Guest: Taber MacCallum. Topics: Life support issues for human spaceflight. 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 program Taber MacCallum, CEO of Paragon Space Development Corporation, to discuss the current state of life support for human spaceflight long duration missions. Check out the Paragon website for more information, www.paragonsdc.com. We started our fist segment by discussing Biosphere 2 as Taber was a founding member of the Biosphere 2 Design Development, Test & Operations team as well as a crew member. We extrapolated lessons learned to the ISS and space travel. We also talked about our progress toward having a true closed loop life support systems for space and Mars travel. I asked Taber how important a closed loop system was for going to Mars so don't miss his answer. I then asked a series of questions submitted by listener Tony concerning the Biosphere 2 oxygen absorption being considered a "failure of biological closed loop life support systems." Taber had much to say about what a failure meant for Biosphere 2 as well as the O2 problem. He did not see problems and Biosphere 2 difficulties as failures. Tony also asked about using algae for a possible Martian closed loop system and if this were now possible. Taber addressed what it would take to have a closed loop system on Mars and various scenario timelines. Tony was further interested in Garbage Warrior and Earthship Biotecture but our guest was not familiar with this subject. Later in this segment, Taber talked about the need to have bioregenerative systems and to use the ISS for testing technology. In fact, this was a theme that came back throughout our discussion. I then asked our guest for his own action plan for developing closed loop life support to facilitate humans to Mars. You do not want to miss this discussion. Also what he had to say about the Orion capsule under development and its importance to deep space human exploration. He made the point of saying that deep space was very different and separate from LEO. Taber then talked about leadership issues and he told us about the Gabrielle Giffords Earth and Space Leadership Fund (www.gabriellegiffordsleadershipfund.org). Our guest received many listener questions about Bigelow space stations and the life expectancy of the ISS. We started our second and final segment with a request from Carl to compare and contrast Orion with Dragon. Taber did a good job doing the compare and contrast, don't miss it. We also talked long duration spaceflight mental issues and I mentioned touchable holograms for the future as being developed by Japanese researchers (www.switched.com/2010/07/27/japanese-researchers-invent-holograms-you-ca...). Our next topic was artificial gravity and the need for this research on the ISS. Toward the end of the program, Taber gave us an update on the SUSTAIN Technology Roadmap as he was a part of the SUSTAIN effort and all of us are still working to get the roadmap released to the public. In his closing remarks, he said it was nice that we had Darwinian Competition going on in commercial space. In his closing comments, he told us to quit fighting about space policy. We need to unite with a policy and move forward in developing outer space and human spaceflight. The fighting about policy and this and that is far too self-destructive for the space community. Umm, where have listeners heard that message before? If you have comments or questions for Taber MacCallum, post them on the blog URL above. You can email Taber at tmaccallum@paragonsdc.com.