Why I Explore and Why You Should Too

Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard is a third-generation explorer. His father was an undersea scientist, his grandfather balloonist. Piccard circled the world in a propane-powered balloon in 1999, and then turned to a cleaner goal: making the trip on solar power alone. His aircraft, Solar Impulse 2, will continue its flight from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland, this spring.

You’ve done work all over the planet. Where is exploration needed most? Quality of life. If you look at the ocean, Earth, and space, there’s been a lot of exploration in those places. But now we have to conquer the quality of life on this planet. Humankind is at a crossroads: If we want to survive, we need clean technology and renewable energy. But we also need human rights. We need medical research. We need fight against poverty. We need better governance on this planet. I think this is where explorers really need to focus. That’s really the challenge of the 21^st century.

We see only your work that goes right. How much of it goes wrong? Even when you have plans, things happen as they happen. If everything happens according to a plan, it’s a business plan, not an adventure. Exploration is not only when you have a big success and can wave the flag of triumph. Exploration has a lot to do with preparation, frustration, disappointment, and unpredictability. When you accept all of that, then maybe you can get to success.

What’s your advice to young explorers? Explorers are famous people. When you’re famous, it’s your responsibility to help other people live better and protect their environment and actively contribute to wealth of the world. For example, next I may work on a remote-controlled plane that would replace satellites. It would be a cheap solution ---a way for developing countries to have telecommunications, mobile phones, and Wi-Fi. When you’re an explorer, don’t do it only for yourself. Do it to be useful to humankind.