Name: Inside the world's deepest caves
Uploaded: 2007-06-27T10:50:00Z
Duration: 17 min 29 s
Description: Bill Stone, a maverick cave explorer who has plumbed Earth's deepest abysses, discusses his efforts to mine lunar ice for space fuel and to build an autonomous robot for studying Jupiter's moon Europa.

Bill Stone, a maverick cave explorer who has plumbed Earth's deepest abysses, discusses his efforts to mine lunar ice for space fuel and to build an autonomous robot for studying Jupiter's moon Europa.

Inside the world's deepest caves

Technological breakthroughs now allow humans to journey thousands of meters underground, revealing vast unknown caves and testing the limits of endurance. Pushing further, autonomous robots explore underwater caverns and seek life in alien oceans, like those on Europa. The same bold thinking proposes mining lunar ice to fuel a new era of space industry. Establishing refueling stations on the moon could make space accessible far beyond what governments alone have achieved.