Andrew Chaikin, Sunday, 1-13-13 January 14, 2013
Posted by The Space Show in Uncategorized.Tags: " "From the Earth To the Moon, " BBC.. Chris Riley, " Neil Armstrong, " SpaceX, "A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts, "What if thinking, Andrew Chaikin, Apollo 11, cost plus contracting., Falcon Heavy, Golden Spike, JFK, LBJ, lessons learned over NASA history, lower launch costs, news media, on orbital satellite repair, public outreach for planetary exploration, space policy, Star Trek, sustainable space commerce
1 comment so far
Andrew Chaikin, Sunday, 1-13-13
http://archived.thespaceshow.com/shows/1929-BWB-2013-01-13.mp3
Guest: Andrew Chaikin. Topics: Neil Armstrong & his One small step for man lunar comment, space policy, space media, and 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 welcomed Andy Chaikin back to the program. Please visit his website for more information, www.andrewchaikin.com. We started our discussion with Andy telling us about the BBC documentary with Neil Armstrong’s brother’s comments about Neil’s famous Apollo 11 landing statement, then the Guardian’s (a UK paper) calling Neil a liar. Much of our first segment was devoted to this story and incident. We then moved on and talked about Golden Spike as Andy is part of the Golden Spike team. He had some very interesting nontechnical and general observations about the effort, the timing, and the Golden Spike team. Also in this segment, we talked about the need for low cost space access, then listener Paul in Houston asked Andy about the impact on the new space business given the US and global economy. This started an interesting conversation assessing where we are as a nation and culture today and the options we have for moving forward or not. Both Andy and I talked about solutions going through space but neither of us could say which way we might end up going. We also talked about the media and its problems, a discussions that was carried forward to the next segment.
In the next segment, we started with a call from Doug who had additional comments on the Armstrong story. We also talked about the need for sustainable commercial space, again focusing in on the need to lower the cost to space. Andy then talked extensively about lessons learned at NASA over the years and the book he is writing for NASA on the subject which addresses the principles of success in spaceflight and management. Our policy and historical overview and current assessment continued to the end of this nearly two hour program.
Please post your comments/questions on The Space Show blog below. You can reach Mr. Chaikin through his website or through me.
James (Jim) Bickford, Friday, 2-24-12 February 25, 2012
Posted by The Space Show in Uncategorized.Tags: antigravity, antimatter, antimatter ISP, antimatter theoretical limit for speed, antiparticles for space missions, antiproton storage and propulsion, Apollo, cosmic rays, dark matter, flux, fundamental science research, fusion energy, galactic cosmic ray flux., James (Jim) Bickford, Jupiter for antimatter, NIAC, nuclear thermal rocket, positrons, radiation belts, Saturn's rings, solar flares, Space Shuttle, Star Trek
add a comment
James (Jim) Bickford, Friday, 2-24-12
http://archived.thespaceshow.com/shows/1720-BWB-2012-02-24.mp3
Guest: James (Jim) Bickford. Topics: Antimatter for space propulsion. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We welcomed Jim Bickford to the program to discuss antimatter for space propulsion. In our first segment, Mr. Bickford started our discussion with an introduction to antimatter basics. While we referenced Star Trek in the discussion, Mr. Bickford was quick to point out that reality was quite different from the sci fi classic though he was a fan of Star Trek. Along with the Apollo program, both played a role in his having his interest in antimatter. In this introduction, I asked Mr. Bickford about antimatter as a weapon but he said it would not be practical. One of the points stressed by Jim during the entire program was just how little antimatter material there is and how long term the R&D program would be.. He said there is very little in nature and the quantities made worldwide were extremely small, measuring in nanograms produced a year. Our guest compared antimatter to chemical propulsion and nuclear thermal rockets (NTR). While the NTR is substantially better than chemical propulsion, antimatter propulsion would be orders of magnitude better than the NTR. We then talked about supplies of antimatter off Earth and he said the most promosing place was in the rings of Saturn. He also mentioned solar flares from the sun in the positrons and back on Earth he talked about cosmic rays as well as some material in thunderstorms & ligtening. Mr. Bickford also discussed what an antimatter spaceship would probably be like. He discussed fuel tank requirements, containment, even plasma fileds around the spaceship using an electromagnetic field extending out around the spaceship as the containment device. We talked about the research needed, the steps involved, and the funding. Our guest repeated many times that antimatter research is high risk in the sense of obtaining success. As the segment was ending, we talked about antimatter research in the medical field against cancer tumors.
In our second segment, we talked more about tax payer funded antimatter research and Jim took us through a value stream analysis which was most interesting. We talked about student interest in antimatter and both the direct and indirect benefits from technology research and development. We then talked about the specifics of antimatter for space development starting with defining the requirements and eventually being able to do a demo. A caller asked if the research had a billion dollars for many years would there be a breakthrough in the 20-30 year time period. You might be surprised by his answer. We also talked about a paper and a Power Point poster that he has used regarding his antimatter research. Both the poster and the paper will be uploaded to The Space Show blog with Mr. Bickford’s permission. We talked about antimatter and Jupiter based on the poster . Another question came in about antimatter propulsion being useful for launch from Earth. This prompted our guest to talk about the antimatter theoretical limit for both ISP and faster than light speed. As we were talking about the antimatter development process, I asked about the role of luck or serendipity in discovering breakthroughs. You might be surprised by this answer as well. In ending our discussion, Jim repeated that antimatter was only at the fundamental research stage and very long term, perhaps even further out than a century but very promosing nonetheless.
Please post your comments/questions on The Space Show blog URL.
The two papers discussed on the show can be found below:
1. Bickford_NIAC_Phase2Year1Report_Aug07_final2
