Date Aired: Friday 19 Dec 2008
Guest: Irene Schneider returned to The Space Show for this program to discuss the Phoenix Lander on Mars, radiation, and Martian astrobiology including the search for present and/or past microbial life on Mars. Our discussion with Irene covered many topics as we took a close look at the ongoing search for microbial life on Mars, how it is being carried out, and what the chances are for finding such life on Mars. We talked about the harsh environment and noted that even here on Earth life can...
Date Aired: Tuesday 09 Dec 2008
Guests: Dr. Tom Jones and Dr. Ellen Stofan were the guests for this program to discuss their new book, "Planetology: Unlocking The Secrets Of The Solar System." We started our discussion with Drs. Jones and Stofan telling us how they got together and collaborated on this book which contains 250 unique color photographs plus an equal amount of exciting and informative text. Tom and Ellen told us how this book came to be and why it is different from other planetary books in that it portrays a...
Date Aired: Friday 07 Nov 2008
Guest: Norman J. Gerstein was the guest for this special Space Show program. Mr. Gerstein was deeply involved in Rover/NERVA and we discussed these programs in detail. He was part of the KIWI-TNT team and involved in the cleanup by picking up the debris with a wheelbarrow and tongs. Norm described these programs in detail along with the nuclear rocket which we compared to chemical rockets. Norm made it very clear that one needs a mission to do these programs. Another way of saying it, is to...
Date Aired: Tuesday 23 Sep 2008
Guest: Dr. Melcho Antunano, Director of Civil Aerospace Medical Institute at the FAA, was the guest for this Space Show program. Our primary topic for discussion was the role of the FAA in setting policy, guidelines, or requirements for medical qualifications for flight crews and spaceflight participants for both suborbital and orbital space tourism. Dr. Antunano pointed out several times that the FAA does not set the policy or requirements. Instead, they produce guidelines only and it is then...
Date Aired: Friday 22 Aug 2008
Guest: Jim Greenhaw, team leader of the Tech Ranch team in the recent Lunar Regolith Challenge, was our guest for today's show. Jim's team was the first place winner in this year's Lunar Regolith Challenge held a few weeks ago at Cal Poly University. We talked extensively about his robot and you can see it and follow our discussion by going to http://www.techranch.com/tornado/photos/. We explored the robotic construction, what other teams did, how he came up with design and much more. This led...
Date Aired: Friday 15 Aug 2008
Guests: Dr. Pat Patterson, Jim Marshall, Dr. John Jurist, Dr. Billie Reed, Chris McCormick, Christian Lenz. This program consists of three sets of interviews from the August 2008 SmallSat Conference located on the campus of Utah State University in Logan, Utah. Our first discussion includes Dr. Pat Patterson of Utah State University and Jim Marshall, the Director of Business Development for the Space Dynamics Lab (SDL), plus others from the SDL who explain their projects as well as talk about...
Date Aired: Tuesday 15 Jul 2008
Guest: Dr. Jim Logan was the guest for this Space Show program. Dr. Logan kicked off the discussion with a reality check of the body of evidence that we have accumulated during the 47 years of human space flight. He talked about two major potential showstoppers, micro/hypo gravity and radiation. As we discussed during the show, we know quite a bit about these two areas, but we do not yet have a solution for the problems they create for long-term human spaceflight or settlement. Dr. Logan...
Date Aired: Sunday 15 Jun 2008
Guest : Andrew Thorpe, author of "The Commercial Space Station: Methods and Markets" was the guest for this Space Show program. To learn more about Andrew's books and work, please visit his website: www.maxastro.com. We began our discussion with Andrew explaining why the current ISS is not the commercial space station he talks about in his book. You will want to hear this distinction. We then discussed a series of potential markets in space including microgravity, protein crystal growth, space...
Date Aired: Monday 21 Apr 2008
Guest: Dr. Vadim Rygalov, Assistant Professor of Space Studies at the University of North Dakota, returned for this program to discuss stress and emotional, physiological, psychological and radiological issues for long duration space missions. Dr. Rygalov began the discussion by summarizing the key issues facing those experiencing long duration space missions and he explained why most of the research focuses on short mission, which is defined as less than 3-5 months long. Do not miss this...
Date Aired: Friday 18 Apr 2008
Guest: Dr. Donald Rapp was the guest for this Friday Space Show program. Dr. Rapp authored two new books, both of which were discussed on this program. During the first three-quarters of the show, we discussed his book, "Human Missions To Mars," and what it will take for humans to go to Mars. For the remaining part of the program, we discussed his book, "Assessing Climate Change," and here we facilitated an important discussion about the science behind climate change and global warming. Some...
Date Aired: Tuesday 08 Apr 2008
Guest: Dr. Ethan Siegel was the guest for this Space Show program. Dr. Siegel is an astrophysicist at the University of Arizona and thus was highly qualified for the cosmological discussion which made up most of this program. We began our discussion with good working definitions for both cosmology and astrophysics. As you will hear, Dr. Siegel is a superb teacher and the use of humor weighs in strongly in how he presents his information, including from his website http://startswithabang.com....
Date Aired: Tuesday 01 Apr 2008
Guest: David Dunlop, the Director of Project Development for The Moon Society (www.moonsociety.org), was the guest for this special two hour program. We started our discussion talking with David about why we should be returning to the Moon rather than going to Mars or a NEO. Listen to what he says and see if you agree. Also, would you go to the Moon to have a McDonalds' hamburger for lunch? He invites one of our listeners to do this and you will want to hear this somewhat playful discussion as...
Date Aired: Tuesday 19 Feb 2008
Guest: Dr. James A. Dewar. Dr. James Dewar returned to The Space Show to explain and discuss nuclear rockets and what they would mean for space and economic development were they to be used to obtain low cost space access. Dr. Dewar began our discussion with a good explanation of how a nuclear rocket engine works and the advantages such an engine provides in terms of specific impulse. An engine with a higher specific impulse means a significantly larger payload can be brought to space faster...
Date Aired: Sunday 10 Feb 2008
Guest: Dr. John Jurist. Dr. John Jurist, long time friend and supporter of the Space Show, was the guest on this slightly over 2 hour Sunday program. In this discussion, we covered many topics including science education, human factors, the balkanization of various components of the space industry , radiation, microgravity experiments, commercial space, suborbital and orbital space tourism, spaceport talk, and more. Dr. Jurist was asked about his science education ideas and what he would do to...
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