The Space Show
The Space Show
The Space Show focuses on timely and important issues influencing the development of outer-space commerce, space tourism,space exploration and space development. The Space Show is committed to facilitating our becoming a space-faring nation and society with a growing and self-sustaining space-faring economy. The Space Show also focuses on other related subjects of interest to us all.
Station feed:  Created by: David Livingston |
Created on: 12 May 2005 Language: English |
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John Batchelor Hotel Mars, Wednesday 6-18-25 (2.23MB; download) -- John and I welcomed Dr. Enrique Gaztanaga who is at the Portsmouth University, in the UK. The professor proposes an alternative theory of the universe to the established Big Bang theory. Since the JWST has been on line, problems with the Big Bang have been detected with our guest at the lead in proposing his alternative theory which is still under investigation. While listening to this two part program, visit Professor Gaztanaga's excellent website for more detail and a listing of his published articles. See https://darkcosmos.com. You can also read his new publshed paper in In a new paper just published in Physical Review D. Briefly and from his website, "the Big Bang was not the start of everything, but rather the outcome of a gravitational collapse that formed a very massive black hole — followed by a bounce inside. This idea — which we call the Black Hole Universe — offers a radically different view of cosmic origins, yet it is grounded entirely in known physics and observations." Listen to his discussion and check out his papers and more on his theory. I am sure Enrique will be back to Hotel Mars and to The Space Show many times over in the future. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Fri, 20 Jun 2025 22:31:42 UTC
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Dr. Robert Bishop, Friday, 6-20-25 (7.55MB; download) -- Dr. Robert Bishop of Texas A&M was welcomed to the program to discuss and cover a range of topics related to space exploration, technology, and education, with a focus on Texas A&M University's involvement in these areas. Discussions included technical issues, SpaceX developments, radio show logistics, and the structure of Texas A&M's engineering programs, particularly their new space engineering initiative and research partnerships. The conversation also touched on broader themes such as national security, commercial space activities, and ethical considerations in space exploration, highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of current and future space endeavors. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Fri, 20 Jun 2025 21:02:15 UTC
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Bill Gowan, Friday, 6-13-25 (10.47MB; download) -- Bill Gowan joined us on this program to share his experience participating in The Planetary Society’s annual Day of Action on Capitol Hill. This year’s event took place in March and included training sessions, group feedback meetings, and visits to numerous congressional offices, primarily engaging with staffers from both the Senate and the House. While the Day of Action had its own structured agenda focused on space advocacy, Bill also brought his personal priorities with him advocating for three key goals: exploring other worlds, defending Earth, and finding life.
During the first 15–20 minutes of the show, Bill walked us through the process of preparing for and participating in the Day of Action. He discussed the training which was led by Casey Dreier and Jack Kiraly (The Planetary Society’s government relations representative in Washington, D.C.), and what it was like to engage directly with congressional staffers. His detailed narrative offered a strong introduction and background, providing listeners with valuable insights into the experience of citizen lobbying for space.
Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Sat, 14 Jun 2025 20:45:51 UTC
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John Batchelor Hotel Mars, Wednesday, 6-11-25 (1.18MB; download) -- John and I welcomed back to Hotel Mars Eric Berger of Ars Technica for a one segment update and discussion regarding SpaceX, Musk & Starship. Eric was asked what the SpaceX testing success of Starship would look like. Our guest said he did not know. We talked about the upcoming Demo Test #10, possible hardware issues and even the possibility of assembly issues. Our guest expanded on this part of our conversation. Starship and the planned Moon launch were mentioned, we talked about testing ins LEO and the need to develop and test fueling in LEO. Eric also mentioned the fuels that Starship would use and need testing concerning possible boil off and more. Before ending the segment, he was asked about the feud between Musk and President Trump. Eric said it was hard to predict but probably Musk would walk back some of what he said regarding President Trump. He pointed out how important SpaceX was to the government on both space and national security. While the FAA could slow walk permits in retaliation for some of what Musk said, he did not see that happening at this time. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Sat, 14 Jun 2025 20:14:04 UTC
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Dave Barnhart, Tuesday, 6-10-25 (6.90MB; download) -- We welcomed Dave Barnhart, CEO and Co-founder of Arkisys, Inc., back to the program to share updates since his last appearance on May 2, 2023. The conversation focused on developments in the growing field of space servicing and the evolving commercial space industry.
Dave provided a comprehensive update on Arkisys’s Port project, highlighting increased interest from the U.S. Space Force, the Space Development Agency, and other key government and private stakeholders. He discussed concepts such as deorbit augmentation and post-launch integration, offering specific examples of potential business opportunities emerging from these efforts.
R&D and funding were key parts of the discussion. Dave explained how Arkisys is reducing risk through terrestrial experimentation, with a strong emphasis on rendezvous and transport capabilities via their Cutter vehicle. Listener questions focused on space logistics, satellite servicing markets, and the economic implications of declining launch costs. Dave noted that as launch prices continue to fall, the economics of on-orbit servicing become significantly more challenging and competitive.
Later in the program, Dave introduced two major industry consortiums: COSMIC, a U.S.-only initiative, and CONFERS, which has a global scope despite being based in the U.S. He emphasized the importance of establishing industry norms and standards—an area of growing importance as the space economy matures.
As the discussion wrapped up, Dave outlined Arkisys’s five-year plan, which includes deploying up to three Port modules, potentially connected, along with using the Cutter vehicle to ferry payloads to and from the Port. While human spaceflight is not currently part of their roadmap, he expressed interest in supporting human spaceflight companies with the Port platform in the future.
Dave also addressed the use of AI in Arkisys operations—be sure to catch his insights on that topic. Before concluding, he shared updates on internships and future hiring plans. Earlier in the conversation, he enthusiastically described Arkisys's mentorship of student teams focused on in-space construction, noting a significant year-over-year increase in participation, underscoring growing interest in this sector.
Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Wed, 11 Jun 2025 18:38:56 UTC
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Marcus Chown, Sunday, 6-8-25 (8.89MB; download) -- I introduced Marcus Chown, an award-winning writer and former radio astronomer at Caltech, to discuss his latest book "A Crack in Everything: How Black Holes Came in from the Cold and Took Cosmic Center Stage." Marcus shared his personal journey into astronomy, inspired by his father's gift of an astronomy book and witnessing the moon landing as a child. He discussed the evolution of black hole science, explaining how they were initially considered fictional but became central to understanding the universe. Marcus detailed the discovery of the first black hole in 1971 and its connection to Cygnus X-1, a binary star system where a giant star is being pulled into a black hole, emitting X-rays. He also explained how supermassive black holes were discovered before stellar mass black holes, with the Hubble Space Telescope revealing their prevalence in galaxies. Marcus clarified that light from black holes does not escape from within but is emitted by matter swirling around them before falling in. Much more was discussed during this 77 minute listener and guest discussion. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Sun, 08 Jun 2025 22:18:12 UTC
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Broadcast 4381 Hotel Mars: Casey Dreier (2.22MB; download) -- John and I welcomed Casey Dreier from The Planetary Society to the program to go over the proposed NASA space and science budget cuts and project eliminations. Casey suspected the direction for the cuts originated out of OMB without much space guidance or thought. He identified several of the projects and programs identified for either a budget cut such as the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to the New Horizons and Venus missions being totally eliminated. Casey also talked about the bleak future for SLS and the Gateway for their demise post Artemis 3. Casey talked about their being a shift to commercial Moon missions but with little detail and clarity. Cislunar development, cargo and resupply to the ISS, the future for the private space stations, Mars and EDL for Mars plus demos all were part of our discussion. In Part 2, John talked about the robotic missions including existing missions plus the future missions, all of course depending on robots. Casey worked in commentary about cuts and changes for both JPL and Goddard, two very important and key Nasa centers. Before concluding the program, our guest was asked about the impact of the layoffs for NASA scientists and engineers. Casey suggested they would have an uncertain future ahead of them as their might not be abundant job opportunities for these important skills. Read the full summary at The Space Show website, www.thespaceshow.com and also at doctorspace.substack.com. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Sat, 07 Jun 2025 18:01:19 UTC
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James (Jim) Meigs, Friday, 6-6-25 (10.68MB; download) -- We welcomed Jim Meigs from the Manhattan Institute to the program to discuss his paper, "U.S. Space Policy: The Next Frontier", space news including a changed in the proposed NASA Administrator plus the argument with President Trump and Elon Musk. The meeting considered the potential impact of the dispute and administrator change on space policy and projects, including NASA's future leadership and priorities. Jim, along with program participants on both Zoom and the live stream explored various challenges and uncertainties surrounding NASA's human space program, including budget concerns, mission timelines, and the need for private sector involvement. The group also discussed potential alternatives for U.S. space exploration, including more collaboration between different commercial space companies, while addressing the ongoing feud between Trump and Musk. Programs such as Artemis, Starship, timelines, even the need to restructure the FAA for both aviation and space plus NASA as a more entrepreneurial organization were both part of our discussion and Jim's paper. Please read the full summary of this program on The Space Show archives and our Substack page, doctorspace.substack.com. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Fri, 06 Jun 2025 22:21:36 UTC
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Richard Easton, Lee Hammarstrom, Pete Wilhelm, Suday, 6-1-25 (15.51MB; download) -- We welcomed Richard Easton, Lee Hammarstrom & Pete Wilhelm to This special 2 hour 16 minute program on Zoom. You should be able to see the video on doctorspace.substack.com and The Space Show Vimeo account as it will soon be posted to both accounts. This program on TSS website is audio only. Our discussion focused on the development and evolution of GPS and the PARCAE satellite technologies, along with NRO, NRL, computer tech of the time, covering their origins, technical challenges, and applications. Our guests discussed the historical context, including early proposals, declassification processes, and the interconnected nature of these programs. Understanding time, atomic clocks and even Einstein's relativity equations were crucial to this up to now classified project. The conversation also touched on future developments, potential applications in space exploration, and concerns about system resilience in various environments. We talked innovation "back in the day" along with the Grab, Poppy and the transition from strategic to tactical information. Be sure to read the comprehensive program summary on TSS website as well as our Substack page, doctorspace.substack.com.
Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Mon, 02 Jun 2025 20:43:40 UTC
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Jess Sponable, Friday, 5-30-25 (10.50MB; download) -- Jess Sponable returned to the program to discuss his recent Op-Ed on NASA, aerospace and the defense sectors needing more entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. While Jess spent time with us explaining what he meant when he and others advocated for more of these folks in management and leadership, most of our program discussion was a mega-example of the need for innovation in R&D, problem solving, financing and such. Over and over again he stressed the need for the entrepreneurial type for leadership, even within the government structure of public organizations or government agencies. Jess used his experiences in the past for excellent supportive illustrations plus he talked about the early 1950's, 60's and 70's history with commercial and military jets, X-planes and flight in general. He focused on motivation while making the point that entrepreneurial type leadership would serve to motivate people. We talked about returning to the Moon, Mars, SpaceX, Musk and Starship as examples along with Starlink. The Golden Dome project was an additional large part of our focus with Jess making a call for it to be space based in design, not terrestrial or Earth-based with Earth-based infrastructure. Jess explained why he said it needed to be space developed but he was not sure this would be the approach taken by Golden Dome planners and designers. We did talk about the degree of protection we would get from Golden Dome plus obvious security gaps that would not have such protection as mentioned by one of our listeners regarding ships and port vulnerability. Dallas called as we were talking about developing a cislunar economic infrastructure plus the Blue Origin designs coming up. Jess mentioned competing rocket companies including Stoke Space, Rocket Lab and Blue as the companies driving down the launch costs which he said was absolutely crucial to get below $100/lb to LEO. Toward the end of the program our guest was asked about progress in human spaceflight medicine. Jess spent a few minutes at the end of the program to go over some the information on this subject and talked about spinning stations and more but we must get the price to LEO down and entrepreneurial leadership was what was needed. Other topics came up including the experience Jess brought to our discussion by his earlier work with DC-X, reusable VTOL Launch, DARPA and the Air Force. Before ending we squeezed in a short discussion on his New Frontier Aerospace company hypersonic flight project which would enable west coast to Asia in a few hours by skimming across the top of the stratosphere. Do not miss this concluding discussion to today's program. Jess said he would return after their demo flight next year. We wish him and our industry great success in moving forward, including handling the political, budget and policy challenges faced at this time. Check out the full summary at www.thespaceshow.com for this program plus the summary on doctorspace.substack.com. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Fri, 30 May 2025 22:32:10 UTC
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