Guests: Rand Simberg, William (Bill) Simon. Topics. We talked about Evoloterra (www.evoloterra.com) & its meaning. 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. We welcomed back Rand Simberg and Bill Simon for our annual Evoloterra program which remembers and honors the first time humans left Earth for another planet. Apollo 11 launched for the Moon on July 19, 1969 and landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. You can learn more about Evoloterra and actually do the ceremony this Saturday evening, July 20, with your friends and families by visiting www.evoloterra.com. Click on the astronaut's helmet to go to the pdf of the Evoloterra ceremony. In the first segment of our 1 hour 33 minute program, we started out by asking Rand if his new book, "Safe Is Not An Option: Overcoming The Futile Obsession With Getting Everyone Back Alive That Is Killing Our Expansion Into Space" was completed and if he would have it with him for autograph sales at the upcoming NewSpace Conference. Rand and Bill talked about the focus of the book for those not familiar with it, I offered Rand comments from various Space Show guests, and we then connected the dots with the primary focus of the book to the purpose of our program tonight, Evoloterra. You can find out more about Rand's book by visiting http://safeisnotanoption.com. Bill and Rand then discussed Evoloterra and its significance, plus they talked about the story being told in Evoloterra from the beginning of Earth 14 billion years or so ago to our first leaving Earth for the Moon. This year, we wove in space policy, the budget, and also human spaceflight risk taking which is what Rand talks about in his book. Rand repeated many times over what he has been saying for a long time, including on The Space Show, that space is not important to the policy planners in the government unless they have space jobs in their districts. Rand brought up the issue of space settlement and he cited Steve Wolfe's new book, "The Obligation," as a must read on the subject. Listeners asked about the ceremony, & if it was attempting to make space & the Moon landing into some sort of religion. Rand talked then talked about government policies that took us to the Moon for the wrong reasons (military in the Cold War) and subsequent policies that have hobbled us in opening up the space frontier. As the segment was ending, our guests talked about Evoloterra celebrating a long time line of individual accomplishments, all of which together, enabled us to leave Earth for the Moon for the first time. In our shorter second segment, our guests talked about delegating space policy to congressional committees and what the significance of doing that has meant for space policy. They spoke about the VAB at KSC and our failure to make use of it to maximize our space policy after the Apollo program ended. Rand had more to say about our Cold War policy and its impact on space policy and development. He suggested there have been many possible alternative trajectories for technology development over the years which we missed out on. Our guests talked about the fact that the entrepreneurs will lead the way to space development but they also explained the ongoing importance of constructive government policy. In response to several questions, our guests said many times over that the Evoloterra ceremony does not solve problems and we should not expect it to influence policy makers. Rand mentioned an earlier Evoloterra Space Show program where we read the ceremony. You can find that program at http://archived.thespaceshow.com/shows/1818-BWB-2012-07-20.mp3. Margaret Jordan, the additional Evoloterra author was with us for this program and the reading of the Evoloterra ceremony. If you have comments/questions for our guests, please post them on The Space Show blog. You can email Rand & Bill through me.