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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Mark Bray, Sunday, 3-4-12 (80.37MB; download) -- Guest: Mark Bray. Topics: Space industry standards, policy, politics, & space workforce attitudes. 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 Mark Bray for what was a most interesting and wide ranging 2.5 hour discussion divided into two segments. We started off with Mark talking about the need for industrial standards both in the public and the private space sectors. A good portion of this initial hour long segment was about design and quality standards. Mark explained by example why there were needed and what he was talking about. His Florida concrete company example made it very clear why the standards he was talking were and are needed. Mark made some very good points, we had good listener participation both on the phone and with emails. I promise that you will think differently about standards and the space industry after you listen to this segment. We started the second segment talking about SLS as Mark works on the SLS project. I asked him if the workforce was aware of the opposition to SLS and what they thought about it. This opened the door for Mark to talk about space workforce issues, their fears and concerns, and what is happening to the workforce given the current political, election year politics, economic condition, and the fact that they are not working on a space mission with goals and a destination. Listen to what Mark had to say on all these issues. While you may not like what you hear, keep in mind that Mark in engaged as part of this workforce and speaks from experience. In response to a listener question, Mark had much to say about Huntsville, Marshall, and Alabama space politics. Part of this discussion focused on NewSpace and why Alabama has been slow in seeing opportunities with NewSpace rather than trying to block elements of it. Jon called in from Jersey City and had a good discussion with Mark about these & other issues and then he introduced space enthusiasts to the mix in terms of what this community wants and expects for policy. This brought me to one of my rants on policy and my playing the Devil's Advocate with both Jon and Mark. Eventually, the three of us talked about how we seem to be forced into selecting one way or the other for space development and dismissing that which is not the "preferred" one way. We also talked about congressional responsibility for how they handle taxpayer money while enthusiasts have no such responsibilities. Next, we arrived at why we all seem to be fighting over shrinking resources and getting "our" piece of a smaller and smaller pie. We talked about the need to grow the economy, to grow the space sector, and to grow the economic pie, not shrink it. We agreed that while there may be many solution paths to the problems facing the U.S., space provides a clear path and solution set that seems hard to match by other possible directions and choices if economic expansion and wealth creation are to be the goals of our national policy. Also mentioned was how NASA is not considered one of the key science and technology agencies, Near the end, Mark got an interesting question about long duration storage requirements for SRBs. Don't miss Mark's closing comments. Finally, the paper he mentioned during this interview is on his website at http://braynstorms.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Achieving-Innovation-and-Affordability.pdf. Please post your comments/questions on The Space Show blog URL above. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Mon, 05 Mar 2012 03:21:40 UTC
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Suborbital Conference Interviews, Friday, 3-2-12 (85.25MB; download) -- Guests: Dr. Angie Bukley; Brian Shiro; Chuck Lauer; Dr. Sean Casey. Topics: International Space University (ISU), Astronauts4Hire, suborbital flight, Rocketplane, research projects, SOFIA. 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. This program consists of five taped interviews conducted at the Next Generation Suborbital Conference held in Palo Alto, CA from Feb. 27-29, 2012. Each interview is about 30 minutes in length. There is approximately 10-15 seconds of dead air between interviews. The first interview is with Dr. Angie Bukley who is the Dean at the International Space University (ISU). Dr. Bukley discusses ISU, the upcoming summer session at Melbourne, Florida, and much more. The second interview is with Brian Shiro who is the President of Astronauts4Hire and a former student at both the UND SpSt program and ISU. Brian currently is with NOAA in Hawaii. We talk about Astronauts4Hire, suborbital flights and research and more. The third interview which took place on Wednesday was with Chuck Lauer. Chuck announced that Rocketplane was back! He went over the basics of their plans, the flight experience, spaceship plans, and more. Chuck was followed by our discussion with Elizabeth (Liz) Kennick who is the new Project Leader for Teachers in Space with The Space Frontier Foundation. Liz explains the program from top to bottom and the programs in place to do effective outreach to both teachers and students. Our final interview was with Dr. Sean Casey. He updated us on the NASA SOFIA Program and talked about his own suborbital research project plans. He also provided us with some comparisons of a sounding rocket versus the new generation of suborbital vehicles in terms of G-force, the quality of the ride, protecting instruments or being able to use off the shelf instruments and more. Please post your comments regarding any of these interviews on The Space Show blog URL above. If you want to email any of our guests, send it to me at drspace@thespaceshow.com and I will forward it to the person of your choice. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Fri, 02 Mar 2012 17:19:23 UTC
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John Batchelor, "Hotel Mars, Wednesday, 2-29-12 (4.56MB; download) -- Guests: John Batchelor, Dr. Charles Lurio, Dr. David Livingston. Topics: The Next Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference 2012 and suborbital spaceflight. 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. Written 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. This program is archived on The Space Show website, podcasting, and blog sites with permission from John Batchelor. Please visit the John Batchelor Show website for more information about this fine program, www.johnbatchelorshow.com. The topics in this 11 minute plus segment focused on the Next Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference just concluded in Palo Alto, CA. Dr. Lurio and I were both present and we went over a few of the highlights of the conference. We talked about suborbital research opportunities, the scientific interest in these flights, the progress being made by the companies, and more. John Batchelor asked us about the role of NASA and how suborbital fits into the overall broad scale space program. Please post your comments regarding this John Batchelor Show segment on The Space Show Blog. If you want to email John Batchelor or Dr. Lurio, you can do so through me or their respective websites. Please check out The Lurio Report at www.thelurioreport.com. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Thu, 01 Mar 2012 23:16:41 UTC
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John Powell, Tuesday, 2-28-12 (49.25MB; download) -- Guest: John Powell. Topics: Updates regarding JP Aerospace and balloon launch developments including the Airship To Orbit Program. 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 John Powell back to the show for JP Aerospace updates. For more information, visit his website, www.jpaerospace.com. Also visit the Samsung page for his winning ad at http://space-balloon.net/index.html. John started our discussion by describing the Galaxy II winning ad that JP Aerospace did with Samsung in Japan and the United States. This involved split second timing and complicated technology. During this segment, we also talked about the balloon world altitude record which JP holds and his PongSat program for students. We then switched over to his Airship To Orbit Program. John described the various stages to the program and the Dark Sky Station that will be a type of spaceport at 140,000 feet. Listen to his entire plan as it is not only interesting, it is ambitious. As the segment ended, I asked how the balloons end their mission. Does he recover them, do they blow up, what happens to them. In our second segment, Trent from Australia called in and related the high altitude balloons to the suborbital industry and the conference now in progress in Palo Alto. He then asked John for his hopes and expectations for 2012 for his organization. John then went through his goals for the year, his technology testing and development program plus his planned flight program. We then talked about space weather and then John talked about human flight with his program. This led us to a discussion of planned ion engine usage and development. John took several questions related to the power plant and its evolution to end stage JP programs. What then unfolded was a rather technical discussion about balloon technolgy and capabilities. Don't miss it. We also talked about orbital speed for a balloon and John went over some history with us dating back several decades to Mach 10-15 balloon flights to 200,000 feet. Listeners also asked about the balloon reentry and the potential payload size which John estimated at 60,000 lbs. Reda inquired about finding party balloon pieces in the desert and we talked about the different balloon materials and environmental issues with the various kinds of material used in consumer as well as industrial balloons. John also went over material choices saying that there were benefits to ripstop polyurethane and that nylon was very heavy. John concluded his comments by urging everyone to talk to the sciences classes K-12 and I asked for feedback from listeners who make the effort to do this. Please post your comments/questions on The Space Show blog. You can get more information about JP Aerospace from the website and John's email address is on his site.
Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Wed, 29 Feb 2012 07:15:11 UTC
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Marcia Smith, Monday, 2-27-12 (46.82MB; download) -- Guest: Marcia Smith. Topics: FY 13 proposed budget analysis for NASA and DOD plus how the congressional budget process works. 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 Marcia Smith to help us understand the proposed FY 13 NASA and DOD budgets plus the congressional budgetary process. I recommend following Marcia's website and posts at SpacePolicyOnline.com for the latest information on the budget and a wide range of additional topics of interest. During our discussion, we delved into how the U.S. budget process works. Its complex. Marcia suggested looking up reports by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) so check these out: http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/34649.pdf; http://opencrs.com/document/98-721. In our first segment, I started by asking Marcia to explain why we hear that the Senate has not passed a budget yet funds are allocated and programs are cancelled and supported as if there was a budget. What unfolded for a good part of our 90 minute discussion was an excellent discussion on how our budget process actually works, what is important, what is not important, and who does what and when. I urge you to listen to this discussion as you won't find a better tutorial on understanding our federal budget than right here with Marcia Smith. In learning how things really work, we used the NASA budget as an example and to a lesser degree parts of the DOD budget. We talked about cuts and the idea that the NASA budget was flat which it is not as its down close to a billion dollars from last year when the correct analysis is applied. We talked about Mars missions, SLS, Orion, JWST, NASA overhead, commercial crew, ISS, planetary science, and more. We went through the role of OMB and the use of auditors. You may find some of this surprising or even shocking. Also in this segment we talked about the subcommittees and the other agencies in the same subcommittee with NASA. Lots of questions came from listeners, including one about applying money from cutting back on the wars to NASA. No such luck, listen to why that does not happen, i.e. Overseas Contingency Operations Account (OCO). We also asked about taking money from one subcommittee and using it in another. That does not work either. In our second segment, we continued our budgetary process tutorial, focusing on NASA tweaking the appropriations and sending it back to Congress for their approval which they may or may not approve. Next, we talked about DOD cuts but they were cuts from the projections which led us to talking about using out year projections for budgetary planning purposes. We talked about classified and unclassified space projects within the DOD, plus the efforts to hold the agencies accountable with audits and IG reports. As you will hear, most agencies including NASA and DOD do not get a clean statement from the auditor, instead they end up with a Disclaimed Audit. As the program ended, I asked Marcia to share with us what she has found to be the most effective way of communicating our passion for space with the public and congress. If you have comments or questions about this discussion, please post them on The Space Show blog URL above. Marcia Smith can be reached through her website which is provided earlier in this summary. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Tue, 28 Feb 2012 04:50:59 UTC
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Mark Whittington, Sunday, 2-26-12 (55.05MB; download) -- Guest: Mark Whittington. Topics: Space Budgets, policy, & politics. 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 Mark Whittington back to the show for this 2.5 hour wide ranging discussion on space budgets, the economy, space policy and space politics, plus economic issues facing the nation and others around the world. We also talked about space perspectives of all those running for president including President Obama and the Republican party challengers. Mark talked about two article he wrote that were pertinent to our discussion. These articles are (1) "Moon Base Supporters Struggle to Justify the Project:"
www.examiner.com/space-news-in-houston/moon-base-supporters-struggle-to-justify-the-project; and (2) "A Lunar Exploration Reading List for Mitt Romney:"
www.examiner.com/space-news-in-houston/a-lunar-exploration-reading-list-for-mitt-romney. I used a very long write up for this archived program description so to read about the program, please use www.thespaceshow.com or our blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Thank you for accepting this referral to the regular archives as they do not restrict the number of characters in the description as does our podcasting client. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Mon, 27 Feb 2012 04:54:11 UTC
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Jim Bickford, Friday, 2-24-12 (47.22MB; download) -- Guest: James (Jim) Bickford. Topics: Antimatter for space propulsion. 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 Jim Bickford to the program to discuss antimatter for space propulsion. In our first segment, Mr. Bickford started our discussion with an introduction to antimatter basics. While we referenced Star Trek in the discussion, Mr. Bickford was quick to point out that reality was quite different from the sci fi classic though he was a fan of Star Trek. Along with the Apollo program, both played a role in his having his interest in antimatter. In this introduction, I asked Mr. Bickford about antimatter as a weapon but he said it would not be practical. One of the points stressed by Jim during the entire program was just how little antimatter material there is and how long term the R&D program would be.. He said there is very little in nature and the quantities made worldwide were extremely small, measuring in nanograms produced a year. Our guest compared antimatter to chemical propulsion and nuclear thermal rockets (NTR). While the NTR is substantially better than chemical propulsion, antimatter propulsion would be orders of magnitude better than the NTR. We then talked about supplies of antimatter off Earth and he said the most promosing place was in the rings of Saturn. He also mentioned solar flares from the sun in the positrons and back on Earth he talked about cosmic rays as well as some material in thunderstorms & ligtening. Mr. Bickford also discussed what an antimatter spaceship would probably be like. He discussed fuel tank requirements, containment, even plasma fileds around the spaceship using an electromagnetic field extending out around the spaceship as the containment device. We talked about the research needed, the steps involved, and the funding. Our guest repeated many times that antimatter research is high risk in the sense of obtaining success. As the segment was ending, we talked about antimatter research in the medical field against cancer tumors. In our second segment, we talked more about tax payer funded antimatter research and Jim took us through a value stream analysis which was most interesting. We talked about student interest in antimatter and both the direct and indirect benefits from technology research and development. We then talked about the specifics of antimatter for space development starting with defining the requirements and eventually being able to do a demo. A caller asked if the research had a billion dollars for many years would there be a breakthrough in the 20-30 year time period. You might be surprised by his answer. We also talked about a paper and a Power Point poster that he has used regarding his antimatter research. Both the poster and the paper will be uploaded to The Space Show blog with Mr. Bickford's permission. We talked about antimatter and Jupiter based on the poster . Another question came in about antimatter propulsion being useful for launch from Earth. This prompted our guest to talk about the antimatter theoretical limit for both ISP and faster than light speed. As we were talking about the antimatter development process, I asked about the role of luck or serendipity in discovering breakthroughs. You might be surprised by this answer as well. In ending our discussion, Jim repeated that antimatter was only at the fundamental research stage and very long term, perhaps even further out than a century but very promosing nonetheless.. Please post your comments/questions on The Space Show blog URL. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Sat, 25 Feb 2012 17:14:22 UTC
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John Batchelor "Hotel Mars, Wednesday, 2-22-12 (10.11MB; download) -- Guests: John Batchelor, Dr. David Livingston. Topics: The 11th Annual California Round robber for policy debate. 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. Written 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. This program is archived on The Space Show website, podcasting, and blog sites with permission from John Batchelor. Please visit the John Batchelor Show website for more information about this fine program, www.johnbatchelorshow.com. The topics in this 11 minute plus segment focused on the 11th annual high school California Round Robin for policy debate which was held Friday, Feb. 17, 2012 at the College Preparatory School in Oakland, CA. I was one of four critics (not judges) asked to participate and advise the debating teams on how realistic their presentations were in terms of what is actually done regarding the subject in the space industry. The question the debaters focused on asked if the U.S. government should pay for and develop space solar power. One team took the affirmative. The other team accepted the need for space solar power but took the position that it should be paid for and developed by the private sector. High School debate rules were followed. In the coming weeks the debate audio will be uploaded to a special website for everyone to hear. When the audio is available, I will modify the archives for this program to include the URL so those of you interested in hearing it can do so. In addition to critiquing the students, each of the four of us (critics) had an opportunity to address not just the two debate teams but also the 60-70 adults in the room. We stressed the possibility of understanding, seeing, and valuing space as a possible path for solutions to many of the problems we all face today. In talking to the students after the debate, they were all open to STEM college programs, space, science, and technology careers. They were actually excited about the debate, the topic, and their future. During this segment with John Batchelor, I went into more detail about the actual debate, how they handled the multiple disciplines they talked about including engineering, technology, space issues, beaming issues, business, financial and economic issues. When the debate ended, we took questions from the students and the adults. Some of the questions dealt with space debris, microwave beaming and space weapons, the Outer Space Treaty, space liability issues, and an aging space workforce. Please post your comments regarding this John Batchelor Show segment on The Space Show Blog. If you want to email either John Batchelor you can do so through me or their respective websites. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Thu, 23 Feb 2012 03:40:18 UTC
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Dr. Robert (Bob) Zubrin, Tuesday, 2-21-12 (74.11MB; download) -- Guest: Dr. Robert (Bob) Zubrin. Topics: NASA, the Mars Program, Dr. Zubrin's new book, "Merchants of Despair." 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. Some important websites applicable to this program are as follows: Dr. Zubrin's recent article in the National Review Online, www.nationalreview.com/articles/291099/obama-wrecks-mars-program-robert-zubrin. Dr. Zubrin's new book, Merchants of Despair: Radical Environmentalists, Criminal Pseudo-Scientists, and the Fatal Cult of Antihumanism:
www.amazon.com/Merchants-Despair-Environmentalists-Pseudo-Scientists-Antihumanism/dp/1594034761/ref=onegiantlea20. Please remember that if you buy the book from Amazon using this link, Amazon will contribute part of the purchase price to OGLF/The Space Show. During our hour long first segment, Dr. Zubrin talked about the NASA part of the President's Proposed FY 13 budget for NASA. He referred to his National Review Online article in addition to providing us with financial and economic analysis, the importance of the Mars program, and the consequences of cancelling it and other proposed uses of NASA funding that do not accomplish much. This is a comprehensive and hard hitting discussion which addresses how to make our space program, NASA, private space, and Mars more relevant to the nation. He also explains why it is so important to see humans as creators, not destroyers, and to see space as a significant and important path forward for us all. He fielded many listener emails and caller questions on lots of subjects, including prizes and a recent MSN poll regarding those wanting to go to the Moon, Mars, or stay at home. During the second segment which was close to 90 minutes, Dr. Zubrin continued discussing the FY 13 budget and its consequences for NASA and the country, but he also talked about his new book in detail, even linking it to the space program. Many issues came up as Bob's book uses history and scientific arguments to refute the claims of those movements and efforts to limit growth, space development, distort science for a political agenda, and more. These issues take up most of the discussion, along with listener questions on both NASA and Mars along with the book topics he laid out for us. For example, questions about the use of the nuclear rocket came up. Limiting resources and commercial growth came up as opposed to expanding resources and robustly developing space by both NASA and the private sector were extensively discussed. Listeners asked many questions about Space X and rocket alternatives to SLS and the issue of global warming. Bob told us stories from the book going back in history to the days of Rev. Thomas Malthus and his population theories as written during the period of 1798 to 1826 through to modern times with the Club of Rome, Paul Ehrlich, and Dr. Holdren. He used the banning of DDT as one example given in his new book. Bob's closing comments addressed the crisis in our space program and the choice we have to make regarding a devastating vision for our future or a creative and positive future vision that includes space. His final comments were about the 15th Annual Mars Society Conference which will be in Pasadena, CA in early August this year, set to coincide with the likely timing of the landing of the Curiosity Rover on Mars. Please post your comments/questions regarding this program on the Space Show blog URL above.
Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:44:24 UTC
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Dr. Jeff Bell, Monday, 2-20-12 (71.18MB; download) -- Guest: Dr. Jeff Bell. Topics: Dr. Bell's assessment of NASA, the science missions, human spaceflight, the Russian space problems, & Phobos-Grunt conspiracy theories. 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. Jeff Bell back to the program for his assessment of space today in the United States, along with the problems facing the Russian space industry and the Phobos-Grunt conspiracy theories as to why the mission failed. Those familiar with Dr. Bell and his Space Show programs will not be disappointed as this two hour plus discussion is vintage Jeff Bell. Dr. Bell started with an assessment of the problems over the last year and half or so with the Russian space industry and its management. Jeff does a good job of summarizing their history of manufacturing, technology, and engineering problems going back to the time of Sergei Korolev. He also shares with us his experiences working with the Russians on the Phobos 88 mission. He said typical characteristics of Russian missions leading to problems include being too ambitious, costly for their budgets, and the labor allocated to the projects. He suggested that we in the U.S. do the same thing and cited MSL and Curiosity as an example. He had much to say about the early Soviet Venus probes and how their data was widely discounted outside of the Soviet Union. He then said Space X might be overextending and he cited several ongoing Space X projects which might distract from their primary mission at hand which is to get Falcon and Dragon operational. Listeners asked about the Russian problems driving customers away from doing business with Russia in favor of ULA in the U.S. Here, Dr. Bell had much to say about ULA pricing, overhead costs without NASA sharing them, and more. He also mentioned what was happening to Delta 2 given the GPS system needing larger rockets as an example of the impact of government policy/spending in space industries. Dr. Bell turned to the latest Phobos-Grunt conspiracy theories for the mission failure. At the end of this segment, Dr. Bell talked about the JWST & Curiosity in terms of overly complex and costly missions. In the second segment, Jeff talked about the Newt space policy suggestions and the idea of the Moon as the 51st state. He had much to say about the ridicule in the media and was not surprised by it. He used this as an example to say reality "conflicts with the space cadet world view." In talking about Mars missions, he said people had been conned by the Mars theory of life stories and promoters. He said that Mars and HSF were not worth it. Several listeners called in to debate Jeff on these comments but Jeff took no prisoners. He then talked about the ISS and its less than full utilization and that the entire idea of HSF had come and gone. At one point in response to a listener question/comment, Dr. Bell said that all Zubrin offered was a 60's program! Jeff did have good things to say about the science and robotic missions, said our planet exploration would be with robots, not humans, and that we needed more missions like the Kepler Space Telescope. He repeated throughout the discussion that nothing useful has come form HSF nor would it. He offered that the basic technology was from the70's and had not changed. He said overall interest in space had declined since Apollo. In his closing comments, he said he was still hopeful that NewSpace would decrease the launch costs as that would be a game changer. If you have questions/comments for Dr. Jeff Bell, post them on The Space Show blog URL above. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:40:17 UTC
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