Guest:  Bob Werb;  Topics:  Communicating, selling, explaining space to the public and why it is necessary to do so.

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We welcomed Bob back to the show to talk about opening the frontier and how to communicate our space interests to the public so that they too have an interest in developing, settling and exploring space. This was the theme of the program and these topics dominated our discussion.  Once again, refer to the Tags for the various topics talked about with Bob. For your convenience, the tags have been repeated below;

Tags:  Tags:  Bob Werb, Opening the Frontier, solography is the geography of the solar system, civil space, communicating space with the general population, why space is hard to communicate, people don't care about the distant future, the here and now, short term focus, thousands of commercial satellites, current PEW Research on Americans and space exploration, military space infrastructure, space and focus groups, focus group value, SSP, medical help in space, astronomy, science fiction, NASA, space settlement, Artemis trouble ahead, dependence on government spending, private sector selling of space, using space to make lives better on Earth, educational system, space settlement timing, basic science, math education, learning how to talk to sell space, being able to listen, explaining space without science, humans are endangered species.

Throughout the show program Bob was clear that trying sell the public on our agenda or what is important to us about space such as going to Mars was a nonstarter. Listen to his explanation for his perspective.  Do you agree?  Post your comments on the blog.  Bob suggested finding out the person's interests and then seeing if you can provide them what interests them with space.  This reminded me of the JFK comment about "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."  Just flip a few of the words to space or a related word and what Bob talked seemed to me what JFK was talking about on a national level.

Bob addressed technology such as the amazing growth in satellites now functioning in various capacity over Earth.  Most of the satellites are government, not commercial so he talked about government involvement in developing space, settlement, etc.  In fact, later in the program he was asked if he though the private sector (commercial) could do space and settlement on its own.  He did not think that the private industry could manage that at this time.  We talked about the presence of the military in space with their hardware and technology plus we talked civil space.  At one point I said that his suggestions based on input from the public sounded like we need to do focus group policy making.  Bob spent time talking about the value of focus groups as he has benefitted from them in his shopping center business. Other topics include the role of media and the problems with media today. 

Astronomy and science fiction were common topics during the discussion. Don't miss what he said about both and the gaps in them with space progress.  Of course NASA was a source of feedback for this discussion and listeners questioned why NASA was still today not officially on the space settlement rocket parade. By the way, for the value of space, Bob through ice water on spinoffs. Don't miss those comments near the end of the program.

Please post your comments/questions for Bob Werb on our blog page for this program. Bob can be reached through The Space Show.