Rich Space Explorers

Several men who have built extraordinary fortunes have decided to devote some of their resources to exploring space. Elon Musk, Robert Bigelow, and Jeff Bezos, for example, are all building companies in the NewSpace industry, as is Sir Richard Branson. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is financially backing the Allen Telescope Array at Hat Creek, California. The ATA is the leading SETI research facility in the world, will provide communication support for teams engaged in the Google Lunar X-Prize competition, and will also do groundbreaking radio astronomy research.

Now, Microsoft's other co-founder, Bill Gates, and former Microsoft executive Charles Simonyi are teaming up to donate $30 million to fund the construction of a telescope complex high in the Chilean Andes that will survey the entire sky in only three nights. That has never been acconplished. If all goes well, the new telescope will come online in 2015.

The common thread tying these fellows together, besides their immense wealth, is likely the fact that they grew up with Sputnik and Apollo, Space exploration and travel. for the most part, has always been a part of their world. If their efforts are successful, space will be a part of humanity's world for generations to come.