Guest: Tom Olson. Topics: Summary of 2009 and a look forward to 2010 for space development. Tom Olson returned for our annual summary of space 2009 and our anticipation for what might be ahead for us all for space development in 2010. In our first segment of this two hour program, Tom highlighted Virgin Galactic and Space Ship 2. He also talked about the upcoming launch for Falcon 9 and the fact that Falcon 1 had a successful commercial launch earlier this year. He highlighted Augustine, the business plan competition at NewSpace 2009 and the Space Investment Summits. He spent some time going over the Solaren and PGE SSP deal, all from a perspective you have heard before on this show. A listener asked about the need for a killer app for human spaceflight and the subject of the killer app was discussed in detail. We talked about the Augustine Commission suggestions as well as issues around space advocacy civility which is a topic that has been addressed on recent programs by many guests and listeners. In our second segment, NewSpace was discussed in terms of it starting to show some profitability for some of its components. The issues of what happens if Virgin or space tourism goes the way of the Concorde came up and Tom boldly examined this possibility and what it would mean for the industry and space development. A listener asked him if he would invest in any NewSpace or launch vehicle company. He said no but listen to his full explanation. See if you agree. When asked about progress being made with the Space Investment Summits and the business plan competitions, he said he thought so but the jury was still out regarding deal flow. He told us the next Space Investment Summit would be in Chicago the day before ISDC starts in May 2010. When Mr. Olson was asked to look forward for NASA, he suggested that the agency would simply "muddle through." He was asked about Spaceport America and its potential commercial success and their development of the runways now underway. He had much to say about this project and spaceports in general so make sure you hear his comments. As we started our third and final segment, Tom mentioned a German scientific paper stating that global warming violated the first and second law of thermodynamics. Here is the URL that describes the paper and contains the link to the actual paper: www.climategate.com/german-physicists-trash-global-warming-theory. I thank Tom for sending this to us. The subject of the trillion dollar asteroid came up in the context of some business plans Tom and others have recently seen regarding this idea as a commercial venture. Tom puts forth the arguments against this idea as a commercial success. See what you think about what he had to say. We talked about long term space missions and the enabling technologies that would be needed to help us realize such missions. Tom strongly suggests that investing in nanotechnology and enabling technologies may well prove more viable and profitable than any actual space investment over the near to intermediate term. You won't want to miss this discussion. Tom made several references to the global economic problems and meltdown and its impact on space projects and development. Toward the end of the show we talked about Masten winning the LLC and wondered aloud about what might be next for LLC technology. When Tom was asked for his closing comments or pearls of wisdom to close out 2009, he said "play nicer in 2010!" If you have any comments or questions for Tom Olson, please send them to me at drspace@thespaceshow.com and I will send them to him. For all Space Show listeners, a very Happy New Year to you and the best for a terrific 2010!