Sunday November 1, 2009
Life is an adventure
By CHIN MUI YOON
Tech entrepreneur and adventurer Richard Garriott is living proof that no dream is impossible.
EVERYONE has travel stories to share. But how many of them involve canoeing down the Amazon River, hunting for meteorites in the Antarctica, observing the Titanic on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, or visiting outer space?
Richard Garriott is the kind of party guest everyone wants to sit next to. Animated and eloquent, he delights people with his stories as much as his blockbuster video games, which made him his fortune while he was in high school.
“Creating computer worlds and exploring the real world has always been the same to me,” Garriott, 48, says at the Forbes CEO Global Conference in Kuala Lumpur last month.
“I invested in space in 1982, the same year I founded Origin (his computer game business). And I was already doing dugout canoeing in the Amazon, safaris in Africa, hang gliding, sky diving and rappelling (before such activities became fashionable).”
Then, later, there were expeditions to look for meteorites in the Antarctica, deep-sea treasure hunts with Discovery Channel, and a venture down to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge hydrothermal vents to recover mud samples for Nasa (the US National Aeronautical and Space Agency).
Space traveller
Garriott’s adventures soared to a new level last October when he became the sixth private citizen to travel into orbit with the crew of the Soyuz TMA 13 orbital mission. Crewmate Sergei Volkov and him were the first second-generation space explorers who followed their in their fathers’ footsteps. Garriott’s father, Owen, is a retired astronaut who, among other space missions, spent two months on board America’s first experimental space station, Skylab, in 1973.
During Garriot’s 10-day stay on the International Space Station, he conducted scientific experiments, interacted with children around the world via radio, and photographed parts of earth that his father had captured 30 years ago, to compare the changes.
“Going to space is a phenomenal, life changing experience I realised how much humans have impacted earth; there is not one fertile part that isn’t inhabited.
“This feeling is referred to as the overview effect. It’s like getting an instant geography and geology lesson we’d never get from an earth-bound perspective. You get a profound understanding of the movements of tectonic plates, and weather patterns from seeing how clouds collide and form above the earth.
“If we can get 10% of people into space, society would be different. We’d be hardcore environmentalists and we’d get along with one another. We’d realise how silly it is to have property and country boundaries that are truly irrelevant from a global perspective.” (Read about his adventures at richardinspace.com.)
But is it wasteful spending US$30mil (RM104mil) to explore space when earth is in a mess?
“People bring up these concerns with the correct instincts but the wrong calculus,” Garriott replies fervently.
“Now a big part of wanting to go to space was very personal. I feel I’ve earned my money and I can freely spend it. But it gives me pleasure to do it in a socially responsible and beneficial manner.”
In space, Garriott demonstrated that private astronauts could still contribute scientifically and commercially by conducting a protein crystal growth experiment.
One of the best ways to fight a disease is to create a molecule that will bond strongly with proteins involved in the disease process. But it takes up to 10 years and millions of dollars for drug companies to develop these molecules.
“The proteins have vital cellular functions usually associated with common human diseases, and space’s weightless environment allows large crystals to grow,” explains Garriott. “This enables researchers to learn more about their molecular structure and how they can be used to develop drugs.”
This experiment was continued by Cirque de Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, who has just returned from a trip into space organised by Space Adventures, the private space exploration company of which Garriott is vice-chairman. It’s the only company that currently provides opportunities for private space flight.
Garriott says there is strong interest in space travel and it’s only a matter of years before it will cost as little as a business class airplane ticket. Space Adventures currently has millions of cash-paid reservations for sub-orbital flights.
For his role in advancing space exploration Garriott has been honoured with the Sir Arthur C. Clarke Award. The trophy sits alongside numerous others, including Entrepreneur of the Year from Inc. magazine (awarded in the 1990s), and Computer Gaming World magazine’s 15 Most Influential Industry Players (2006). In 2006, he was selected to join the US Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame and was given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers’ Choice Awards.
Nurtured for adventuring
Garriott lives the life of an American entrepreneur’s dream.
He was born in Cambridge, Britain, on July 4, 1961, the youngest of four children. He grew up in Nassau Bay, Texas, where his father flew with Nasa’s Skylab 3 and the space shuttle mission STS-9. His mother, Helen, is a professional artist.
“I lived in a neighbourhood beside Nasa and was constantly exposed to high-tech scientific instruments and experiments,” recalls Garriott. “I used to cut through grass taller than me with a machete in the surrounding woods to make these tunnels to have my own little caves.”
When Garriott was just beginning secondary school, several things happened that were to profoundly impact his life. His sister-in-law gave him a copy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, which sparked his interest in medieval fantasy fiction; personal computers took off; and the game Dungeons & Dragons was released.
He became fascinated with computers and began experimenting with programming. In 1980 while working at a ComputerLand retail store, his first published game, Akalabeth, earned him US$150,000.
By the time he enrolled in the University of Austin, Texas, he was earning millions. It reached a point when Garriott and his parents knew he had to choose between his studies and writing games.
“My parents were very supportive when I decided to drop out,” he recalls. “They told me, ‘You can’t miss out on this unique opportunity’. But they also thought, because it was so good, it couldn’t possibly last and said, ‘When this game industry windfall ends, you can go back to school and get your degree and have a normal life’. Of course, that never happened!”
Garriott and his brother, Robert, established Origin Systems Inc in 1983, which was recognised as a pioneer in entertainment software. Origin was acquired by Electronic Arts in 1992. In 1997, Garriott created a new computer game genre with the technologically ground-breaking Ultima Online, which sold millions of copies over 20 years and revolutionised multiplayer online gaming and interactive entertainment.
“I’m the least formally educated person to fly to space,” says Garriott.
“My family is a dreadfully over-educated clan. Dad is an astronaut, a super scientist with a doctorate and a Stanford University professor. My mother has a master’s degree in art. My oldest brother is a medical doctor and both my second brother and sister hold two masters’ degrees each. I’m the black sheep!
“But I feel very comfortable with the biological research I was conducting in space.It had nothing to do with formal education but was part of my upbringing and living with a scientist who experiments every day on solar physics or aero dynamism.
“My dad’s work and my mum’s artistic inclination have influenced me greatly since I was a kid. Computer games are quintessentially high-tech art,” he says. “Mum taught me the love of artistic observation and expression. I’d learn a new form of art every weekend! She was very involved with her kids. We had weekend gaming sessions where she’d play with us or made food for us.
“And from my dad I picked up the joy of the scientific process and of being intellectually curious. When I see something I don’t know about, I get inquisitive about it.”
Adventures ahead
Garriott became devoted to the privatisation of space at 13 when a Nasa doctor told him that his failing eyesight meant he couldn’t become an astronaut.
“Until then, I’d never had the intention to visit space,” he says. “But being told that was like telling me I couldn’t join a club I’d always assumed I was a life member of. I thought, fine, if I can’t go with Nasa to space, I’d have to create my own agency.
“As always, Mum was, like, ‘Of course, Richard, I believe in you,’ while Dad went, ‘Don’t be ridiculous, Richard, that’s not going to happen’.”
Garriott’s dream of space became a reality last October. But his quest started back in the 1980s when he invested in related ventures such as the Zero-G Corp, Spacehab, and the US$10mil competition X-Prize, which was pivotal in producing radical breakthroughs in civilian space travel.
He was to have been the first civilian in space. But the 1997 economic downturn had him giving up his seat for American millionaire Dennis Tito instead.
“Tourism can get us into space but other industries will be required to generate the values necessary for lunar exploration,” Garriott explains. “Tourism can piggyback and subsidise like it does for eco-tourism now, for example, submarine trips on board the Keldysh via Deep Sea Expeditions.”
What had seemed impossible 20 years ago is today a reality with an increasing number of people accessing space and more shuttles being built. Garriott believes Virgin Galactic, a Richard Branson company touted as “the world’s first spaceline”, will be able to fly tourists to space within two years. Hence the need for the next step....
“We currently have plans to return to the moon. The way the government is doing it would take us decades!” he says.
“Mars is the next logical target. But that, too, might take years, and that’s if the political will remains. I’m almost 50. I might make it to 100, but it’s not going to be fun for me to fly to Mars then. And I don’t think it’s worthwhile to plant flags. What’s much more worthwhile is to make humanity a multi-planet species. We should colonise other planets, not just fly into space!”
Despite his unusual ideas of life, Garriott welcomes the notion of having a wife, kids, and a home in the suburbs.
“My Austin home in the suburbs is different, though; it’s haunted, and full of secret passageways, dungeons, an observatory, indoor waterfall, artificial rain ... it’s kind of crazy!” he says enthusiastically.
As for Saturday nights with friends, beer and a football game ... “Never,” he replies. “I have business partners who enjoy what I call a traditional lifestyle, where they have barbecues every weekend. I can do this once or twice but by the third Saturday, I’d wonder if we can do this differently or in a more exciting way.”
Two years shy of 50, Garriott is not cutting back on his adventuring.
“The only sign I feel 50 is that it takes longer to heal whenever I injure myself. It’s a reminder of the limitations of our mortality. My parents are still in very good health in their 80s. I figure I have at least till 70 to continue my high-paced adventuring.
“I suspect when the time comes (to slow down) it will be very frustrating because there’ll still be many things I’d want to do, like visit disappearing indigenous tribes.
“And I do go for ‘normal’ holidays. Just this morning I was walking across the Twin Towers skybridge and visited this amazing temple in Batu Caves!”
But space remains in Garriott’s heart.
“I used to say this as a kid, and I’d still put it the same way: If Nasa were to ask right now if I’d like to be part of an expedition into deep space that would never return, I’d go in a heartbeat.
“Life is an adventure. I’d walk out this door this moment, and go.”
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