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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Sharon Weinberger & Open Lines, Monday, 12-1-08 (42.53MB; download) -- Guest: Sharon Weinberger, author of "Imaginary Weapons," was our guest for the first hour followed by a half hour of Open Lines. Sharon provided us with the history of her research regarding her book and we began our discussion with nothing less than the hafnium 5 kiloton hand grenade. From this point, we discussed how such projects are funded, the dream of an isomer bomb, DOD and DARPA standards, and much more. At different points in the discussion, we extrapolated to NASA and space expenditures using Ares 1 and other space projects. Some of this discussion took us to the subject of crackpots and whack-job inventors and projects and why such projects get funded. Sharon told us about her crackpot index which is on pages 230-231 of her book. This index or test could easily be applied to space projects so check it out as I strongly urge you to obtain and read this book. Sharon us told us about her new book written with her husband, "A Nuclear Family Vacation: Travels in the World of Atomic Weaponry." Many more examples from the book, from the space field and from related fields, were discussed as part of the imaginary thesis. Some of the examples were cold fusion, zero point energy, certain types of futuristic weapons, and more. You can learn more about Sharon Weinberger and her work by visiting her website, http://www.sharonweinberger.com/ . If you have questions or comments for Sharon Weinberger, please use her website and reference The Space Show or send them to me and I will forward them to her. For the Open Lines segment, a caller asked about peer review and listeners wanted to know if I had any information about the next NASA Administrator. One listener asked about my thoughts on Mrs. Clinton as Secretary of State and redoing ITAR. You can hear my responses to these listener comments and questions in the Open Lines segment.
Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Tue, 02 Dec 2008 06:06:49 UTC
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Dr. Robert Richards, Sunday, 11-30-08 (38.84MB; download) -- Guest: Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards was our guest for this Space Show program. We started our discussion with an update on the Optec meteorological lidar unit flown aboard the NASA Phoenix Mars Lander. As Bob reported to us, all worked to their complete satisfaction with the unit. We then discussed the Odyssey Moon Limited venture which was the first contestant in the Google Lunar X-Prize competition. To learn more, visit http://www.odysseymoon.com. We talked about new additions to the company, the need to form an American subsidiary to partner with NASA in a public/private venture, and the need for people to bring to the table real space business experience. We engaged in a fairly comprehensive discussion about what it takes to close a business case for going to the Moon for commercial purposes and a listener even asked Bob how they could do something commercial while NASA seems so bloated in what they are doing to return to the Moon, this notwithstanding the scope of the Google Lunar X-Prize activity versus returning to the Moon with humans. This is an interesting discussion, you will not want to miss it. In addition to much time spent discussing going to the Moon and the competition in the Google Lunar X-Prize, we talked about big picture space development and space policy. This is also an important discussion you won't want to miss. Google's interest in space was discussed as was ITAR, space education and the ISU, and the importance of vision. If you have questions about Odyssey Moon, the Google Lunar X-Prize or anything discussed on this show, please send them to Dr. Bob Richards through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com. In addition, you can use the Contact page on the Odyssey Moon website (http://www.odysseymoon.com/index-4.html) for the Canadian office, info@odysseymoon.com. If you use the latter address, please put to Bob's attention and reference The Space Show in the subject line.
Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Mon, 01 Dec 2008 01:09:01 UTC
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Jane Reifert, Friday, 11-28-08 (57.15MB; download) -- Guest: Jane Reifert, President of Incredible Adventures, was the guest for this Space Show program. Please visit the Incredible Adventures website at http://www.incredible-adventures.com for more information about the adventures discussed on the show, for custom adventures, or with your comments and questions. We talked with Jane about many of the travel adventures offered by her company, the medical requirements to participate, travel and other requirements, and more. We also spent considerable time talking with her about the essential components of a successful commercial travel adventure and we then applied to this discussion to suborbital and orbital space tourism and other space missions. At one point during the show, Jane said "Space is just another adventure" and this proved to be a popular comment. I also think it is right on the mark and 100% applicable to all of space. In fact, we spent some time talking about marketing space ventures, some of the problems in the way they are presently marketed and more. Another thing Jane said is "Don't promise what you cannot deliver." Our commercial and marketing discussions for commercial space ventures are scattered throughout our two hour show today but do listen for them. Jane has a good handle on this subject for making money. If you ever wanted to know about adventure travel programs, what is involved in putting them on and their marketing, as well as the adventures themselves, this is the program to listen to and to follow up with Jane. You can reach Jane Reifert thorough a number of ways using the Incredible Adventures website including snail mail to 6604 Midnight Pass Rd - Sarasota, FL 34242, phone calls to 1-800-644-7382, and email to Jane at info@incredible-adventures.com. If you send email, please put "For Jane re Space Show" in the subject line.
Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Sat, 29 Nov 2008 16:02:44 UTC
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Jim Lewis; Brian Mosdell, Wednesday, 11-26-08 (46.59MB; download) -- Guests: Jim Lewis, followed by Brian Mosdell, are the two guests for this recorded set of interviews made while at Cape Canaveral on Nov. 17 and Nov. 19, 2008. In the first segment, Jim Lewis of Communications Concepts talks about the special documentary now playing on the Documentary Channel, "One Giant Leap - 50 Years of the American Space Program." I have seen this documentary and its one of the best documentaries commemorating the 50th anniversary of America in space. Its hosted by Corbin Bernsen and has great interviews with Hoot Gibson, Alan Shepard's daughter Laura who has the golf club Alan used for hitting the golf ball on the Moon (or the simulation model), Bill Pogue, Jon McBride, Al Worden, Jack King, and others. You can see this documentary on your documentary cable TV channel, but the DVD is available for purchase at www.spaceflightnowstore.com. It's well worth seeing and owning. During this discussion, Jim talks about making the documentary, some of the astronaut and media personality stories that are not in the program and more.
A few days later, Brian Mosdell, Director of Space X Florida Launch Operations, gave me a walking tour of the work going on for the Falcon 9 pad. After driving what seemed like an eternity by various launch pads at KSC, I found my way to the Falcon 9 pad which was recently used in 2005 as an Air Force Titan pad. I was struck by how much incredible progress is being made to transform this pad into the Falcon 9 pad. It's impressive! I was also impressed by the fact this pad was used not that long ago to launch a Titan and the rust and deferred maintenance was overwhelming. This speaks to the harsh environment that our launch infrastructure at the Cape must endure and the high cost of maintenance that surely must be incurred by the Air Force and NASA to maintain this infrastructure. Brian walked me through, and over, all parts of the pad, explained everything, nothing was held back. I had totally free access to the pad, all questions were answered, and it was fascinating. I only wish The Space Show website had video and photo capacity as I would post some of the pictures that I took so you could see what Brian was talking about. However, much of what he explained can be seen on the Space X site. I do have a few digital photos from my tour, so assuming I can send them by email, if you send me a note at drspace@thespaceshow.com, I will attempt to send them to you. By the way, the sun was so very bright, I could not see a thing in the viewfinder of the camera so I was guessing at what I was taking the picture of, but some are presentable. I was mostly focused on the interview and the recording and as I was on my own for this without an assistant, picture taking was secondary at best. My hat continues to be tipped to Space X and all of the team for their amazing openness, transparency, friendship, and desire to communicate with The Space Show audience. Space X and its team really are outstanding and we all wish for their great success. As you will hear on the tape, Brian is expecting Falcon 9 to be on the pad before the end of this year. A few days after I completed this interview, they had a successful Falcon 9 engine test firing at their Texas location. I look forward to the complete renovation of this pad and successful launches of Falcon 9 from the Cape. If you have any questions or comments for Brian, you can send them to me at drspace@thespaceshow.com
Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:19:44 UTC
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Jerry Carr, Tuesday, 11-25-08 (43.05MB; download) -- Guest: Jerry Carr was the guest for this Space Show program. The basis for our discussion was his biography published by Apogee, "Around The World in 84 Days: The Authorized Biography of Skylab Astronaut Jerry Carr." The author for this authorized biography was David Shayler. Naturally, much of our discussion focused on Skylab and his mission, Skylab 4. One of the early discussion topics was the Skylab 4 workload strike which has become notorious. Jerry explained it in detail and how it got blown out of proportion by a journalist. You will definitely want to hear this discussion. Jerry was also asked about taking pictures of Area 51. Interestingly, the Skylab 4 astronauts did not know they had photographed Area 51 until recently. This is another fascinating story and he also explains what happens in the processing and handling of the photos shot onboard the spacecraft. Another listener asked him to compare being on Skylab and the ISS. Yet another listener asked for a comparison on riding the Saturn 1 B versus the Saturn V. These are must hear discussions as is his opinion on what to do about STEM education in this country. Jerry was asked about Frank White's book, "The Overview Effect." He then described his own transformational experiences and how they have even impacted people here on Earth. He talked about the environment and seeing Earth without manmade borders that separate us from one another. Much more was discussed on this program so I'm sure you will find it informative, interesting, and educational. If you have a question or comment for Jerry Carr, please send it through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com and I will forward it to him. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:15:08 UTC
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Dr. Barrett Caldwell, Monday, 11-24-08 (40.95MB; download) -- Guest: Dr. Barrett Caldwell was the guest for this special Space Show program. We started our discussion by asking him about Space Grant Indiana and the national NASA space grant program, such as the projects and scholarships that Space Grant funds. This is a very informative discussion and it is applicable to Space Grant in other states as well though we did discuss specific Indiana programs. Clearly, there are advantages for students to associate with a Space Grant program, listen and you will understand why I say this. In addition to a comprehensive discussion about Space Grant on both the Indiana and national level, we talked about Dr. Caldwell's research and work which focuses on human performance and lunar settlement engineering. During this discussion, we talked about the impact of lunar dust on settlement engineering, repairs, maintenance, and how it's planned for and accomplished when everything is still in the theoretical state. While many listener questions were fielded, one asked Dr. Caldwell about the Google Lunar X-Prize and it turns out that Barrett does work with one of the teams. Another listener asked about transhumanism and related human bioenengineering to adapt to long duration and living in space. You will definitely want to hear what he had to say in response to these questions. Barrett used a great term for explaining the need to study the hard subjects and we discussed this during the program. From his experience, students do study the hard courses if there is an outcome available to them for expressing the reason for studying the courses. In terms of space topics, he said they were the "right level of hard!" A listener brought up undersea fiber optics self-correcting cables to repair problems in them and wondered if that could be done with lunar equipment. Barrett spoke about redundancy and how you design for that, even with hard equipment because everyone knows the repairman is not going to be readily available on the Moon or anywhere else in space. If you have questions or comments for Dr. Barrett Caldwell, you can reach him at either director@insgc.org or bscaldwell@purdue.edu.
Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:37:17 UTC
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Greg Zsidisin (42.93MB; download) -- Guest: Greg Zsidisin was the guest for this Space Show program. We began our discussion with Greg about the type of space policy to expect from the new Obama administration. We focused in on the space policy transition team as Greg was asked to give us insights into their thinking and space interests. He concluded that space policy would likely unfold more or less traditionally rather than anything out of the box. Both Greg and I noted the challenges ahead for President-Elect Obama and we wondered aloud just how much attention space would get in the face of two wars and our current economic condition. Listen to what Greg had to say about this and see if you concur. The issue of Ares 1 and Direct again was brought up and I urged Greg, as well as those of you who have not yet done so, to listen to my in-person interview with Ross Tierney from Nov. 18, 2008. I also shared some of my thoughts about Direct 2 although as I keep saying, as one who is not an engineer, I am not in a position to determine on my own the merits or problems of either Ares 1 or Direct 2 but as I have said, I urge more diplomacy on the part of the Direct 2 team if they want to get a hearing on their proposals and ideas. In fact, I suggested Greg get together with them to advise on political diplomacy and you will hear this conversation on the air. In addition to covering the transition and the space policy subject, we talked about the winners in the SpaceContest.org program that Greg devised and partnered with SFF on and the recently selected winners. In fact, I played the audio for the first, second, and third place winners on this show, but you can follow Greg's directions and see the videos in full plus all the entry videos. I urge you to do so. You can also visit this website which has all the entries on it: www.youtube.com/SpaceFrontierOrg. Greg is open to feedback and suggestions for the next version of the contest which will probably happen this spring. To learn more about the contest, visit www.spacecontest.org. If you have a question or comment or want to provide some feedback for Greg Zsidisin, please email him at info@spacecontest.org.
Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:52:04 UTC
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Leonard David; Barbara David, Friday, 11-21-08 (60.54MB; download) -- Guests: Leonard David was the guest for three segments of our program, followed by Barbara David joining us for the last segment. We did much forward-looking during this show given the changes taking place in government, the economy, and the space community. We talked about the incoming administration and what it might mean for space, the Space Coast of Florida, and its commitment to human space flight, the economy, viewing the Space Shuttle, and much more. Leonard reported on the recent Lunar Lander Challenge and Armadillo Aerospace at the X-Prize in Las Cruces, NM. We spoke about teachers in space, zero-g flights for teachers, and the educational program cutbacks in NASA during the Griffin administration. Much of our discussion focused on the Vision for Space Exploration and what it might look like with the Obama administration. Leonard was asked some questions about the subjects he writes about as to what subject proves to be the most popular. You will want to listen to what he had to say about the feedback he gets from some articles. Leonard and I did much speculation on the economy, economic impacts on space development, the continuation of the VSE, layoffs, etc. During the last segment, Barbara David joined us and we talked about space education, her educator work and books and how to make a difference in educating the youth of the country about space. This is an important discussion, so make sure you hear it. You can contact Leonard, Barbara or both by going through my address, drspace@thespaceshow.com.
Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:11:58 UTC
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Ross Tierney, Tuesday, 11-18-08 (64.72MB; download) -- Guest: Ross Tierney was the guest for this in-person taped interview conducted here in Cocoa Beach on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008. This was a very hard-hitting interview with Ross about Direct 2, its technology, its likelihood of being adopted by NASA as an alternative to Ares 1, and more. I asked Ross why we should have confidence in Direct 2 when it was basically a PowerPoint presentation given that it has not yet undergone any metal bending, any development or testing. I asked why there would not be design problems with it as there are with Ares and the NASA selected hardware. You will want to hear what Ross had to say in response to these questions and others. We also talked about the NASA administration, why problematic engineering designs are pursued, why engineers would work on a known bad design if indeed the design was bad. Ross was not optimistic about the prospects for Direct 2 until the next NASA Administrator takes over. For now, Direct 2 is in a holding pattern. We talked about the overall VSE program, its costs, its mission, the goals and the objectives of the program, and the ultimate goal of going to Mars. Ross had much to say about all of this and was more than outspoken on many issues regarding NASA, our return to the Moon, Ares, and Direct. You can learn more about Direct 2 at their website, www.launchcomplexmodels.com/Direct/ . If you have questions or comments for Ross Tierney, please email him at sales@launchcomplexmodels.com.
Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:27:08 UTC
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Dr. David Livingston on how to see a Shuttle flight, Monday, 11-17-08 (43.66MB; download) -- Guest: Dr. David Livingston. On this Space Show program, I provided listeners with a comprehensive report on how to see a Space Shuttle flight, why see one, what they are like in person, where to see the launch from, what wildlife is in the area including birds and alligators, and much more. If you have any questions about seeing a Space Shuttle launch, what to expect, how to prepare for one, or if you have comments or questions, let me hear from you at drspace@thespaceshow.com.
Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:04:16 UTC
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