Guest: Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston. Topics: A variety of space topics were discussed in this Open Lines program. 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. In addition, please remember that your Amazon purchases can help support The Space Show/OGLF. See www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm. For those listening to archives using live365.com and rating the programs, please email me as to why you assign a specific rating to the show. This will help me bring better programming to the audience. Welcome to this 2 hour 11 minute Open Lines Show. As we started our first segment, I made several announcements including the return to action for the Space Cynics blog. This time we will be accepting guest editorials. Watch for the guidelines/rules for guest editors and those submitting comments to the blog. Once you see the guidelines/rules on the top blog menu bar, Space Cynics will be officially back. See http://spacecynic.wordpress.com. I also talked about a recent NPR interview with the inventor of the Super Soaker water gun who just happens to be a top guy at JPL! I'll make an effort to invite this person to the show. Our first caller was from Scott who wanted to talk about and promote his Droid platform app for orbital speed calculations. If you are interested in downloading this app to your Droid device, search in Google Play for "Orbital Speed." Scott described his app and how it worked and since there was some history re the app and the Charles Pooley Microlaunchers book, that came up during the discussion. This was probably the dominant topic in the first segment. Pooley did call in regarding the app and the references to his book, but Charles, in addition to promoting Microlaunchers as he usually does, also spoke about himself as the SPACE Heretic. You can read about this at the tiny URL goo.gl/vo7Ux7 (cut & paste to your browser or use the full URL www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140620023828-9942227-charles-poole...). During this segment, we also talked briefly about hybrid rocket motors and specifically about escape velocity. I read an email from B John in Sweden suggesting that going to the Moon or Mars was and is counterproductive for our HSF program. I asked for listener comment but unfortunately this topic was not picked up by the listeners. Perhaps some of you listening on archives will post a blog comment about B John's ideas. In the second segment, John Hunt called in to talk some more about escape velocity and the formulas for it. He then asked a series of question about science and STEM education. I shared what I knew about the topic but we were hoping for teachers or others involved in this field to call in with more information. Perhaps those of you working in these fields can post some detailed comments in response to John's questions on the blog. We had several emails about American public participation for a better HSF policy and for influencing policy makers and Congress for space policy. The email questions seemed to think some level of American public participation was needed but that the pressure in numbers was not there compared to non-space issues receiving funding. Also, most thought that the next election was actually the focus of Congress so without the numbers and pressure pushing for this or that policy, other projects get priority funding. John called back to talk about the need for competition and the lack of it. Near the end, I read a series of emails with a space advocate saying those that disagreed with him on specific issues were wrong, uninformed, etc. I asked listeners what they thought of this my way or the highway space advocacy mindset. John did talk about the upcoming NASA down select process and we both thought for sure SpaceX would be selected. John then said NASA and the public program lacked vision but SpaceX had a vision. Post your comments/questions on TSS blog per the above URL. If you want to reach any of the callers, send your note to me and I will forward it to the person of your choice.