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Open Lines, Tuesday, 2-19-13 February 20, 2013

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Open Lines, Tuesday, 2-19-13




Guest:  Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston.  Topics: Carnival Cruise lines & informed consent, space radiation, nanosat launchers, & much more.  Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog,
http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com
. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information.

     We started our one hour fifty-one minute Open Lines discussion by my throwing out some suggested topics which included recent USA Today polls on human spaceflight to Mars and informed consent using the recent Carnival Cruise Line cruise from hell as a possible indicator of what may happen in the space tourism industry.  Dave, our first caller, talked about the new efforts to create NTRs and have nuclear propulsion using tungsten as the fuel base. Dave had lots to say about the tungsten as well as traditional fuels.  I next read a listener email about an NCIS Los Angeles 2011 episode about satellite sale to a foreign party and ITAR,.  Next, we talked about another listener email calling our attention the SpaceWorks Nanosatellite Market Report, and then up next was the CNN interview with Bill Nye and the CNN anchor asking Bill if global warming was causing the NEOs and events like the Russian meteorite.  Thanks to Tim for sending in the URL for the interview which you can see and hear at  www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObU7awpJctQ.

     In our second segment, Pooley called in to support my informed consent and Carnival Cruise Line comments plus he again told us why he did not think the space tourism industry would be successful.  Charles also talked about the Russian meteorite and the need for a dedicated cubesat or nanosat launcher over and above flying small sats as secondary payloads. In addition, we talked about the Google Lunar XPrize and the absence of launch contracts for the ride to the Moon.  Tim called to talk about the nanosat launch industry, we talked about the upcoming Virgin Galactic1 small satellite launchers and deep space radiation and HSF.  The dedicated small sat launcher reminded me of an Oct. 13, 2008 Jurist Space Review article proposing a university consortium for such a launch system and the condemnation he got for his proposal.  Dr. Jurist called in to talk about his proposal and the response.  You can read his 2008 Space Review article here:  www.thespacereview.com/article/1228/1.  I also asked Dr. Jurist about Tim’s radiation comments and he explained this particular radiation issue to us. He also said there was a real lack of valid data points so much of what Tim, John and I were talking about was simply an unknown or extrapolated from data pools that may be quite different from those at the lower end of exposure.  In discussing this subject, Dr. Jurist talked about American radiation standards, astronauts as radiation workers, and the European standards.  At the end of the program, Tim called to talk about the Carnival Cruise Line incident and informed consent. Tim suggested tort reform with caps but also put forth a novel behavioral theory and I told him I would absolutely go on the five day cruise from hell to earn a million dollars!

     Please post your comments/questions on The Space Show blog.  You can email any of the participants in this program through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com.

Open Lines, Tuesday, 1-15-13 January 16, 2013

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Open Lines, Tuesday, 1-15-13




Guest:  Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston.  Topics:  This was a wide ranging discussion on many space topics & related issues.  Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog,
http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com
. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information.  We talked about many topics and issues on this 2 hour 40 minute program.  In the first segment, ITAR reform was discussed and Andrew of the Tea Party In Space in his discussion also advocated for the resumption of manufacturing Plutonium 238. We got caught off but he called back in the second segment.  Charles called to advocate for small markets & an incremental approach.  He continues working on Microlaunchers.  John from Atlanta called to talk about strange lights over Detroit.  We had a good time talking about the mysterious Detroit sightings which you can easily see pictures of & find out more if interested with a very simple Google search.  John also wanted to talk about our recent advanced propulsion program about warp drive and interstellar physics.  If you have not heard that program from Jan. 4, 2013, I strongly recommend you do listen to it.  Space budget, economic and sequestration issues came up in this segment as well. We also talked about the bankruptcy sale of special battery company A123 to China and the fact that this includes sensitive military technology.  Listeners expressed a variety of opinions about this matter.  Perri provided us with this Forbes story on the matter:  www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2012/12/12/china-wins-u-s-loses-in-a123-bankruptcy.  I also read a PR statement from a group opposing the sale to China.

     In our longer second segment, Andrew called back and we talked about economic issues in congress, SLS, Golden Spike, and building relationships with staffers in congress to better advocate for space.  Tim called from Huntsville to tell us about the absurd PETA, Elon Musk and vegetarian issue arising about the food people will eat on Mars. You can read about it at these locations: 
http://rt.com/usa/news/space-mars-musk-people-595
and
http://betabeat.com/2013/01/elon-musk-would-like-you-to-know-i-am-not-the-kale-eating-overlord-of-mars
.  Based on this story, we got several listener comments on PETA, Martian food, and space nutrition.  In fact Doug called to say that he thought early Mars missions would likely be vegetarian just for mass and technical reasons.  Our last caller was Perri who wanted to talk about the need to refurbish and bring back to life the excellent Colorado teaching planetarium, the Robert H. Johnson Planetarium in Jefferson County.  Perri provided us with lots of good information on this planetarium and its refurbishment needs.  She also talked about food consolidation problems in the U.S. and globally, plus a host of other matters, including the plutonium issue which was mentioned in the first segment.  Here, she told us about the Rocky Flats Cold War Museum based on The Rocky Flats Nuclear Plant.  The museum is also in Jefferson County, CO. For more information, visit www.rockyflatscoldwarmuseum.org.  If you want to connect with Perri about the planetarium or any of the other issues she mentioned, you can email her through me.

     You can also email all our callers through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com.  Please post your comments/questions on The Space Show blog.

Jeff Krukin, Monday, 2-6-12 February 7, 2012

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Jeff Krukin, Monday, 2-6-12




Guest:  Jeff Krukin.  Topics:  Space Vision & Space Policy.  You are invited to comment, ask questions, & discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog,
http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com
.  Comments, questions, & any discussion must be relevant & 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 Jeff Krukin back to the program to discuss how we do & should view space.  For more information about Jeff & his space work, please visit www.jeffkrukin.com.  Our discussion started with an evaluation of where we are today with space policy & the toxic nature of politics, including space politics.  Jeff cited some examples of what he meant by toxic political rhetoric.  As we began looking forward, Jeff put forth three perspectives as to the character of space. These three perspectives, if kept in mind, go beyond just thinking of space as a federal program. (1) Space is a mere 62 miles above us, & thus a continuation of our environment; (2) Space can be an extension of the economy , & thus part of our lives; (3) Space is a place of abundant resources, & thus crucial to our survival & prosperity.  You can read his Space Daily article on this subject at www.spacedaily.com/news/oped-04t.html.  I asked Jeff how to realize his three goals & we talked about the media in this country as well as advocacy, especially with politicians.  The suggestion was made to start with local & regional politicians, evolving upwards to politicians on the larger & grander national scale.  Several callers were with us during the first segment suggesting we go from think tank up the ladder to the national representatives. One of our callers suggested a new concept, venture philanthropy.  This proved to be an interesting discussion given the way the existing billionaire space entrepreneurs were characterized in terms of their investment, activity, & as potential role models for others to invest from a philanthropic perspective, not just a business case perspective.  Jeff then talked about the New Space Conference Business Plan Competition for 2012.  If you are interested in it &  possibly competing, visit
http://newspacebpc.com
. Before the segment ended, an email came in suggesting a Microlaunchers type policy followed by Charles calling us. Don’t miss the Pooley/Microlaunchers discussion.  

In our second segment, Jeff talked about the need for a space transportation infrastructure.  I then asked him how one goes about implementing the policies & ideas we had been discussing for the past hour or so.  The subject of SLS came up & as to be expected, it drove the passions on all sides.  Tim used an ice analogy that Jeff seemed to like. I took the part of a contrarian (I did this often during this interview) regarding the difficult choices for members of Congress in voting against jobs in their district given the economic realties of today. This came up in the first segment too in response to a listener question.  I suggested it might be unrealistic to think congress would vote against jobs in the context of today’s economy as compared to when the U.S. economy was or again becomes strong/robust.  I challenged the NewSpace thinking on what policy was & might be in the best interest of the country as it might not be the NewSpace ideas.  Jeff handled the questions & opinions I threw at him very well & in my opinion, he demonstrated not only civility, but reason, common sense, drive, & open mindedness.  Near the end we talked about some of the ideas Dennis Wingo put forth on his most program, then Jeff left us with a thoughtful set of closing comments. 

 If you have comments/questions for Jeff Krukin, please post them on The Space Show blog URL above.  If you want to contact Jeff, you can do so through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com.

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