DANCING IN SPACE: John Elkington meets James Parr – the space inventor getting astronauts excited

I have long been fascinated by liminal people, born with the ability to move between worlds. One such is James Parr, founder and CEO of Trillium Technologies and director of Frontier Development Lab, a joint venture with NASA and the SETI Institute.

In the early days of desktop computing, I had the SETI program cranking away in the background, so when my sequence of Macs wasn’t pounding out books it was scouring the universe for signs of intelligent life. 

Turning the focus back on Earth, James is exactly the sort of life-form we need to see more of. He aims to solve solar system-sized problems.

When it comes to saving our planet from asteroids, the goals of space agencies or conducting research on our sun, he believes in the power of radical collaboration methods. He applies AI to the science and technology needed to research the “knotty problems” of Earth science and space exploration. On his “to do” list are grand challenges such as climate change, violent extremism, prevention strategies for cancer and obesity, deforestation mitigation, climate resilience, and planetary stewardship.

As founder of the Open Space Agency – dedicated to the democratisation of space exploration through citizen science and open hardware – he’s dedicated to unlocking the passion and insight of citizen space explorers around the world. It’s aimed at makers, DIY engineers or just long-time aspiring astronauts “with stars in your eyes”. The first real-world ‘mission’ is a 3D printed automated robotic observatory.