Open Lines, Sunday, 11-19-12 November 19, 2012
Posted by The Space Show in Uncategorized.Tags: " SpaceX, EML2, Falcon Heavy, High Throughput Satellites, ITAR, NASA Ames, NASA Center Director changes, NASA Nanosat Challenge, Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston, Pete Worden, Pulsed Microwave Laser, Satellite Conference (SATCON) 2012, SLS, Space Show feedback, Space Show surveys, US 2012 election & space policy, US SatCom vulnerability
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Open Lines, Sunday, 11-19-12
http://archived.thespaceshow.com/shows/1895-BWB-2012-11-18.mp3
Open Lines, Sunday, 10-7-12 October 7, 2012
Posted by The Space Show in Uncategorized.Tags: " Rand Simberg, " SpaceX, astronaut safety, Cislunar economic development, escape and abort systems, Falcon 9. , Felix Baumgartner, heavy lift, ISS one year mission, lunar space elevator., Mars, NEOs, Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston, Propellant Depots, Red Bull, shuttle accident rate, Sir Richard Branson, SLS, space elevator, space mission value, space tourism, spaceflight liability and immunity laws, spaceflight safety
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Open Lines, Sunday, 10-7-12
http://archived.thespaceshow.com/shows/1867-BWB-2012-10-07.mp3
Guest: Dr. David Livingston. Topics: Open Lines discussion on various space topics per the choice of the listeners calling today’s show. 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. Welcome to today’s two hour 15 minute Open Lines discussion. The program was in three segments but as we focused on just a few topics for the entire discussion, this summary will not be divided by segments. I started the discussion by describing upcoming Space Show programs, then putting out a few discussion topics. As it turned out, the dominant topic discussed by the listeners had to do with astronaut safety and the recent program with guest Rand Simberg from Monday, Oct. 1, 2012. Rand talked about our being too risk averse, the need for more lives to be at risk to do valuable space missions, etc. You can hear his program at http://archived.thespaceshow.com/shows/1863-BWB-2012-10-01.mp3. Several callers took issue with much of what Rand said and for the most part thought that space missions were valued and that human spaceflight was already risky. Listeners went back and forth on this topic across all segments of the program, talking about shuttle accident rates, proposed accident rates for Constellation, Orion, Dragon, and more. Some listeners even talked about aviation safety rates, military jets, and the track records of the Atlas 5, Delta IV, and Arianne V rockets. For part of this discussion, we also talked about the liability limitation laws passed in spaceport states including California which recently signed into law its version of law. We talked about what this might mean for the industry, for spaceflight participants, and even if the would hold up in an accident.
As part of the HSF safety discussions, we also talked about launch abort and escape systems. We took a call at the first of the second segment from Charles in Oregon who wanted to talk about the lunar space elevator, SLS and propellant depots, our second most talked about topic for the day. Charles is a strong proponent of the lunar space elevator and depots, but others called in from the skeptical side of things which was my position. At times the discussion switched to the space elevator here on Earth but everybody agreed that the lunar space elevator was much more doable. I kept challenging Charles and proponents of this and the depots to show me the complete and thorough financial analysis and trades for these missions with assumptions as that would be the only way to know if these concepts had legs to stand on. If Charles does get me some of this documentation and its viable, I will use it in a future Space Show program. Tim in Huntsville wanted to know my thoughts on various alternative launch systems & my preferences for which type of space missions. There were other topics scattered throughout our program including the 23 mile skydive by Felix Baumgartner with Red Bull scheduled for Oct. 8th, fusion propulsion, and the SpaceX launch going to the ISS later today.
Open Lines, Sunday, 7-29-12 July 29, 2012
Posted by The Space Show in Uncategorized.Tags: commercial space, cubesats, Lunar COTS Petition., MSL Curiosity, NANOSAT Challenge, NASA Mars Program, NewSpace 2012, NewSpace Business Plan Competition, Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston, OpenLuna.org, Return to the Moon, SpaceFlorida, Title 9 7 STEM
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Open Lines, Sunday, 7-29-12
http://archived.thespaceshow.com/shows/1823-BWB-2012-07-29.mp3
Guest: Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston. Topics: NewSpace 2012 & Business Plan Competition, Title 9 & STEM, & lots more. 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. During our first 70 minute segment of this two hour discussion, we started out with a call to Paul Graham who is the Project Manager for OpenLuna.org ( www.openluna.org). Paul explained their program for putting a person on the Moon. If this interests you, Paul can be contacted through their website. I then undertook a review of the recently concluded NewSpace 2012 Conference and Business Plan Competition. It was an excellent conference and competition and I urge you to see the streaming video archives of the conference sessions & the business plan competition/presentations. You can also find reviews of the sessions on most of the popular space blogs as many of the well known bloggers were at the conference. Again, make sure you see the business plan presentations as I will be bringing several of these presenters on the show in the coming weeks. Also, see the early Saturday morning presentations with Rick Tumlinson and Bob Werb, along with many of the panels with superstars as panel members. Visit www.spacevidcast.com/category/video/conferences-video/newspace-conferences-video to see all of the conference sessions & programs. Tim was next up with a call from Huntsville to talk about the government applying Title 9 to STEM education. We talked about what gender quotas might mean for various STEM programs at schools and universities. For more information, do a Google search for Title 9 & STEM education. Our friend Charles Pooley called in regarding the NASA Nanosat Challenge program. He continued to wonder why there seemed to be so little activity and support for the program.
In our second segment, Jerry from Florida was our first caller. He did watch many of the live streaming sessions and thought this year’s NewSpace Conference 2012 turned a corner for quality. Elliott in Michigan called in to talk about our Mars program, its future, and the ideas put forth by recent guest Brent Sherwood from last week who suggested that the Mars HSF program was a damaging distraction for our space program. If you have not yet listened to this discussion or read his paper which is on The Space Show blog, please do so. As the program was ending, we talked about the upcoming MSL Curiosity landing for Sunday, August 5 at 10:30 PM PDT. I noted our guest for my segment this coming Wednesday evening, August 1 on the John Batchelor Show as she is part of the JPL EDL team for MSL Curiosity. Our discussion airs live at 6:30 PM PDT, 9:30 PM EDT. You can hear it streamed live at www.wabcradio.com/article.asp?id=531472.
If you have comments/questions, please post them on The Space Show blog. If you want to send a note to any of the callers, do so through me and I will forward it on your behalf.
Open Lines, Sunday, 7-1-12 July 1, 2012
Posted by The Space Show in Uncategorized.Tags: " SpaceX, Air, and Space Law, Apollo 12 Precision Lunar Landing, Ares I, Commercial Crew, Constellation, Cots, Dragon, Falcon 9. , human spaceflight, human spaceflight infrastructure, International Space University (ISU) Summer Session, ISU Space and Media Panel., Kennedy Space Center, N-Prize, NASA, NASA budget, NASA legacy, NASA Nanosat Challenge, National Center for Remote Sensing, Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston, SLS, Space Shuttle Endeavour
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Open Lines, Sunday, 7-1-12
http://archived.thespaceshow.com/shows/1805-BWB-2012-07-01.mp3
Guest: Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston. Topics: A wide range of space related topics over a 2.5 hour Space Show 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. Our initial discussion topic during our hour long first segment was with Charles Pooley who called in to talk about the NASA Nanosat Challenge and the website, http://challenge.gov/NASA/49-nano-satellite-launch-challenge. Charles was hoping listeners might have more information about this program. If you do, please post your comments on the blog. We also talked about the N-Prize and Charles described the basics of this program. Peter Platzer of Do It Yourself Space called in from Mtn. View, CA to talk about Do It Yourself Space, Nanosatisfi and their Kickstarter project. Websites to visit to learn more about what Peter shared with us include http://diyinspace.com and www.nanosatisfi.com. If you want to contact Peter about this project, you can email him at peter@nanosatisfi.com. As you will hear, this is an innovative build your own satellite venture designed to engage everyone in space activities. Our next caller was Frank Van Rensselaer, author of the recent Space News op-ed, What Will Be This Administration’s Legacy for NASA?, http://spacenews.com/commentaries/120618-administration-legacy-nasa.html. Frank talked about the NASA legacy, I tied in my KSC tour and what I saw in terms of the take down of so much of our HSF infrastructure, the shuttles, etc. I asked Frank about NASA budget and funding issues, the role of Congress, OMB and the OSTP. We also talked about commercial space, its importance moving forward for the future and robust civil and commercial space programs. I questioned Frank on differing views as to what our space policy should be, including perspectives contrary to his own. I believe this is a most interesting 20 plus minute conversation.
In the second segment, we led off with a call from John in Atlanta who talked about SLS as a placeholder program, the ISS, Commercial Crew, and human rating the Delta and possibly the Atlas. After John’s call, Kelly called in to talk about SpaceX from his perspective which is different than the perspective most of us have regarding SpaceX, the Falcon 9 and Dragon. See what you think of what Kelly had to say and post your comments on The Space Show blog. I’m sure many of you will want to challenge or disagree with Kelly. Have at it but please, keep it civil. While Kelly was talking, Jim sent in an email saying “Wow! Kelly seems to be living in a different dimension than the rest of us. I wonder what Kelly thinks about the Falcon Heavy?” Later, Terry emailed us about Sen. Hutchinson, her retirement, and the SLS. He also asked about the possibility of life for the ISS after 2020. Toward the end of the program, Terry called to address his concerns. Since we talked about economic issues and good programs being cut when an economy is weak, I read a sad announcement about the funding & program cancellation for the outstanding Center for Remote Sensing, Air, and Space Law at Ole Miss Law School. I hope to address the quality of this excellent Center in a future Space Show program. As the show ended, I went over the upcoming week’s schedule and that I would be discussing my Florida Space Coast trip in some detail on this week’s Friday morning program.
If you have comments/questions, post them on the blog. If you want to email one of the callers, send your note to me and I will forward it to the person of your choice.
Open Lines, Tuesday, 4-24-12 April 25, 2012
Posted by The Space Show in Uncategorized.Tags: Chris Kraft, commercial crew funding cuts, Dragon Capsule, Falcon 9. , HSF, human Mars mission, Inc. asteroid mining, ISS, JSC, launch systems, Mars exploration vs. ocean exploration, Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston, Planetary Resources, SLS, space mission time lines., Space X, specific missions
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Open Lines, Tuesday, 4-24-12
http://archived.thespaceshow.com/shows/1759-BWB-2012-04-24.mp3
Guest: Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston. Topics: asteroid mining, Planetary Resources, Inc. SLS. 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 an Open Lines discussion inviting calls and emails on all space related topics. As it turned out, two topics were primary during the program and as a result of that, I will not summarize this program by segment as I usually do. First, the asteroid mining venture as put forth in the press conference for Planetary Resources, Inc. was primary throughout the program. The second commanding topic was the SLS and Op-Ed in the Houston Chronicle on April 20, 2012 by the JSC former director, Chris Kraft & Tom Moser. You can read the article at www.chron.com/opinion/outlook/article/Space-Launch-System-is-a-threat-to-JSC-Texas-jobs-3498836.php. You can read more about this Op-Ed on Space News at www.spacenews.com/commentaries/120423-fromwires-sls-threat-jsc-jobs.html. Many of the callers throughout the discussion commented on the Op Ed, the SLS, and its future. We also talked about the need for heavy lift, having a specific mission or missions for a rocket, destinations, and a time line for milestone accomplishment. Our first caller was Charles in Las Vegas who commented that he thought Planetary Resources was more “sizzle than steak.” Charles was not supportive of a business model relying on secondary payloads. Instead, he said the company had to control its own launch needs. During our three segments, many listeners said they did not agree with Charles, including me. Many of us thought it was possible to use secondary payloads and during our 105 minute program, we covered this subject with the benefits and risks of relying on others, on sole source providers, etc. As for the Op Ed, we talked about it at length, wondered about the NASA lunar study mentioned by Mr. Kraft as well as the existing rockets that could do HSF to the Moon or beyond LEO. The consensus for those calling tonight’s show was that SLS in its present format using the current management program will probably be cancelled in 2013 or 2014 despite the support Congress appears to be giving it at this time. Mixed in with the SLS calls, we did talk about the new launch date for the Falcon 9, there was lots of interest in asteroid mining and new technology development to make it happen, plus a few other topics that brought to the listeners attention. When we came back from the final break which was at the 90 minute point, I used the remaining time to highlight some of the special upcoming Space Show programs for the rest of this month into early summer.
Please post your comments/questions on The Space Show blog. If you want to email any of the callers or those sending in email questions for this program, send your note to me and I will forward it to you.
Open Lines, Tuesday, 3-13-12 March 14, 2012
Posted by The Space Show in Uncategorized.Tags: artificial gravity, B52, Canadian Space Agency, Chimp Empathy Museum, commercial space, Congressional hearings on NASA Budget, Congresswoman Eddie Johnson of Texas, Defense Intelligence Agency Chinese Space Program, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Falcon 9. , fusion spacecraft, Living Universe Foundation, lunar space elevator., maglift., microgravity, NASA chimps, national security space, nuclear propulsion, Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston, Operationally Responsive Space, PETA, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Senator Nelson, space elevator, Space X, StarTram, SUSTAIN, Turkey and the Moon Treaty, Vasimr, X-37C
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Open Lines, Tuesday, 3-13-12
http://archived.thespaceshow.com/shows/1734-BWB-2012-03-13.mp3
Guest: Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston. Topics: An Open Lines program covers a wide variety of topics of interest to the listeners. 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. Welcome to this 2 hour 20 minute Open Lines discussion largely driven by listeners calling the program. In our first hour segment, I listed the usual possible discussion topics which I won’t repeat here. As to be expected, listeners had their own ideas as to what they wanted to talk about though we did address some of the issues I previewed including NASA & the treatment of their chimps in the early space program given that PETA wants to establish a chimp empathy museum at KSC, NASA budget cuts & the recent congressional hearings, the Defense Intelligence Agency Chinese space program wake up call, & more. The congressional hearings of last week made it to our discusses as listeners focused on what was said by Senator Nelson, Senator Hutchinson, NASA Administrator Bolden, & Dr. Tyson in his short presentation. Listeners also talked about the comments by Texas Congresswoman Eddie Johnson regarding commercial space/crew on the House side. Also in the first segment, Tim called in to inquire about a possible IPO for Space X.
In our second segment, Dr. Jurist called in to express his disappointment at the elimination of funding for the Operationally Responsive Space office/program. This took us to a discussion about national security space & I asked Dr. Jurist about the Defense Intelligence Agency wake up call regarding the Chinese space program as expressed by their director Ronald L. Burgess. Somehow we then got off on the topic of the planned retirement of the B-52 in 2040, about 88 years after it became operational. While Dr. Jurist was talking with us, Tim sent in several email questions for him on microgravity experiments to determine what level of gravity was needed for humans for space settlement & long duration flights. John Hunt followed with comments about VASIMR, nuclear propulsion, & even fusion powered spacecraft down the road in our future. Tom Hanson of the Living Universe Foundation called in to let people know they are seeking Foundation board members (www.luf.org/contact). I then introduced another topic from a current article in Popular Science, a 20,000 mph train to space (www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-03/all-aboard-20000-mile-hour-low-earth-orbit-express). This article refers to a newer version of StarTram & this brought in several more callers including Trent from Australia. Other listeners chimed in on the train to space idea as well though most did not take the article very seriously. I introduced the news that Turkey had agreed to the Moon Treaty & then Terry called in at the end to talk about the X-37C & that it might become a crewed vehicle.
Please post your comments/questions on The Space Show blog URL above. If you want to contact any of our callers, send your note to me & I will forward it for you. If you want more info on any of the news stories I mentioned, let me know & I will send it to you.
Open Lines, Monday, 12-26-11 December 27, 2011
Posted by The Space Show in Uncategorized.Tags: air launch, Boeing 787 Dreamliner costs, Christopher Kraft op-ed Space News, commercial launch sites, commercial space, DARPA, depots, Dragon, Elon Musk, Falcon 9. , Falcon Heavy, February 2012 commercial crew NASA solicitations., human factors, ISS, launch mass, Mars, microgravity, Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston, Orion, payload to Mars, QuickLaunch, radiation, Return to the Moon, rocket development costs, SLS, Soyuz problems, Space Act Agreement (SAA), space elevator, Space X, Stratolaunch
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Open Lines, Monday, 12-26-11
http://archived.thespaceshow.com/shows/1678-BWB-2011-12-26.mp3
Guest: Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston. Topics: Elon Musk New Scientist interview on his Mars plans, rocket development costs, policy issues. 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. The Space Show/OGLF is now engaged in its annual fundraising drive. Please see & act upon our appeal at http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/space-show-2011-fundraising-campaign. We welcomed the final 2011 Open Lines program. During our two hour discussion with one break, I outlined discussion topics up front but as you will hear, one topic struck home. Listeners wanted to talk about the New Scientist interview with Elon Musk entitled “I’ll Put Millions of People on Mars, says Elon Musk.” You can read the full interview on The Mars Society website, www.marssociety.org/home/press/news/illputmillionsofpeopleonmarssayselonmusk. Callers honed in on the reported development costs for the Mars spaceship ranging from the $2-$5 billion. Those that called the program thought this was inadequate funding. At one point I looked up the development costs for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner which so far was estimated at $32 billion. Since all of us thought a Mars spaceship was more complicated and involved in R&D than a new Boeing jetliner, listeners seemed to be more convinced that the projected costs were too low. One listener brought up the costs of military projects such as the F22, the JSF, nuclear powered carriers and submarines, etc. Another listener wanted to know if Space X was planning to open up additional launch sites to those that are publicly known. In the second longer segment, not only did the military hardware come up for cost comparisons, but John in Atlanta wanted to talk about the Space News Op-Ed by Christopher Kraft (http://spacenews.com/commentaries/111219-nasa-needs-wake-reality.html). Mr. Kraft wrote about the need to internationalize projects and make use of publicly available international hardware rather than build the SLS. Tim called in from Huntsville to talk about the Musk interview, the rocket development costs, and using space resources to lower the costs. He even suggested Elon make use of the QuickLaunch idea to put lox/kerosene in orbit for refueling. Dr. Jurist called in to talk about the human factors for a Mars mission and that they seem to be understated by the Mars advocates. Dr. Jurist speculated that it might take 5-10 years just to be able to address most of the human factor issues, not including what might be involved in implementing solutions. We then talked about Stratolaunch and air launch. We talked about the small payload capacity of the proposed vehicle and the need for multiple flight depending on the mission and the needed total payload. Our next topic was yet another Soyuz failure and what this might mean for the ISS if the Soyuz problems are not fixed. Terry called in again from Corpus Christi to talk about the Falcon 9 & Dragon flight in early February and how the success of the flight might become a driver for more commercial crew funding from the government. With Dr. Jurist, we also explored the idea of inviting a certain UC Davis aerospace engineering professor to the program to discuss horizontal versus vertical launch and reusability. I concluded this program with my own wish list for more civility within our space advocacy family and for real leadership with responsibility and accountability to emerge at all levels in Washington, DC, not just for space, but for the future of our nation. If you have comments or questions, post them on The Space Show blog URL above.
