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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Dr. Patricia (Pat) Patterson, Wednesday, 10-5-11 (36.16MB; download) -- Guest: Dr. Patricia (Pat) Hynes. Topics: ISPC 2011, panels & keynote speakers. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We welcomed back to the program Dr. Pat Hynes to tell us about this year's Personal Spaceflight Symposium to be held in Las Cruces, NM October 19-20, 2011. Visit their website for program details, online registration and hotel information: www.ispcs.com. During our 70 minute program with Dr. Hynes, we covered conference registration and logistical issues, plus we hit highlights on the agenda and Pat spoke at length about some of the panels and speakers. As you will hear, this is not the ordinary space conference promo program as our guest went into detail about many of the problems and challenges facing the space industry today. These issues included the supply chain and the lack of unity on a space policy and direction within Congress, NASA, and the administration. Our guest, while focusing in on these issues, showed us how this year's Symposium was addressing these issues and concerns and point to a solution path so we can move forward with innovation, leadership and space development. Dr. Hynes did an excellent job of making this year's program completely relevant to the state of the space business and industry right now, today. Look over the agenda and list of panels and speakers at www.ispcs.com/program_2011.php. Toward the end of the program and after discussing the program and speakers, we talked about "thinking big" to innovate. As you will hear, innovation is usually not a rapid process and during this discussion, we talked about the innovation process, the time line, and what to do while engaged in the developmental time line. Pat also talked about the Friday tour of Spaceport America and noted that there were only a few slots available on the tour. If you are attending and are interested in seeing Spaceport America, you need to act quickly to assure a place on the tour. Please post your comments and questions on The Space Show blog URL above. If have questions about the conference, use this URL: www.ispcs.com/contact_us.php. You can also send email about the conference to nmsgc@nmsu.edu. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:44:38 UTC
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Marc Boucher, Tuesday, 10-4-11 (43.49MB; download) -- Guest: Marc Boucher. Topics: SpaceRef media growth, space reporting, Space Quarterly, American & Canadian space policy. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We welcomed Marc Boucher back to the program for interesting and timely SpaceRef.com updates on their space news services, new programs such as the Forum and their new quarterly magazine, Space Quarterly. We started our discussion with an overview of SpaceRef.com and the partners, plus the new services now offered within the SpaceRef family. As you will hear, the SpaceRef team is very bullish on space development and is engaged in growth and the expansion of their services with many new publications, multiple forums, and their quarterly magazine, Space Quarterly. During the first segment, we discussed these new services with a focus on both the Forum and Space Quarterly. All of these services can be reached through the main SpaceRef website, www.spaceref.com. We talked about submissions to SpaceRef, even anonymous submissions, writing for Space Quarterly, and being a moderator for some of the forums. Marc explained the SpaceRef website registration process, provided subscription information for Space Quarterly, and said the next issue would be out Dec. 1. He also provided a preview of the articles that will be in the upcoming Space Quarterly issue. We talked about on demand printing, the magazine publication business in general, and the market for space news and publications. In our second longer segment, Marc was asked about their process and sources for obtaining space news. In addition to the many sources used by SpaceRef, they also have an email tip line, tips@spaceref.com. Later our discussion turned to getting Marc's perspective on U.S. space policy and his views on what China has been doing and will do regarding their own space policy. Marc had much to say on our space policy, including that our system is broken. Do not miss his discussion on this issue. The same for his comments on the Chinese space policy. We talked about Canadian space policy and in some ways, we compared the flow of space information & news in the U.S. to Canada. We talked about the need for commercial space and space innovation and Marc referenced the problems Canadians encounter with our ITAR laws and regulations, citing several examples including the Canadian company MDA. At the end of the program, we talked about the need for policy and space leadership. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) which has Canadian participation in it was our last discussion topic. We said that leaders must lead. Projects such as the JWST are leadership type projects. Please post your comments and questions on The Space Show blog URL above. Marc can be emailed at marc.boucher@spaceref.com. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Wed, 05 Oct 2011 16:11:27 UTC
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Chris Carberry, Monday, 10-3-11 (41.02MB; download) -- Guest: Chris Carberry. Topics: Explore Mars.org, Women & Mars Conference, Mars missions, MSL, Mars and space advocacy. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We welcomed back to the show, Chris Carberry, Executive Director of Explore Mars (www.exploremars.org). Our first discussion topic was the upcoming Women and Mars Conference which is set for Nov.. 9 & 10 at George Washington University in Washington, DC. Visit the conference website at www.exploremars.org/page/women-and-mars for a list of keynote speakers, panels, and all the registration information. Note that there are student registration fees of $65 representing a deep discount for students attending this program. In addition, this event will be broadcast on the net free of charge by NASA so if you cannot make it to D.C., you can see it live (and participate through a blog) as well as seeing it later as an archived broadcast event. Chris went over the list of panels and speakers, then he told us that for those who register on or before Oct. 7, they get a VIP pass to see the Mars Science Lab (MSL) launch from the Cape. Details are on the Women and Space website above. Later in our first segment, Chris was asked to update the educational and programming plans for Explore Mars which he did. As you will hear, they have many educational outreach events already underway, plus they have several new events planned for 2012. At the end of this segment, Chris was asked about a Phobos Deimos mission rather than going directly to Mars. Don't miss what he had to say about this. He concluded the segment by saying that there is only a small window of opportunity right now for our space program to move forward and we need to both recognize it and take advantage of it. In our second segment, Chris started out with a general overview of the space policy for presidential candidates. As you will hear, space remains a tunnel vision problem for political candidates. He got a question about space policy and the Tea Party and then he talked about the importance of the upcoming MSL. At the end of the segment, a caller asked about the new ESA Mars Express SPICAM finding water supersaturation in the Martian atmosphere. Here is a link to the story: http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=49342. In our third segment, we talked about heavy lift and the Space Launch System (SLS). Chris had much to say on heavy lift for a Mars mission and we discussed what amount of heavy lift was likely to be optimum for a specific mission. He supported SLS but questions the likelihood of it ever being built. We talked about the need for longer term funding in Congress and commercial space. As we ended the program, he repeated the details of the upcoming Women & Mars Conference per above. You can post your comments and questions on The Space Show Blog URL above. You can email Chris at carberry@exploremars.org. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:30:49 UTC
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Dr. David Whitehouse, Sunday, 10-2-11 (44.20MB; download) -- Guest: Dr. David Whitehouse. Topics: Science journalism, space and the UK, space policy, space journalism. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We welcomed Dr. David Whitehouse of the UK, the world's most cited science journalist, to the show to discuss science and space journalism, space policy in the UK, the U.S. and much more. Visit his website at www.davidwhitehouse.com for information about his work and publications. In our first segment, we discussed his recent article titled "More Science Journalists, Fewer Science Supporters." You can read the article at www.thegwpf.org/the-observatory/3334-more-science-journalists-fewer-science-supporters.html. Dr. Whitehouse talked about science journalists being too friendly and not asking enough uncomfortable questions. Listen to this discussion & read his excellent article on the subject. Next, a listener brought up the issue of climate change reporting. Dr. Whitehouse said that reporting on this subject does not reflect the role of science & that science journalism must not be a cheerleader. Our guest had much to say on the issue of climate change, average world temperatures, and the reporting of data & fact. Also about the diversity of opinion among scientists on this issue. Unfortunately, what the public gets is not at all reflected by the peer reviewed literature. He later cited the IPCC as an example of the problem. He concluded this segment saying that science journalism does not reflect or ask the right question: What is the effect of greenhouse gasses in the real world with data feedback. In our second segment, John called about actual warming data & if there was a mitigation strategy that would make a difference. Dr. Whitehouse had much to say in response to John. The bottom line is that mitigation efforts cannot be more damaging or costly to the economies of the world than the problem itself. Marshall asked about the solar model & climate change & Ellen asked about the teaching methods for climate change from middle school through college which largely support the popular agenda. We then moved to space in the UK. Dr. Whitehouse said there were not very many space journalists in the UK. He also talked about the UK space policy being heavily influenced against human spaceflight (HSF) by the astronomy community. We talked about Reaction Engines & the Skylon air breathing rocket engine. Harriett asked about serendipity in science discoveries. Later in this long segment, Dr. Whitehouse was asked about the Obama space plan, commercial space, private launchers, & space tourism. He said it was an interesting experiment and the verdict was still out. He said that we should be focused on going back to the Moon. He also said going to a NEO or even an eventual Mars fly back in a few decades was not a worthy space program for the world's leading space nation. We talked about the complexities of the industry, engineering complex systems & safety issues. Here, our guest had much to say about accidents & extreme reporting that tends to try to doom the industry. At the end of the program, I asked about lessons learned from the UK not having an HSF program. Our guest talked about why we need HSF, what it means to kids and to everyone. He said we might just be lost without it. Don't miss his comments. Our final topic was the Chinese space program. He suggested they might just evolve as the world's leading space country if the U.S. drops the ball. Post your comments and questions on the blog URL above. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:12:22 UTC
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Dr. John Hogan, Friday, 9-30-11 (44.67MB; download) -- Guest: Dr. John Hogan. Topics: Human Life Support for long duration spaceflight, space environmental needs & solutions. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We welcomed Dr. John Hogan who is with the Bioengineering Branch at NASA Ames to the show to discuss human life support issues, challenges, and where we are today in terms of being able to do long duration human spaceflight (HSF) and establish a human presence on the Moon or Mars. Dr. Hogan started our discussion with an overview of the early space missions including Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, then onto ISS and the Space Shuttle. He talked about the life support issues from those missions up to where we are today, the evolution of systems, lessons learned, and the capabilities of systems then as compared to now and what will be needed in the future. We talked about the difficulty, challenges, and the fact that the longer period of time for the mission, the greater and more complex the systems will be to support the missions. Dr. Hogan talked about the need for maintaining cabin pressure, water, food, air temperature, radiation protection, waste removal and microgravity issues, all in the context of the systems provided by each of the programs mentioned above. As you will hear, the ISS is the test bed for life support. We talked in detail about water recycling and the current level of efficiency as compared to what will be needed on a Mars mission. We talked about CO2 removal from the systems and the methods for removing it, plus the waste which today includes methane. In the future the methane might even be used for fuel or other purposes. As for trash and solid waste, you do not want to miss how it is handled and the hardware that has been made to process the trash with usable byproducts. Near the end of the first segment, I asked our guest about the areas needing work before we could do a Mars HSF trip. Don't miss what he said about solid waste treatment, water and air issues. In the second segment, a listener asked about the Dragon being outfitted for HSF requirements and the stability of consumables and other systems over a long time in space. We talked about reducing the mass of the hardware systems as a key component of developing new systems and components for longer missions. Food production was discussed along with closed agricultural systems. Another listener asked about microbial growth & life in the vehicle and the steps taken to prevent such growth. In our final segment, we talked about the state of the art environmental test building at Ames, Sustainability Base, and the benefits going back and forth from space to Earth by developing the systems we talked about today. Energy use was also discussed and we talked about underground food production for the Moon as well as Mars, plus the terrestrial advancement known as Vertical Farming. Toward the end, we talked about the shelf life in space for food, other consumables, and pharmaceuticals. If you have comments or questions, please post them on the blog URL above. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Sat, 01 Oct 2011 17:02:56 UTC
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Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards, Sunday, 9-25-11 (42.13MB; download) -- Guest: Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards. Topic: Moon Express, the Google Lunar X Prize, commercial space business and strategic planning. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. For more information on Moon Express, visit www.moonexpress.com. We welcomed Dr. Bob Richards back to the show for updates on Moon Express and the Google Lunar X Prize. We started our first segment talking about Moon Express, its team, their youthful age, and the fact that there is no shortage of people wanting to be involved in the project. The Google Lunar X Prize calls for the winner to meet the terms of the competition by the end of 2015 but Moon Express hopes to launch to the Moon in 2014. Bob talked about the importance of having backup plans and said many times over that space was hard and expensive and one must have backup plans and contingencies in case something does not work out as planned. Later in the segment in response to a listener question, he said the rocket ride represented about half the cost of the lunar mission. Moon Express has not yet announced the rocket they will use but suggested that such an announcement might be forthcoming in the first or second quarter of next year. In our second segment, Marshall called in from Dallas but as you will hear, mixing satellite mission parameters with a lunar lander mission does not work. Both Bob and I had much to say on the issue of making sure that when we compare things, we are comparing like things. Another listener wanted to know about leaving space debris on the Moon. Bob had much to say on this topic. Space property rights were discussed as were economic models. Lunar historical sites were discussed and it was suggested that hardware left on the Moon from the initial private missions would also be historical sites in a similar way to the Apollo landing sites. Throughout our discussion, Bob talked about the need for these efforts to be disruptive. In our third and final segment, we talked about the business and investment climate, especially in Silicon Valley where there are investors looking for the types of opportunities represented by some commercial space investments, i.e. Moon Express. The need to change perceptions is key. Later in this segment, I asked Bob to tell us the investor profile for these types of commercial space investments. This is an important discussion, don't miss it. The last question for Dr. Richards asked him for advice for start up entrepreneurs. Bob listed three things so don't miss this final part of our discussion. If you have comments or questions for Dr. Richards, post them on the blog URL above. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Mon, 26 Sep 2011 04:01:35 UTC
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Frank Stratford, Friday, 9-23-11 (57.62MB; download) -- Guest: Frank Stratford. Topics: Human Spaceflight to Mars via Frank's op-ed in The Space Review, "The Mars Consortium 2011 (www.thespacereview.com/article/1914). You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We welcomed back Frank Stratford to discuss human spaceflight (HSF) to Mars and his consortium idea on financing an HSF mission to Mars. Frank started out by suggesting that Mars advocacy had strong parallels to the earlier Apollo program. That said, he also said that until we had significantly lower cost and less risky space access, it would be unlikely for governments or the private sectors to mount an HSF mission to Mars. Given his analysis, he developed his Mars Consortium 2011 program which calls for a venture involving academia, the private sector, government, and others. Frank said over and over again, cheap space access was the main ingredient needed to make this happen. He then talked about destinations which became a big part of today's discussion. He drew parallels with the Wright Brothers but said space is empty, nothing like here on Earth, even when the Wright Brothers made history. R&D was brought up as well as the need for space markets. But the destination topic prevailed for the balance of this segment. Several listener email questions came in but we always came back to the need for cheap space access, lowering the risk and destinations. In our second segment, John called in from Atlanta to discuss the need for an RLV. I took issue with him as you will hear as I think before we talk about hardware, we need to know the mission, what it is going to be used for and why we are even doing it. I said just building an all purpose do everything rocket would not cut it. I also brought up RLV economics as compared to ELV economics if the markets and launch rates are not sufficient to drive upward demand for an RLV. Frank, John, and I talked about these issues for several minutes, working the discussion back to the consortium idea. But John held to his guns for the need for an RLV and corresponding R&D. We also talked about the Space Launch System, its very high cost, its confusing mission, and the probability it would be cancelled. This brought me to ranting about long term projects falling to a congress which only funds projects on a yearly basis. I said over and over again to John and Frank that our process was broken given how much time it takes to do a space project and the annual funding process. Frank offered that with a mission with a destination & timelines, these challenges could be overcome. What do you think? As we neared the end of our discussion, I asked Frank for an assessment of space enthusiasm in Australia for Mars and other space projects. We also discussed Mars launch windows as a listener brought this up given others saying we could go to Mars in ten years without considering the position of Mars relative to Earth to minimize astronaut travel time. If you have comments or questions for Frank Stratford, do post them on the blog URL above. You can also reach Frank through www.marsdrive.com. His email address is frank.stratford@gmail.com. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Sat, 24 Sep 2011 02:50:49 UTC
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Dr. Lawrence (Larry) Krauss; Open Discussion (44.80MB; download) -- Guest: Dr. Lawrence (Larry) Krauss. Topics: For the first hour, we discussed Dr. Richard Feynman & Larry's new book. In the last segment, we did an open discussion with Space Show announcements & a caller. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We welcomed Dr. Krauss back to the program as hew as a guest several years ago when his book, "The Physics of Star Trek" was published. For the first half of the hour with Dr. Krauss, we discussed his new book, "Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science." Dr. Krauss told us much about the late Dr. Feynman, his science, quantum mechanics, his Nobel prize, and more. I asked Dr. Krauss how it was that Dr. Feynman was on the Challenger accident review panel and he replied that he was a Nobel winner, he was famous, and he brought integrity & stature to the board. A listener asked why the New Age community always referenced Dr. Feynman and his work. Here, Dr. Krauss had some very interesting things to say so don't miss his comments. In summary, while Feynman was open to investigating out of the box claims and ideas, he did not hesitate to debunk them and many in the New Age community do not understand his work and science. We talked about the possibility of changing or having different laws of physics. No way but listen to what he had to say about this. In the second half hour with Dr. Krauss, we talked space policy, specifically human spaceflight. As you will hear, Dr. Krauss said very little science has been done and is being done on ISS & its not been nor will it ever be cost effective. Pretty much the same for shuttle. He talked about why we have human spaceflight which he said was for adventure, if it was worth the cost, and the NASA science missions which are valuable. He had much to say about the cost overruns on the JWST and said without the human spaceflight component, all of this could easily be afforded. You do not want to miss this segment as it will challenge your thinking on many levels. When I asked our guest about specific human factors benefits such as bone loss developments, he said it was unclear if the same could not have been developed on Earth far cheaper. The same for protein crystal growth when I cited the CF gene work and success. See if you agree with him and why or why not? We came back after the break for a short segment of announcements for future Space Show programming, my comments about listener feedback to the show, and we took a call from John about out of the box ideas such as an inflatable space tower. If you have comments or questions, post them on the blog URL above. We want to hear from you. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Tue, 20 Sep 2011 16:17:14 UTC
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Nancy Conrad, Sunday, 9-18-11 (42.38MB; download) -- Guest: Nancy Conrad. Topics: The Conrad Foundation & Conrad Awards, STEM education for high school students, space & education. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We welcomed Nancy Conrad back to the program to update us on new activities with The Conrad Foundation, The Conrad Awards & The Spirit of Innovation Awards for STEM educational outreach among U.S. high school students. Please visit www.conradfoundation.org and www.conradawards.org for more information. In our first segment, Ms. Conrad provided us with an overview of the Foundation and the awards, the goals, projects, recipients, and the new website which will launch within a few days. We talked about the sponsorship by leading corporations both in the space arena as well as in other industries. Ms. Conrad also mentioned her recent testimony before Congress on STEM education & space policy. She described the teams, the portal, the competition, and some of the recent successful student projects. Nancy stressed educational collaboration and said that the next award winners will also be going to the UN sponsored conference, Rio + 20. Ms. Conrad referenced her late husband, former astronaut Pete Conrad, his educational problems as a student, and how important it was to change the educational system, citing Pete and others as an example. In the second segment, our guest stressed that the competition was open to all students with the model based on what worked with the Moon shot. She said about 1/3 were girls, there was no cost for entering, the process has been simplified and streamlined, and that there are no academic pre-requisites. The semi-finals are to be held in March 2012 at NASA Ames with five teams from each category which our guest discussed during all segments of today's program. I asked our guest if the space policy confusion has impacted the student interest in space. Don't miss what Ms. Conrad had to say about this. As the segment ended, Ms. Conrad stressed being inclusive and that a future goal is to expand the awards to students in other countries. In our final segment, a listener asked for ideas on working with the class when the teacher says there is no time for outside support or activities. Don't miss her suggestion. As we neared the end of the discussion, we talked about The Conrad Foundation five year milestones & goals, educational globalization, and student teams. If you have comments or questions, post them on the blog URL above. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Mon, 19 Sep 2011 17:21:17 UTC
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Col. William R. (Bill) Pogue, Friday, 9-16-11 (50.31MB; download) -- Guest: Col. William R. (Bill) Pogue: Topics: Col. Pogue's experiences as a Korean war combat pilot, a member of the AF Thunderbirds, & astronaut on Skylab. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. Also visit Col. Pogue's website, www.williampogue.com. We welcomed Bill Pogue back to The Space Show to discuss his new autobiography, "But for the Grace of God: An Autobiography of an Aviator and Astronaut," and his experiences as an USAF aviator and astronaut. In our first segment, we talked about his enlistment in the AF and his going on to fly combat fighter bombers during the Korean War. His book has lots of stories in it we did not get to during the program, including bombing the wrong target & the surprise ending of the incident. He talked about many of his experiences, the planes he flew such as the F-84, and how he handled the N. Korean flak fired at him and the other pilots. We then talked about his joining the AF Thunderbirds and formation flying. These are interesting stories that we don't get to hear that often from the person actually making the history. We then did a fast forward to get to his NASA career. Here, he had many stories and experiences to share with us all the way from astronaut selection to working with other astronauts such as Alan Bean, Wally Schirra, Al Shepherd and others. You will enjoy these stories as well as learn new things about the personalities of those making up our early space program. Bill talked about being selected as part of the backup crew for Apollo 16 and why that crew was never announced publicly. He then told how he joined the Skylab team with fellow astronauts Jerry Carr and Ed Gibson. Bill took us through his training, crew dynamics, his near record seven plus hour space walk and more. In the second segment, he said the Skylab training spanned three years. The intellectual training was mostly devoted to the solar observatory to image the sun in ultra violet and x-rays for the first time. He talked about his exercise routine to combat the problems associated with microgravity and radiation issues. He applied the radiation concerns to a Mars mission. I asked him to compare a space walk then to a modern one on the Shuttle or the ISS, including the differences in EVA suits. Don't miss this comparison. Bill had much to say about the view on a space walk as compared to inside the station. In our final segment, we honed in on crew size. He said they had no crew issues because they united in facing the common enemy, Mission Control. Don't miss what he said about this. We talked about space tourism, ordinary people going up for two week trips, commercial launchers, and more. He supports these activities and sees no issues, especially if its a two week trip. Near the end, we talked about modern space policy, more on commercial launchers, American space leadership & NASA human spaceflight oversight. He had much to say on these issues as well as the risks facing us regarding the loss of our space leadership status. He concluded with the takeaways from Skylab & his experiences then to today. Post your comments & questions on the blog URL above. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Sat, 17 Sep 2011 16:55:06 UTC
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