Can you tell us a little about SpaceMETA and how you got started?

This is a good question and not so easy to answer with only few words. I think to be purist, must of us should say that we started thinking about space since our kids age. Every body one day told the phrase: I wanna be an Astronaut. After some time, we discover that things are not so easy and big part of us , change the space dream to other areas for a real world job. In our case it was a little bit different. I born on a military air base in Natal City on north of Brasil. So, despite I m involved in wireless , digital inclusion, and software development, I always have sustained the passion for fly.

After my meet Astronaut Dan Berry in Brasil last year, when he told me on a Singularity University Session that he was admission reproved during 13 consecutive years  from NASA. Dan Berrys persistence history is a fantastic live example about how really the nature works in this universe.

In our Team, Moon Trip is a dream to be realized, not because of the complexity or challenge by itself. From a point of view of difficulty, One of our Board Directors, Dr Ambassadeur Jorio Dauster , former president of Vale do Rio Doce Mining Company , the largest mining company in the world , one of his project is to transport Icebergs using Balloons to delivery pure water to target areas. On the engineering level, transport Icebergs by air, is much more complex then fly a rocket in a vacuum environment to the Moon.

SpaceMETA Team configuration begans near two years ago , when we have decided to walk on the Rio de Janeiro Beachs on the Night to discuss about a hypothetical participation of us on the GLXP race. So twice a week we discuss the possibilities and each time some one bring a new idea. We have decided that we will only move to a formal participation if our friends and market around us decided a go ahead thogheter with us. People like Astronaut Dan , Astronaut Nicky , William Pomerantz , Dra Rosaly Lopes from NASA ( that condecorate us with a medal last month for the R&D in that area ), Comments from Dan Spears ( that work on the Mars Rover ), really make the difference for us, so we feel encouraged to formally participate. After the draft of master plan ready, we decided to show it to some big company and in 5 minutes ( this is really true ), people from INTEL in the first meeting said: "we will go to the moon with you guys, because we , like you are passionate for the future, and this will be part of the future". So INTEL have decided to support us, and despite the amount of economic power of INTEL ( remember the 10 Billion USD R&D investment from them - read more here: http://intel.ly/SpaceMETA-Intel ) , INTELs  Passion for the Future is a really strong drive to our brains and emotions to motivate us to participate.

Now , we have strong support from the media in Brasil ,including a special attention from the Brazzilian Space Blog , http://brazilianspace.blogspot.com

From the formal point of view , we don't have spoke about our Team , and only a basic view about it is available on the internet , on the GLXP official website. Even Mr. Pomerantz spoke that there is not so much about us until the end of 2010. But now , probably we have one of the must accessed site between the teams , with more than 5.000 visits a day , interviews in several big top printed magazines in Brasil, and with a lot of people engaging the project each new day.

So, lets talk a little about our Team.

Our Team is composed by ( rounded numbers ): >25<50  Engineers mainly from USP , the University of Sao Paulo State , which has more then 100.000 students. Some PHD from  ITA , IAE ( both spacial institutes ), UFSC , FIAP and other universities from Brasil, and, also , a major part of entrepreneurs with multidisciplinary view and a passion for technology evolution.

FIAP is the first point outside USA where Singularity University ( Google+NASA+Raymond Kurzweill+Peter Diamantis+Sergey Brin ) have decided to expand its activities, and we have the honor the be involved due our innovation skill and strong experience ( please read passion for the future…) in Startups.

The board of the project have a tremendous experienced people with the same flame from the kid age about Space Exploration. Mr. Nelson Cardoso is the 2011 Top CIO of the Year in Brasil , and he manages hundreds of people in his team at Petrobras, one of the latest enterprises in the world. Mr Max Leite from Intel was the creator of WiMax and the OLPC ( One Lap Top per Children ) projects inside from Intel , and now he will be the header of Intel Labs Brasil. He warranty to us the latest technology available from INTEL Laboratories worldwide to be applied in the project. Prof Edison , from USP , have managed the construction of the ITAIPU Hidroplant , one of the largest in the planet. We have also Mr. Pablo Brenner ( from Uruguay ) , fournder of Alvarion ( a 60% wireless/radio marketshare in the world ) which have made one of the Top 100 Nasdaq IPO and have strong capability in to execute fund-raise, and Mr. Lauren Gil , actual CEO of Viewdle.Com , the top company in Face Recognition actually on the market for mobiles with investments from Best Buy and BlackBerry, based in Ukraine / San Jose.

We also have people from several others countries, that is joining us as subteams ( I don't like this name , but it just to help understand ), that is extremely creative people that participate since the beginning of the GLXP , but don't have the enough resources to support the process ( subscriptions , trips, etc ). Actually we have 8 Teams , with near 20 people joining us , and just waiting the conclusion of the legal document to be fully onboard.

One of the must important aspect of SpaceMETA Program is related of the Open Platform Tecnology. All people that have joined us , should keep it in mind. Our Team has people from Brasil , Uruguay , Paraguay , Nigeria , Bourkina Faso , Taiwan , Japan , Singapore , France , Slovenia , Mexico , USA , Italy , Maurithania , Angola , Bali and China. Some ones extremely involved and some other with indirect involvement. 

Thank you for your question:

I m available at:

MSN: sergio123cabral@hotmail.com 

GTalk: ssergio123cabral@gmail.com

Email: sergio@ideavalley.com.br