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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Futron Space Competitive Index 2009 Part 1, 10-19-09 (31.28MB; download) -- Guests: David Vaccaro, Jacob Gullish. Topics: space competitiveness, commercial space, space policy, Futron. Today's Space Show was Part One of a two part series examining the 2009 Futron Space Competitive Index. You can download the 12 page Executive Summary by visiting www.futron.com or by sending me an email requesting the .pdf. In our first segment, our two guests explained the basics of the Futron Competitive Study, what it represents, how it was done and why Futron does this report. Our guests described the qualitative environment of passion and emotion which permeates space so they merged with those attributes the quantitative data analysis to come up with the Space Competitive Index. We talked about trends which you will want to note, along with issues unique to civil, government, and private space. In response to a listener question, GPS was identified as by far the leading space industry with the U.S. is the dominant position of this particular industry. You don't want to miss this discussion. We started the second segment with a discussion of the key issues represented in the Futron analysis and report regarding the high level trends reported in 2009 Space Competitive Index. Our guests discussed these key issues in detail in this segment. We also talked about the need and value of a country offering transparency in their industry data and we looked at what different nations spend on space relative to their overall budgets. The ISS and other international partnerships were mentioned and as we learned, they add extra value to the analysis equations and models for those nations engaged in international cooperative efforts for space development. The issue of guarding against misleading data or disinformation and the lack of transparency was brought up and our guests went to great length to tell us how they worked to prevent bias and guard against bogus information or error. Based on the feedback they receive from countries reported on and participants in the various space programs and industry segments, there is a high confidence level in their screening and filtering efforts. In the final segment, Segment Three, we started out asking Jay and David if India, Japan, and China had the capability of going to the Moon with humans. You will want to hear what both our guests said about this. Hint: You bet! The subjects of spaceports came up as did NewSpace and space entrepreneurism in countries examined by this report. Toward the end of the show, specific questions were asked about the space programs of Israel, Iran, and N. Korea. If you want to send a comment or question to our guests, please do so as follows: David Vaccaro is dvaccaro@futron.com. Jay Gullish is jgullish@futron.com Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:21:40 UTC
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Ralph Nansen, Sunday, 10-18-09 (37.40MB; download) -- Guest: Ralph Nansen. Topics: SSP, economics, low cost space access, RLV, policy and political leadership. Ralph Nansen was our guest today to discuss space solar power (SSP) and his new book by Apogee, "Energy Crisis: Solution From Space." This book is available on the One Giant Leap Foundation website at www.onegiantleapfoundaton.org/books. Please purchase your copy using this link so that Amazon contributes to The Space Show. In the first segment, Mr. Nansen told us why he wrote this book and its premise about the needs and benefits of solving our energy problems from space. He said over and over again that the biggest challenge was low cost space transportation and that we needed the RLV to accomplish this. The problem today with SSP is the initial cost which is largely skewed by the high launch cost. Also in this segment we talked about market size for SSP and recouping investment costs. Toward the end of the first segment, Mr. Nansen said that eventually space solar power would cost only a few cents per kwh and he compared it to some of the larger hydroelectric projects in the United States such as the Grand Coulee Dam. He also suggested that at this time, the only potential large commercial space markets were space tourism and SSP. In the second segment which took us through to the end of today's program, we led off with a listener phone call about radiation, humans building the satellites in a radiation environment, material degradation due to radiation. Don't miss what Mr. Nansen had to say in addressing these issues and questions. Mr. Nansen received many questions about proof of concept for SSP and he made a point of separating a demonstration project from proof of concept. He said a demonstration project was essential for getting the utility companies and others on board with SSP. As for proof of concept, he said that already existed and was not in question. A question came in about potential environmental damage from a large number of rocket launches. Ralph addressed this with our being able to use different fuels in the future. He called for using the ISS as an SSP LEO demonstrator. At the end of the program, we both called for U.S. space policy leadership in an international consortium. Ralph made the point several times during the interview that other nations have the technical know-how to do this and are motivated. He did not want to see the United State lose out on this important path to future economic wealth and development. Mr. Nansen said we needed investment, not just investing in technology. If you have an email question or comment for Ralph Nansen, please send it to him at nansens@centurytel.net. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:09:27 UTC
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Dr. Jim Logan, Friday, 10-16-09 (44.31MB; download) -- Guest: Dr. Jim Logan. Topics: Reasons for human spaceflight, human factors issues, biomedical and bioengineering for long term space travel/settlement, space tourism. Dr. Jim Logan returned to The Space Show to discuss several very important topics in this two hour program. Please note that Dr. Logan's comments are his own and in no way was he speaking for NASA, any agency, program, or anyone else. In our first segment, Dr. Logan was asked if he could identify the compelling reason for human spaceflight or if it even mattered with the general public. Dr. Logan had much to say on this issue including his observations for the trend over the years for space not resonating with the public. We talked about the fact that most people are woefully and poorly educated about our space program and policy. For example, he said many people think the NASA budget is at least 10% of the federal budget when in fact it’s less than 1%. During this segment, he also said that NASA's focus on building the vehicle was misplaced. In his personal opinion, the focus should be on the mission, not building the vehicle. In the second segment, we started out by asking Dr. Logan about biomedical showstoppers for long-term human habitation in space. One point he made was that if the duration of the mission was around two weeks to several months, there were probably no showstoppers. However in missions beyond LEO and over six months, there is an entirely different life science paradigm. He mentioned three main biomedical challenges including radiation, hypogravity, and the synergistic effect of both of these and other factors. This is a very important discussion so don't miss it. Dr. Logan also spoke about countermeasures being less than effective and producing side effects that introduce complications for solving the problem in the first place. We talked about gravity, artificial gravity and pseudo-gravity as compared to the real thing. Dr. Logan suggested that the bad news was that as our science has improved, our problems to counter have become more severe. As for spinning a vehicle to provide artificial gravity, these would have to be very large vehicles to minimize adverse impacts on the crew and, after 48 years of human spaceflight, we still do not know the dose, frequency, and side effects of gravity issues. Later in this segment, the Hubble Space Telescope repair mission was brought up as an example of the merger of the science, technical and human spaceflight efforts. Don't miss Dr. Logan's comments on this subject. At the end of the segment, Dr. Logan was asked about the impact of space advocacy on space policy and NASA. We started our third segment with a question from Mel regarding the specific path to take to become an aerospace medicine doctor. Mel's question asked for specific recommendations and Jim provided specifics for the paths to take to have a specialty in aerospace medicine. This is probably the most comprehensive outline of how to accomplish this goal that has been discussed on The Space Show so don't miss the advice and suggestions offered by Dr. Logan. Later in this segment, we talked about the Augustine Commission report and commercial spaceflight. Space tourism also came up as did possible silver bullets for pushing forward with commercial space development. Near the end of this segment, he was asked about human factors for suborbital space tourism and said that in his opinion, it would be unethical for a company to allow a suborbital passenger to go for a ride without specific flight profile centrifuge training. This is a must hear discussion. In the fourth and final segment, we led off with a question for Dr. Logan about the likelihood of the nations on this planet pulling together to thwart something like a NEO heading for Earth collision. Dr. Logan said he was an optimist and said we would pull together. But a question he raised in this discussion was is intelligence its own executioner? We spoke Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Sat, 17 Oct 2009 02:53:46 UTC
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Open Lines, tuesday, 10-13-09 (35.98MB; download) --
Guest: Open Lines. Topics: why human spaceflight, NASA, Fox News, making the case for space, different paths to space development. In the first segment of this Open Lines program, I talked about making the compelling case for human spaceflight. I mentioned a blog article on this subject on www.outofthecradle.net where blogger Ken said that the case was being made all the time. I talked about my responses and those of a few others commenting on Ken's article saying it was not so. I then told about hearing comments on Fox News broadcasts regarding LCROSS by Shepard Smith and Neil Cavuto saying that with that was going on in the country today, all of this money spent on space seemed inappropriate. I used these Fox News commentator comments to illustrate that we were not doing a good job of making a compelling case for space let alone human spaceflight to the general public. Before going to the phone lines, I brought up some questions sent me by listener Kelly asking why it costs NASA so much more to do various things today as compared to doing similar things years and decades ago. I threw Kelly's four specific questions to the audience to comment on during the show. Caller Douglas Mallette called in to talk about the compelling reason for human spaceflight and he mentioned his new book, "Turning Point." I disagreed with much of what Doug talked about but we had a good discussion that you don't want to miss. This topic became the program theme for the rest of the show. We started the second segment with a call from Charles Pooley saying that the path to space development was with his Microlaunchers concept, a concept he has spoken about before on The Space Show. He suggested we table human spaceflight until we work our way back to it through the microlaunches step by step process that eventually takes us back to putting humans in space. He compares the microlauncher idea to the start of the computer industry with micro computers serving as the business model. When asked what he would do with NASA in his plan, he said it should become like the old NACA butt that it would be largely irrelevant. Charles then updated us on the Lunar Lander Challenge with the four contestants in the Mojave area. In the third and final segment, listener Kelly called in to argue that NASA being a jobs program is not something we want to see happen but we are at risk of that being the purpose of NASA at this time. We had phone line noise with Kelly's call, but he was on long enough to take issue with some of the statements made by the other callers. I read several of the listener emails regarding their having seen the Fox News videos regarding the Cavuto comments or the actual live broadcasts. The listeners agreed that we needed to do a much better job in making the case for space than we have been doing. Toward the end of the show, I read the new lunar development proposal by Buzz Aldrin, a copy of which I had received earlier in the day from The Moon Society. You can see his full proposal on lunar development by visiting the websites I mentioned on air. If you have a question or comment for any of the callers to this Open Lines show, please send it to me at drspace@thespaceshow.com and I will forward it to the person of your request. I welcome your general comments and feedback as always.
Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:45:36 UTC
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Don Lincoln, Monday, 10-12-09 (43.19MB; download) -- Guest: Don Lincoln. Topics: Large Hadron Collider (LHC), particle physics, basic science and NASA research funding,. Don Lincoln was the guest for this Space Show program to talk about his new book, "The Quantum Frontier: The Large Hadron Collider." This book is available for purchase from One Giant Leap Foundation (OGLF) as an Amazon partner at http://www.amazon.com/dp/0801891442?tag=onegialeafou-20. Remember, if you purchase this book through OGLF, part of your purchase goes to The Space Show/OGLF by Amazon so you help The Space Show with your purchase. During the first segment, our guest gave us the basics of his book as well as the LHC. We went over the ideas that some harbor and that are on the internet that the LHC would endanger the Earth. We talked about microscopic black holes, strangelets, vacuum bubbles and more. Don explained why there is no danger to the Earth referencing cosmic rays and the fact that only two proton beams are ever collided with one another. In response to one of my questions about how much power it took to run the LHC, Don said it was around 120mw which was enough to power the entire state of Geneva. He also said they buy their power off the grid which is the way the Fermi National Lab acquires its power. He then explained how an electric field was made and how the beam was accelerated. You don't want to miss this discussion. In the second segment, we talked about the expectations for discovery using the LHC. Don said the proper question to ask is "what are we looking for?" He said the LHC can generate seven times the energy of existing colliders so they hope to find out more about the nature and origin of mass of the universe. In addition, they hope to confirm or refute the existence of the Higgs boson particle which would then confirm or refute the Higgs field and this is important in understanding the mass of the universe. Don also told us that with the LHC they will be very close to recreating the circumstances that existed right after the Big Bang. We talked about how the LHC and the experiments and research were funded. In looking toward the future, he said that there were no current plans to build a larger accelerators but that there were very early discussions about the International Linear Collider which if built as discussed and planned would be an electron/antimatter-electron accelerator. During this segment, our guest also described what was meant by an energy regime, a term used frequently during our discussion. This segment ended with a more detailed discussion on how the proton beam was created and put into the accelerator, then accelerated to almost the speed of light. During the third segment, Don mentioned two current speaking engagements so if you are going to be in and around the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles Nov. 6-7 or the Adler Planetarium in Chicago on Nov. 19, go to his lecture and hear what he has to say. I certainly recommend listening to Don Lincoln in person if you have the opportunity to do so. For ticket information, please go to the respective websites for the organizations mentioned. We received a listener question asking about what U.S. science policy should be and this brought us to a discussion of funding science, basic research and the need to have curiosity based research funded. Another question asked Don to compare the quality of basic science to NASA science and human spaceflight science. Don explained there were no conflicts among these disciplines and talked about the need for proper science funding across the board. We talked about science funding at the LHC in light of the global economic problems and we were told about cutbacks and budget issues among the Europeans as well. At one point, he stressed the need that all science, including human spaceflight, had to have value and economics behind it. He said this was a valuable debate that was needed. Toward the end of this segment, he was asked about lecturing and tea Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:38:13 UTC
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Walt Anderson, Sunday, 10-11-09 (32.55MB; download) -- Guest: Walt Anderson. Topics: Augustine Commission, Walt's future plans, legal updates, Mir Space Station and MirCorp. Walt Anderson returned to The Space Show for a series of four fifteen minute telephone interviews from his federal correctional facility in New Jersey. These interviews took place on August 19 and October 2, 2009. During these telephone conversations, Walt updated us on his legal status and the dropping of most of the charges against him by the IRS. Walt received a copy of the Augustine Commission's Executive Summary so we talked about the recommendations and he extrapolated to what such a report might have been like had MirCorp been successful. He also went back through most of his Mir and MirCorp experiences, he summarized some of his commercial space investments that he had made commenting if he would repeat any of the investments today. He also reviewed his legal from start to where it is today. In the final telephone call, Walt talked about his future plans, what he wants to do in the commercial space world, how he intends to do it, and some other ideas he has in mind upon his release. You can send books, magazines, or letters to Walt at this address: WALTER ANDERSON #27981016, FCI Fairton, Satellite Camp, P. O. Box 420, Fairton, NJ 08320. He can receive books or magazines but is allowed only five or fewer magazines per envelope per mailing. In addition, make sure that there are no promotional CDs or anything like any magazine or it will be returned to you as he is not allowed any type of multi media, even a promotional CD. Walt welcomes your letters as well. As he said near the end of the interview, he has lots of time on his hands. If you want to contact me regarding this interview, please use drspace@thespaceshow.com. Remember, you can quote or cite from this or any Space Show program but you must use an academic citation for the reference. If you do not know the correct format for an academic citation for an online radio show, email me and I will send you a sample citation. Quoting or otherwise referencing a Space Show without proper citation and credit is not allowed. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:12:48 UTC
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AIAA Augustine Commission Panel Discussion Held On Monday, 10/5/09 (58.83MB; download) -- Guests: Bob Dickman, Elliot Pulham, Dr. Scott "Doc" Horowitz, Frank Culbertson, Jim Muncy, Dr. John Klineberg. Topics: This program provided a comprehensive discussion of the Augustine Commission options for our human spaceflight program. This special program was produced by AIAA with help from The Space Show. Our panel members were with us for two hours (no break) to engage in an in-depth discussion of the Augustine Commission's "Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans." Bob Dickman, Executive Director of AIAA started off with an opening statement on behalf of AIAA and then each of our five panel members made an initial opening statement pertaining to their perspective for the Augustine Commission report and issues facing our nation's human spaceflight program. After the panel member opening statements, as moderator, I led off with the first question that had to with making the case with the American public for human spaceflight with a compelling reason for the investment of public money for this program. After the panel addressed this issue for several minutes, I brought in questions from listeners across the country. During our two hour panel discussion, we covered the options put forth in the Augustine Commission Executive Summary, commercial space and what it is, COTS, heavy lift, on orbit construction, potential fuel depots, Mars and beyond missions, returning to the Moon, international support and consortiums for our civil program, leadership issues, congressional appropriations, ITAR, and more. Again, this was a very detailed and comprehensive discussion representing diverse views on how best to move forward with our human spaceflight program in the context of the Augustine Commission report. I strongly recommend this program as a MUST LISTEN TO SHOW! In addition, I want to thank AIAA, specifically Bob Dickman, Klaus Dannenberg, Duane Hyland, and Craig Day. I also want to thank both Janet Stevens of The Space Foundation, and Sharon Smith of Orbital who helped make this program possible. Without the help, labor, and support of all of these people and their organizations, this special AIAA/Space Show program would not have happened. Please note that Dr. Harrison Schmitt who was originally scheduled to be part of the panel had to cancel at the last minute. We were all most appreciative of Jim Muncy coming on board at the 11th hour to fill in for Dr. Schmitt. If you have questions or comments for our panel members, please address them to me at drspace@thespaceshow.com. I will send them to our contact for this panel at AIAA and we will do our best to get a response to you from the person you want to hear from. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:56:52 UTC
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Thomas Gangale, Monday, 10-5-09 (50.40MB; download) -- Guest: Thomas Gangale. Topics, property rights in space, lunar commerce, space law, treaties. Thomas Gangale was our guest for this show regarding his new book, "The Development of Outer Space: Sovereignty And Property Rights in International Space Law." This book will soon be available through the One Giant Leap Foundation website Amazon book partnership page. If you buy the book through the OGLF link, Amazon makes a contribution to The Space Show/One Giant Leap Foundation so we appreciate your purchasing Tom's book through this OGLF Amazon partnership. As soon as the specific OGLF URL is available, it will be added to this paragraph. In segment one, Tom told us that researching and writing this book represented a personal journey of exploration into international space law. As a result of his research, he came to change his mind about the Moon Treaty as Tom was a member of L5 and had actually worked to prevent acceptance of the Moon Treaty back in the day. Listen to him describe his journey and process. We also spoke about the need to lower the costs for space access to facilitate commerce. We talked about using commercial rockets for Earth to LEO, freeing NASA to do deeper exploration from LEO and beyond. The issue of the Moon Treaty language came up, common heritage of mankind as well as benefit sharing. Tom explained the significance of this language, some listeners challenged him but in the end its an important discussion so don't miss it. In his book, its addressed in far more detail. In the second segment, Tom discussed natural law, common law, and customary law along with property rights as understood in the Outer Space Treaty (OST). He also put forth the argument for an international legal framework to support commercial space development. We talked about mini treaties and alternatives to treaties given how hard it is in today's world to get treaties accepted and ratified. During this segment, Tom received a listener question about his days with SDI. Don't miss what he had to say about that experience. Toward the end of this segment, a question came in about bioprospecting on Mars. This produced a most interesting discussion, don't miss it. In the third and final segment, we talked some more about the common heritage of mankind issue, capitalism as the dominant paradigm, and what needs to be in place to support a stable framework for commercial space development. The Augustine Commission was discussed relative to property rights and space policy. Natural law was brought up as was John Locke and the Lockean view with regards to property rights. Toward the end of the program, I asked Tom if he had an Action Plan or time line for establishing the type of framework needed to support space commercialism. He said first that the government needed to blaze the frontier development and NASA needed to get out of Earth to LEO transportation. We must drive down the cost, we likely needed new propulsion and even structural air frames and more. Tom suggested we are treading water right now. Another thing he called for was for the cessation of bashing NASA and to always include a positive with the criticism. Prior to the end of the show, Tom took us through some 1950's space history and went through the facts showing us that the US did not rush to ratify the OST! If you have a question or comment for Thomas Gangale, you can email him at teg@ops-alaska.com. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Tue, 06 Oct 2009 03:02:15 UTC
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Rick Tumlinson, Sunday, 10-4-09 (56.25MB; download) -- Guest: Rick Tumlinson. Topics: Space frontier development, private/public partnerships, Augustine Commission. Rick Tumlinson returned for this special two hour Space Show program. Each segment was one hour but an overriding theme went through the entire show. This theme was the need to develop the space frontier and that the private sector could do it, that the government civil space program should address space exploration from LEO and beyond, but Earth to Leo should be turned over to the private sector companies. As Rick said, NASA should buy the ride, not the rocket. We started the show in segment one with a discussion of Rick's family background in co-founding the Texas Rangers and in fighting for freedom at the Alamo. We then extrapolated this thirst for freedom to the freedom needed to develop the space frontier. Rick talked about his early days of getting started in space advocacy, the Benevolent Conspiracy, and then we addressed the importance of X-Prize and the five year anniversary of SS1 winning with its flights over Mojave. Rick told us some stories from those early days, from the X-Prize challenge and more. Don't miss it. Another issue that came up during this segment dealt with the use of the term space tourist. Adventure traveler or some other term seemed a better fit for riding on a rocket and doing something as trail blazing as these early space adventurers. Listener Richard Godwin called in to talk about SpaceX and the Dragon capsule and NASA's future challenge, COTS and more. Toward the end of this listener call, the subject of fusion reactors aboard Navy ships came up as evidence of changing and improving technology. Marshall asked a question about lunar water and a possible X-Prize for processing a gallon of lunar water. Rick addressed the issue of prizes by saying they were important but that the winning of the prize had to be followed up by the existence of long term commercial demand. Toward the end of the first segment, the subject of range fees came up during our discussion of the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia. As we started segment two, a question was asked rick about the Chinese space program and including China in the ISS partnership. Don't miss what Rick had to say about this. We then talked about the Augustine Commission and Rick said it was a fork in the road regarding the government space program. He was very critical of Ares 1 and the money spent plus spending additional money on anything to do with Ares 1 or that program. In the context of the Augustine report, Rick again talked about the need to open the frontier and how Augustine was pointing the direction toward that goal. He said the big losers were those supporting the NASA status quo. He also suggested that this would be a test of the new NASA Administrator. For his concluding comments, Rick reiterated the need to industrialize orbital infrastructure. Don't miss his concluding words. If you want to email a question or comment to Rick Tumlinson, please do so using RickTumlinson@gmail.com. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:44:09 UTC
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Dr. Erik Seedhouse, Friday, 10-2-09 (59.57MB; download) -- Guest: Dr. Erik Seedhouse. Topics: risk aversion, lunar development, leadership, space with a vision, bio ethical issues. Dr. Erik Seedhouse was our guest today to discuss his book, "Lunar Outpost: The Challenges of Establishing a Human Settlement on the Moon." As we started the program, we asked Dr. Seedhouse about Air Force Captain Joe Kittinger's parachute jump from the edge of space given that Dr. Seedhouse was with the legendary 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, the world's most elite airborne regiment. Erik explained the major risks and problems in jumping when there is no atmosphere to push off of and use to control your jump. He discussed the problem of the flat spin and why it’s fatal, the differences with HALO jumpers, and the use of a drogue chute. He predicted that Captain Kittinger's record would be broken next year, so don't miss this discussion. After talking about skydiving from the edge of space, we turned our attention to lunar outposts and development. One thing Dr. Seedhouse mentioned that would be helpful was more international collaboration on the part of NASA, specifically he referenced the ESA Aurora Program as a possibility for collaboration. We talked about the Ares-1 rocket and the thrust oscillation problem and then turned our attention to safety and the NASA safety record. Here Dr. Seedhouse had some very interesting observations so don't miss this discussion. We started the second segment with a continuation of the safety subject and then the need for education about space, science, and engineering. We talked about some of the major issues to be resolved for having a lunar outpost including lunar radiation and lunar dust. He received a question about lunar lava tubes for an outpost. You will certainly want to hear what he had to say about the lava tubes. We talked about inspiration, heroes, raising the human spirit and what he said was the core value of NASA, exploration. Ticker tape parades were mentioned as one of the ways we used to honor and reward our risk-taking pioneer astronauts. The subject of water on the Moon came up and he thought it might be overblown in terms of being a driving force for settlement at this time. In needing one ton of regolith to extract about two pints of water, much has to be done to improve the extraction process or find more water for it to be useful for a settlement. We also talked about astronaut training in a commercial environment versus what NASA does. Don't miss this discussion. The Chinese space program was brought up via listener questions and Dr. Seedhouse had much to say about China, potential ISS participation, and a future space race with the U.S. Another listener brought up the Augustine Commission report and Dr. Seedhouse suggested we might be back to the Moon around 2023 rather than 2020. Toward the end of this segment, we spoke about different types of propulsion including the nuclear rocket and plasma propulsion, specifically VASIMR. In our human factors discussion, medical standards for commercial astronauts were compared to NASA astronauts and we talked about many of the important bio ethical issues. Erik also brought up the idea of pre-emptive surgery for long duration space flight. As we moved into the third segment, Erik spent more time with us on the bio ethical issues such as what to do with a dead body, life support for a terminally ill crew member, should there be a straight jacket on board, should crew members under go pre-emptive surgery for gall bladders and the appendix, should their be genetic screening, and more. He said issues like this for long duration spaceflight were only now starting to be discussed. In the fourth segment, we spent some additional time discussing both physical and mental issues. Dr. Seedhouse told us about some of other space books and the two new space books about to be on the market. The balance of this segment was spent talking about the analog model for long duration, v Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Sat, 03 Oct 2009 04:37:15 UTC
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