The Space Show

We welcomed Charlie Chafer back to the program for Celestis updates, new missions they offer as memorial spaceflights, lunar missions concerns, potential Mars missions, their deep space mission and more. We talked payloads, rideshare, more and more lunar missions, launch reliability and some on the funeral and cremation side of the business. I do apologize for the poor audio with this program. Read the full summary when it becomes available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Friday, Feb. 21, 2025.

Bob was welcomed back to the show and immediately began talking about possible NASA layoffs, the new administrator and his confirmation and how the layoffs would be beneficial given his view of NASA not being efficient in what it does. The cancellation of SLS came up and between layoffs, NASA, the new administrator, the possible termination of SLS and the timing of such a cancellation, that covered most of the program. Near the end, a caller asked about the asteroid being talked about as possibly hitting Earth in 2032. Both the caller and Bob were critical of NASA and the science community for not doing anything I directed both to hear the recent Feb. 14 program with Dr. Ed Lu of the B612 Foundation for the facts rather than their speculation. Both the caller and Jerry from GA said they would listen to the program and provide feedback on what they hear with that interview. Please post your comments on our blog for this show. If the asteroid issue is of interest to you, listen to the Feb. 14th program with Dr. Ed Lu. Your comments on that discussion are welcome. Please read the full comments on this show when they appear at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Feb. 18, 2025.

Dr. Matula was back with us to discuss his Space Review article, posted on our blog for this program, focusing on his biological argument in favor of space settlement. We spent considerable time on this subject which included space food agriculture, farming in space, testing ideas and methods here on earth and more. Space communications were also part of the show, talking about narrow beam communication. Tom talked about the work the Texas Space Commission was and is doing plus the new MBA program at his university for space commerce. The program is all online and contact Tom for more info. He provided us with info on his email address. Read the full summary of this program when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Sunday, Feb. 16,2025.

Eric Berger was our guest to discuss Artemis, SLS up or down for the future, the Boeing Starliner, Starship, alternate Artemis plans plus in Part 2 Eric was asked about the future for Russian Roscosmos, Russian military space, their ILS project and Russian spacesuit development. Read the full summary when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025.

Dr. Ed Lu, Executive Director of the Asteroid Institute, a program of B612 Foundation was our guest. We started out discussing the asteroid YR-4 which has a chance of hitting Earth around 2030. Ed spent time talking about this rock, how the calculations for a hit are determined, orbits, programs and possible methods plus timing of deflecting it. This discussion was a major part of our program and one you do not want to miss. Other topics talked about including the ADAM Platform (Asteroid Discovery Analysis and Mapping) which is Open Source so anyone can use it for tracking an asteroid. Ed explained in detail, also what it is doing re YR-4. We got a few callers with multiple questions plus emails. Also mentioned were the telescopes being used including the JWST and the upcoming Vera Rubin in Chile. He was asked about the NASA Surveyor project which will be online in the near future. Read the full summary of the program when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Feb. 14, 2025.

We welcomed Karlton Johnson, CEO of NSS and Chairman of the NSS Board of Governors. We started the program with our guest remembering Anita Gayle, former CEO of NSS. Karlton, a caller and myself also honored Anita who recently passed away. I asked Karlton a lead off question about the fate of Artemis and SLS. This started an amazing discussion with great story examples from our guest on leadership, changes, strategy for moving forward and realizing that today, many things given the new administration are just unknown and unsettled. Later we talked about valuing space and once again our guest provided us with an excellent example. Marshall call to provide his own examples of space value for farming plus Phil called with another great question you will want to hear. I believe this to be an important 90 minute discussion so don't miss it. See the full summary when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025.

We welcomed Rachel Tillman back to the program to continue her story regarding the history of the Viking missions and the saving of copies of the Viking hardware. We talked about the importance of preserving various aspects of space history, even oral history. Also, Rachel did some deep dives with us on Viking stories. We talked about the purpose of space exploration, she fielded listener phone calls and multiple emails. Please see the full archive of the show when it is available for this date, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025 at www.thespaceshow.com

John and I welcomed Charlie Pelligrini to the program to discuss asteroids with hydrothermal layers. Recent discoveries with the sample return from Bennu, a carbonaceous asteroid seemed to be confirming this with the finding of traces of salt water and other building blocks of life as reported by NASA. We discussed hydrothermal zones on Earth as well as on asteroids, meteorites and more. Please read the full summary when it becomes available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025.

Hank returned to the Space Show with first time guest Dean Jason Green of the UAH Business School. We discussed the upcoming Business in Space Conference they host which will be later this month. In addition, we talked about the greater space community in the Huntsville area, both private sector and government space plus Marshall Spaceflight Center and the Redstone Armory. Also, the Space Force. Please read the full program summary when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Friday, Feb. 7, 2025.

Dr. Armen Papazian joined us again, this time to discuss his new book, "Financing The Race To Space: How to value, invest and Explore the Universe." Armen makes the case that our monetary and financial systems are not capable to truly take us into space to settle, live, work and stay there in a sustainable manner. He goes after the traditional concept of the time value of money and suggests new ways for determining money, the space value of money. Hint: He draws upon different orbital periods for different planets and celestial bodies He calls for a reworking of financial mat, monetary architecture, and moving past financial value to space value. His examples included SpaceX and Mr. Musk but also others suggesting that traditional economics won't get the job done other than with the usual footsteps and flag types of missions. Armen does want your feedback so do share it with him on our blog. Read the full program summary when it becomes available on our website, www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Feb. 4, 2025.

Welcome to Open Lines. Multiple topics, multiple callers. We started with a call from John with a list of items to discuss. He posted his list plus URLs on our blog so that we can all follow up on the companies and events. Marshall called about Buzz and his 95th birthday. Since AI was a program topic, I asked Marshal about his use of it given his engineering and physics engagements. Ft. Worth John call with a drone and UAP update. We talked about the recent government release saying the recent drone sightings over NJ were "approved." None of liked that clarification. More comments were made re AI and then I mentioned the recent Bob Zubrin article on how to go to Mars. Michael Listner called to point out areas where Zubrin was wrong re the private sector going to Mars. I suggest you read the Zubrin article - I told listeners how to find out and then listen to Michael's call. Tell us what you think. Tim from Huntsville was our final caller and he posted a video about his call and the drone mission on our blog. Read the full program summary when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025.

We welcomed back Dallas Bienhoff to update us on the projects undertaken for advanced lunar rovers by Offworld. Dallas discussed the Offworld plans in detail, including testing, missions, customers and more. we also talked about the very successful Artemis Accords with Finland being the latest company to join them. Dallas brought up recent NASA competition and award program that Offworld participated in but was not selected. Read the full summary when it becomes available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Friday, Jan. 31, 2025.

We welcomed John Jossy back to the show, especially at the last minute when the planned guest cancelled due to illness. John brought us current on space settlement matters as we start the new year with a new administration. Our topics in the mentioning of a new space film documentary, the Gerald Black Space Review article on phasing out SLS and Orion, Starship impact, the new Dr. Joel Sercel of TransAstraYouTube video on creating civilizations in space, plus John's own list of special items including links to the relative subjects and materials. John also posted a short agenda items list of his discussion point on the blog for this program. Read the full summary when it becomes available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025.

Dr. Southwood returned as our guest to discuss he latest updates to the Mars Sample Return mission being planned for Mars. David went through the latest options put forth last week by NASA plus we talked about potential private sector options. Read the full summary of this program when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025.

Noted space attorney Michael Listner returned to the program to discuss the early days of the new administration, property rights, resource mining, China, Artemis, key space policy issues for 2025 and more. Read the full summary of the program when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025.

Derek Webber returned to the program to discuss his excellent new book, "Lunar Commerce: A Primer." During the hour and 45 minutes we engaged in a detailed discussion about lunar commerce from what we can do now to a long time in the future. Part of this discussion centered on going to Mars, the Moon as a digression, then new Trump Administration lunar and/or Mars policy, cislunar, launchers, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and so much more. We had several listener calls plus multiple emails with a few listeners sending us multiple emails as extensions of their first one. Derek's book names companies, policies, all sorts of good items are jam packed into the nearly 200 pages jammed pack with excellent information. Read the full summary when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025.

Noted space journalist Leonard David returned to take a look at top space issues for 2025. In addition we talked about recent news re the UAP issue per a recent News Nation whistleblower broadcast. Leonard talked about Artemis, SLS and Starship, China, human spaceflight, what we should do when getting back to the Moon plus we both took a look at the commercial space industry with markets and customers. Read the full summary when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025.

Phil Swan returned to talk about the physics plus economics of using a Variable-Pitch Screw Architecture Mass Driver from Earth to the Moon or Mars. Phil has two papers posted and/or linked through the blog on this subject. Phil spent lots of time going over the physics of his concept, explaining the Variable-Pitch Screw drive, comparing it to rockets and even talking logistics and location for the mass driver on Earth. He is thinking anchored to the ocean floor floating about 20 meters below surface. He got several questions asking him about big ideas that never see the light of day. Others suggested modifications to his screw drive mass driver. Listen to what he had to say about energy transference and kinetic energy. Phil was asked about size and launch location which would maybe polar but also within 22 degrees of the equator north or south. Read the full summary of this program when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Friday, January 17, 2025.

Dr. Phil Metzger was our guest on multiple topics. We started out talking about landing pads on the Moon and for Artemis. This proved to be a lengthy and detailed discussion the subject, information about how rocket exhaust spreads lunar dust, the adverse impact of lunar dust on hardware and more. We also talked about building a cislunar economy, policy making, space settlement, influencing the public and other important issues for our community including commentary on the book, "A City On Mars." Read the full summary when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Tuesday, Jan. 14 2025.

We welcomed Dale back to the program for a multi-topic discussion ranging from the a short commentary on the new Trump administration space transition team to a wide ranging space settlement discussion around the book "A City On Mars." We had many email listeners asking Dale about space settlement issues plus several listener calls engaging our guest on aspects of space settlement from the perspective of the book's authors and what our guest had to say about those perspectives. Please read the more detailed summary when it becomes available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025.