Guest: Bruce Damer was with us to discuss virtual reality and 3D simulation for space. To learn more, visit his websites: www.digitalspace.com , www.digitalspaces.net , and www.damer.com/ . The discussion began with some comments about our current economic crisis in the United States and what it might mean for the civil as well as the private space program. Whatever views and perspectives one brings to the table on these problems, Bruce and I agreed that it does not bode well for space spending and investments. It's far too early to see how these financial problems will be worked out or their overall impact on the nation, not just the space program. We then shifted our focus to the pending repair of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and its delay until early 2009. Bruce is doing an educational outreach simulation for the Hubble repair, this is something you will want to follow and download when it becomes available. A listener brought up the idea that advanced virtual reality might someday make a manned mission to Mars unnecessary. This was discussed on a program earlier this year, but you will certainly want to hear what Bruce had to say about the idea. Transhumanism was brought up in the context of virtual reality and Bruce's Project Biota, so you will want to be certain to hear this discussion. Other listener questions asked about virtual reality being used for modelling and planning along the lines of Cad-Cam software. You might be surprised at what Bruce had to say about this. Toward the end of the show, a listener asked about some of the futuristic projections by Ray Kurzweil. Don't miss this part of the discussion as it discusses the need to be well-grounded. If you have a question or comment for Bruce Damer, please send him an email at bruce@damer.com or b.damer@digitalspace.com.