Guest: Chris Carberry. Topics: Explore Mars.org, Women & Mars Conference, Mars missions, MSL, Mars and space advocacy. 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 back to the show, Chris Carberry, Executive Director of Explore Mars (www.exploremars.org). Our first discussion topic was the upcoming Women and Mars Conference which is set for Nov.. 9 & 10 at George Washington University in Washington, DC. Visit the conference website at www.exploremars.org/page/women-and-mars for a list of keynote speakers, panels, and all the registration information. Note that there are student registration fees of $65 representing a deep discount for students attending this program. In addition, this event will be broadcast on the net free of charge by NASA so if you cannot make it to D.C., you can see it live (and participate through a blog) as well as seeing it later as an archived broadcast event. Chris went over the list of panels and speakers, then he told us that for those who register on or before Oct. 7, they get a VIP pass to see the Mars Science Lab (MSL) launch from the Cape. Details are on the Women and Space website above. Later in our first segment, Chris was asked to update the educational and programming plans for Explore Mars which he did. As you will hear, they have many educational outreach events already underway, plus they have several new events planned for 2012. At the end of this segment, Chris was asked about a Phobos Deimos mission rather than going directly to Mars. Don't miss what he had to say about this. He concluded the segment by saying that there is only a small window of opportunity right now for our space program to move forward and we need to both recognize it and take advantage of it. In our second segment, Chris started out with a general overview of the space policy for presidential candidates. As you will hear, space remains a tunnel vision problem for political candidates. He got a question about space policy and the Tea Party and then he talked about the importance of the upcoming MSL. At the end of the segment, a caller asked about the new ESA Mars Express SPICAM finding water supersaturation in the Martian atmosphere. Here is a link to the story: http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=49342. In our third segment, we talked about heavy lift and the Space Launch System (SLS). Chris had much to say on heavy lift for a Mars mission and we discussed what amount of heavy lift was likely to be optimum for a specific mission. He supported SLS but questions the likelihood of it ever being built. We talked about the need for longer term funding in Congress and commercial space. As we ended the program, he repeated the details of the upcoming Women & Mars Conference per above. You can post your comments and questions on The Space Show Blog URL above. You can email Chris at carberry@exploremars.org.