Guests:  Dr. David Livingston, callers, and listener emails;  Topics:  Multiple listener 2018 space related resolutions and goals plus other related topics to close the year 2017.   Please direct all comments and questions regarding specific Space Show programs & guest(s) to the Space Show blog which is part of archived program on our website, www.thespaceshow.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.   

Welcome to our last program of 2017.  For today, we focused space related New Year's Resolutions with listeners that either called or sent us an email revealing their 2018 space related goals.  Our program was a one segment 1 hour 52 minute program.  I started the discussion with some announcements including possible Space Show program changes for the new year pending Board of Director approval.  The program changes I described focused on the Monday program but only in a general way.  Any actual program changes would be detailed after our board meeting and my move to Petaluma, CA.  Another topic I brought up included changes to The Space Show Advisory Board from essentially a do nothing board that does not support the program and for the most part does not listen or participate in programming.  I set forth some general advisory board member requirements but any changes are also pending board approval.  I may solicit a few new advisory board members from the listeners but we will all have to wait for details to be made public later in the first quarter of the year.

This being the last show of the year, I took some liberties with our callers to engage in a little personal conversation with them.  For example, with our first caller Michael Listner from New Hampshire, I asked about the cold temps, snow and overall conditions in his area. Michael then shared some of his space law goals for 2018 with us, including a goal to do more professional writing.  Kim was our next caller.  Before we started talking about space, I asked Kim about the New Year's celebration in the part of Mexico where she lives.  We spent several minutes talking about welcoming in the New Year in Mexico, plus I asked her about a Mexican location my son was planning to visit on his honeymoon.  When we turned to space, we talked about Kim's Dec. 26th Space Show program and the blog response and support she has been getting from that program. Kim talked some more about Moonwards plans for the coming year but if you really want to know what Kim has planned for Moonwards going forward, make sure you hear her Dec. 26, 2017 program.

Allen in San Antonio sent his resolution via email.  His space goal was to listen to more live shows so that he could participat in real time with the guests on the program.  We were not quite sure how Allen would implement doing that.  Would he have to change his work schedule or maybe get a mobile device to listen live and call us?  Anyway, we hope Allen can do more live listening and we welcome his participation in our program.

Rick Kwan gave us a call to talk about several things going on with him in 2018.  He told us about his drone activity and the DARPA Hackfest that was held at NASA Ames last November.  Rick then brought up the topic of software defined radio (SDR) and its use with Darpa and drone activity which explained to us.  Searching on the web for more info on SDR was an easy thing to do but here is one link that you might find useful if you want more information on the subject:  www.arrl.org/software-defined-radio.  Rick said that for 2018 he wanted to do more with his existing SDR team.  Rick then talked about the business failure of TechShop (https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/15/techshop-shuts-down-all-u-s-locations-declares-bankruptcy).  Don't miss this interesting discussion.  Rick thought it might come back in one form of another with someone else in charge but that was still an unknown.  Rich then shared his entrepreneurial mentorship plans and the plans for the Silicon Valley Space Center for 2018.  Rick will keep us posted during the but if he manages to stay involved and do for these projects and organizations what he wants to do, he will have a successful and busy 2018.

I fielded emails questions about my earlier Space Show Advisory Board comments and Monday program changes, especially given that I said the Monday program might go to an evening slot.  Of course there is much more to what I have in mind for the Monday program but we will all have to wait for the final details to be announced after board discussion and approval.

Joe sent in the final email of the day and it opened up an unusual Space Show discussion for me.  First, Joe wanted to know my plans for writing my book about The Space Show.  I explained to Joe that I definitely planned on doing it but needed funding for it and when I talked about it on air, there was very little support for a crowdfunding program or support in general for the project.  Then I started going off the reservation with my comments because I mentioned that were I to check out of this world before writing the book, it would definitely be on the list of my regrets of not having done things that were important to me when I was alive.  While I have no idea if we see regrets and successes or accomplishments when we leave this world, I repeated that if I did leave the world without having written the book it would register on my regret list.  I also said I had no idea where it would be on the list as it probably would not be the top one or two priority regrets but nonetheless, it would be on the short list of my regrets.  Next, I really went off the reservation so to speak and decided, given this was the last show of 2017 and I'm kind of a sentimental type person, that I would share a very person regret story that would make the top part of any regret list I would review when I left this world.  After I told the story which was about the passing of my previous Siberian Husky dog Biscuit, I mentioned that I may remove the story from this show as perhaps it was not appropriate for a Space Show program.  I thought long and hard about editing out the Biscuit story and comments because it had nothing to with space for either 2017 or space 2018, but it did reveal a side of me I hardly ever show on The Space Show.  I thought long and hard about editing it out but this morning, Monday, New Year's Day.  Finally, I archived the show with the story in place.  Well, I guess it was the close of the old year and the coming of the new year that caught me at an usual vulnerable moment so I shared with all a very personal and deep regret I have regarding the end of Biscuit's life.  Those of you who listen to TSS from time to time know that I am absolutely a devoted dog lover. I am a pet owner that sees my dogs as my family.  I wonder if this means I will ever tell the Biscuit story of his absolute assistance in my writing my doctoral dissertation.  Umm, not this year for that Biscuit story but at least it was space related. 

Enough about regrets, dogs, sentimentality, and non-space matters.  The year 2018 stands to be even a better year for commercial space and space exploration than 2017 and I thought 2017 was an outstanding year for all of it.  As you will hear, I have some political uncertainties because of the extreme partisanship and divisions within our nation and I don't know if it will play out in space or not.  I hope it won't.  For me, I am very excited to move to the space year 2018.  There is so much potential.  While I am positive we will capitalize on the potential, I know there are risks.  Thus, I personally look forward to seeing 2018 unfold step by step as a champion space year.

Happy New Year to all of you.  Thank you for your support of The Space Show.

Please post your comments/questions on TSS blog for this show.  If you want to contact any of the callers to today's program, you can do so through me.