space X recent successful Falcon 9 soft-landing taking massive strides towards the space-travel market, Richard Branson’s dreams appear more commercially (not to mention savvy)-minded, as his Virgin Galactic works towards a new revolution of earth-bound travel. Solveforx.com is one of a number of truly inspirational movements that expresses the best of what we might still have to offer as a people. We need something bigger than the everyday mundane to be reminded that we are all in this together. We need inspiration through seemingly outlandish undertakings that belong in the realm of science-fiction…and we’re not talking about attempts to modernise the classic Star Wars saga here for Episode VII…even though bringing back Harrison Ford’s beloved Han Solo a masterstroke by JJ Abrams…we’re talking of fact changing, all-consuming, dream reaching innovation. Crazy to think you might one day take a day-trip to the moon, lunch whilst gazing down on Earth and return home? Catch an asteroid and extract its abundance of precious materials?..paahhh..no problem for these energetic modern-day Carnegies.

If man doesn’t think big and think for others, taking advantage of their own vast resources just as Carnegie, Rockefeller and other great pioneers of previous generations did (brining us innumerable advances in modern technology), we would never truly develop. The current crop of “Moon Shotters” are daringly and wonderously striving to create an entire new movement of like-minded and unselfishly motivated pioneers. One only has to look at the massive leaps modern surgery has made in the last 10 years to appreciate the meaningful applications of constant thirst for discovery and advancement.

Some are far too short-term minded when it comes to these matters. True that China has had thousands of years of history in leadership and we are maybe past the peak of the US Empire, yet there is always time for more. We are not in the same world order. People are now connected. We are almost a collective conscience. The weight of this collective conscience is overwhelmingly good..rather than being led by a few who try to do good (or we at least judge as good) the masses can now use the herd-mentality to achieve outsized results by taking inspiration from those worth admiring. Through YouTube, Twitter and other forms of social media, a breakthrough in deepest rural China can be immediately transposed for the greater dissemination and benefit of all. Technology we have created in the last 50 years should, if handled correctly and by discerning characters, provide immeasurably exciting innovations over the next 50 years. Embarrassingly, even with all this wonderful technology and incredible will-of-development with such outlandish desire, human error has led to France’s snazzy new trains being too-wide for the majority of stations they will have to squeeze through! The reason? Measurements provided by the railway operator passed onto the train constructors only took into account stations built in the last 30yrs, forgetting the older, significantly narrower platforms. A dismal lack of historical knowledge and a simple yet hugely consequential kink-in-the-human-armour proving a costly mistake here. Would be hard-pressed to describe those engineers as Moon-Shot enthusiasts, more apt…maybe Shot-in-the-foot.

Back to the Chelsea flower show and as I look out of the window observing the stream of visitors to indulge upon its wonderful natural creations, a reminder of how the simple things in life often stimulate the most joy. The average age of these visitors seems to be on the north side of 60, yet they still manage to consume over 1,000 bottles of champagne (just a quiet night of clubbing for most Russian and Arab St Tropez party-goers) and tellingly over 16,000 cups of tea (anything extra put in there from bring-your-own care home flasks we think?!). The Brits are truly great at putting on such traditional shows- not even the weather can spoil..well…not too much at least. Despite Prince Charles causing an international political uproar with his “witty” Putin-directed jibe, he did succeed in getting his way with the neighbouring Qatari-owned project at the Chelsea Barracks, successfully delaying the beginning of construction after boisterously opposing plans for the massive luxury-development. Construction permission has finally been granted and we now all await the classy and cultured new inhabitants - will they be drinking tea or champagne at the flower show next year…hmmm?

As our impressive Moon Shot pioneers preach, it’s not enough to be replicating what others are doing, you have to have to be at the tip of the pinnacle, staring into the unknown. Show me something more unknown than deep space exploration and I’ll tip my tipsy-flowery-hat to you!