The Space Show

We welcomed Jim Meigs from the Manhattan Institute to the program to discuss his paper, "U.S. Space Policy: The Next Frontier", space news including a changed in the proposed NASA Administrator plus the argument with President Trump and Elon Musk. The meeting considered the potential impact of the dispute and administrator change on space policy and projects, including NASA's future leadership and priorities. Jim, along with program participants on both Zoom and the live stream explored various challenges and uncertainties surrounding NASA's human space program, including budget concerns, mission timelines, and the need for private sector involvement. The group also discussed potential alternatives for U.S. space exploration, including more collaboration between different commercial space companies, while addressing the ongoing feud between Trump and Musk. Programs such as Artemis, Starship, timelines, even the need to restructure the FAA for both aviation and space plus NASA as a more entrepreneurial organization were both part of our discussion and Jim's paper. Please read the full summary of this program on The Space Show archives and our Substack page, doctorspace.substack.com.

We welcomed Richard Easton, Lee Hammarstrom & Pete Wilhelm to This special 2 hour 16 minute program on Zoom. You should be able to see the video on doctorspace.substack.com and The Space Show Vimeo account as it will soon be posted to both accounts. This program on TSS website is audio only. Our discussion focused on the development and evolution of GPS and the PARCAE satellite technologies, along with NRO, NRL, computer tech of the time, covering their origins, technical challenges, and applications. Our guests discussed the historical context, including early proposals, declassification processes, and the interconnected nature of these programs. Understanding time, atomic clocks and even Einstein's relativity equations were crucial to this up to now classified project. The conversation also touched on future developments, potential applications in space exploration, and concerns about system resilience in various environments. We talked innovation "back in the day" along with the Grab, Poppy and the transition from strategic to tactical information. Be sure to read the comprehensive program summary on TSS website as well as our Substack page, doctorspace.substack.com.

Jess Sponable returned to the program to discuss his recent Op-Ed on NASA, aerospace and the defense sectors needing more entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. While Jess spent time with us explaining what he meant when he and others advocated for more of these folks in management and leadership, most of our program discussion was a mega-example of the need for innovation in R&D, problem solving, financing and such. Over and over again he stressed the need for the entrepreneurial type for leadership, even within the government structure of public organizations or government agencies. Jess used his experiences in the past for excellent supportive illustrations plus he talked about the early 1950's, 60's and 70's history with commercial and military jets, X-planes and flight in general. He focused on motivation while making the point that entrepreneurial type leadership would serve to motivate people. We talked about returning to the Moon, Mars, SpaceX, Musk and Starship as examples along with Starlink. The Golden Dome project was an additional large part of our focus with Jess making a call for it to be space based in design, not terrestrial or Earth-based with Earth-based infrastructure. Jess explained why he said it needed to be space developed but he was not sure this would be the approach taken by Golden Dome planners and designers. We did talk about the degree of protection we would get from Golden Dome plus obvious security gaps that would not have such protection as mentioned by one of our listeners regarding ships and port vulnerability. Dallas called as we were talking about developing a cislunar economic infrastructure plus the Blue Origin designs coming up. Jess mentioned competing rocket companies including Stoke Space, Rocket Lab and Blue as the companies driving down the launch costs which he said was absolutely crucial to get below $100/lb to LEO. Toward the end of the program our guest was asked about progress in human spaceflight medicine. Jess spent a few minutes at the end of the program to go over some the information on this subject and talked about spinning stations and more but we must get the price to LEO down and entrepreneurial leadership was what was needed. Other topics came up including the experience Jess brought to our discussion by his earlier work with DC-X, reusable VTOL Launch, DARPA and the Air Force. Before ending we squeezed in a short discussion on his New Frontier Aerospace company hypersonic flight project which would enable west coast to Asia in a few hours by skimming across the top of the stratosphere. Do not miss this concluding discussion to today's program. Jess said he would return after their demo flight next year. We wish him and our industry great success in moving forward, including handling the political, budget and policy challenges faced at this time. Check out the full summary at www.thespaceshow.com for this program plus the summary on doctorspace.substack.com.

Dan Adamo returned to the program for his Part 2 discussion on "interplanetary Synodic-Resonant Waypoints" for Earth-Mars spaceflight. Follow the discussion with his PDF document which has been uploaded to his first appearance dated May 18, 2025. This second appearance has that link in the blog for the current show. We started Part 2 with a short review of Slide 5 and then proceeded to discuss and review the additional slides in his presentation. Note that this is a somewhat technical discussion and you do need to follow along with his PDF presentation. Rather than review each and every slide as Dan talked about, this summary will focus on the larger picture and that is the purpose or reason behind Dan doing this work which is even as he said many times "very speculative." As I understand it, Dan believes the Earth-Mars waypoints may in the future play an important role in Earth-Mars and return transportation, both human spaceflight and cargo. However, waypoint discussions are not yet being talked about or made part of potential mission planning. Dan is attempting to be "evangelical" in the waypoint discussion to get them into our awareness to start playing a role in the discussions that will influence these future missions. Our guest believes that waypoints are going to be very important in the future but they need to be talked about and evaluated early on to be refined for mission planning. He is hoping and he is optimistic that by bringing waypoints into space travel awareness, additional presentations and evaluations will be offered in the coming years so that they do become part of the future Earth-Mars mission planning and possibly even the missions. Dan is looking for feedback from listeners on waypoints and his presentation. After you have heard his presentation from both Part 1 and Part 2, he wants you to email him with your thoughts or post your thoughts on our blog or Substack as he is monitoring both. His email address is in the bottom footer of each of his slides. If you do direct email Dan, please copy me on the note as I would like to stay in the loop on this subject. Email me at drspace@thespaceshow.com. Dan and I thank you for listening and we look forward to your feedback.

We welcomed Clay Mowry, the new CEO of AIAA, to the program to discuss the "new" AIAA and the health of all aspects of our space industry. We started the 66 minute discussion with a detailed look at the dynamite new AIAA logo and the story about it told by Clay. First, check out the new logo. Visit AIAA.org to see it. Next, listen to Clay's story while you are looking at the new logo. If you are so inclined, post your thoughts about it on our blog for this show or in the Substack comments section (doctorspace.substack.com). By the way, how many of you remember the BellX-1 and its sound breaking history? If not, this would be a good time to learn and seal to your memory this important part of our nation's and really the worlds history. We moved on to talk about the split with AIAA between Aviation and Space. Aviation has always dominated the AIAA but as you will hear, space is becoming a more and more significant part and focus of the organization. Clay was asked about his plans going forward for the organization. In just a few words, AIAA is reaching out to its younger membership, students and going digital with most of their product. Clay told us the story about his trip to many of the nations finest aerospace engineering and science programs to interview the students to get a handle on how to focus the "new" AIAA. After telling us all about what they are doing for student and younger folk retention, a listener asked him what they were doing for the older crowd, even the "geezers." Don't miss this part of the AIAA new outreach program. In addition to the AIAA part of our discussion, Clay was asked about his views on the space economy, the continued availability of investment and risk capital, Artemis, Starship, the SLS-Gateway program and hardware plus Mars and the possible increase in attention to human spaceflight by NASA. We talked about the potential science and other agency budget cuts, we switched over to hear about the new changes and improvements for their great magazine/journal, "Aerospace America." Also, the AIAA book publishing division. He suggested we all sign up for "MyDailyLaunch (see he program to find out. Thank you. Dr. Spacehttps://aiaa.org/news/newsletters/my-daily-launch). Near the end of our program, Clay was asked what his biggest surprise was in becoming the new CEO. Well, its a surprise. Listen to the program to find out. Thank you. Dr. Space.

John and I welcomed DR. Robin Andrews from the UK to discuss planetary defense with us. Robin introduced us to the term "City-Killer" which pertains to the size of an asteroid that could potentially hit and damage Earth. This type of asteroid, were it to hit populated area, could do serious damage and injury to the area of impact. The damage would be considered localized rather than global. Robin provided us with a few examples of such asteroid impacts over history, plus the size of such a rock hitting the Earth would be around 140-160 meters across. Our guest talked about the recent NASA DART mission which sent an ipactor to an asteroid to test if it could be moved, possibly out of the way of hitting Earth. The DART mission was successful. Robin pointed to the U.S. as the main researching entity on such dangerous impacts though he did shout out to ESA and a few other organizations. He was asked about the decision making process to possibly absorb an impact in an area or to evacuate the area, a decision nobody wants to make. Robin was asked questions about rubble pile asteroid along with other kinds of rocks, plus he talked about other potential interceptor missions including nuclear and using the idea of a gravity tractor to tow the asteroid out of the way. Robin supported others in this field by saying the warning time to get involved in defending Earth from an incoming rock was critical as we needed to get to the potential dangerous asteroid when it was still fairly far from Earth. In the second part of our program, John asked Robin what he would do with an unlimited budget for planetary defense. Robin spoke to having infrared observations, testing nuclear interceptors and having rockets and missions on standby if needed bo te used. He commented on existing and soon to be existing hardware that would be useful in the search for the "City-Killer." Vera Rubin was one such tool he mentioned. When asked if a nuclear interceptor might trigger an EMP, he said no because the nuclear explosion would be millions of miles from Earth.

We welcome Coyote Smith back to the program for a wide-ranging discussion that covers the Grissom Space Seminar, the Space Force's 5th anniversary, great power competition in space, and the evolving nature of space warfare. Toward the end of our 65-minute conversation, Coyote also provided an update on space-based solar power. We had multiple listener calls and emails offering thoughtful questions and comments. In our discussion of the Space Force, Coyote offered a quick analysis of the pros and cons of remaining part of the Air Force versus becoming a stand-alone service. Related subtopics included space rescue operations, weapons in space, EMP threats, and the vulnerability of large satellite constellations. We also touched on Artemis, the return to the Moon, and broader plans for the future of space development. You can find more information at www.thespaceshow.com for the episode dated Tuesday, May 20, 2025.

We welcomed Dan Adamo back to the program to discuss his work recently presented to AIAA pertaining to human spaceflight travel between Earth-Mars waypoints. Dan's PDF is on our blog for this specific page. We started by addressing each slide so you need to open the PDF and follow along. For Part 2 in a week, the PDF is must to understand our discussion. In this segment, Dan defined many of the terms & concepts used in his presentation regarding "Interplanetary Synodic-Rosonat Waypoints." Additionally, Dan used the U.S. mature airline industry for potential comparison points for they to be defined potential interplanetary travel system. Dan did disclose that his work was very speculative so keep that in mind during the discussion, especially when we talked timeline and travel times from Earth to Mars. The Moon, lunar habs, development & such were part of our discussion but the focus was on the Synodic-Resonant Waypoints. Dan received multiple email questions along with several calls from listeners. While our program was technical, we were careful to get Dan to explain in "laymen" terms what he was talking about. He also invited more listener questions, especially from the archive listeners, even telling listeners how to direct email him. Many times over, Dan suggested this was a potential interplanetary roadmap plus he wanted it to be part of any future Earth-Mars mission planning. Dan was even asked about waypoints for Earth to Europa in the Jovian system. Don't miss what he said about travel to Europa. Please be sure to listen to Part 2 of this program, 25 May 2025 at noon PDT. Listen the same way you do to all Space Show programs. Thank you.

Dr. Bhavya Lal was our guest for this Friday Space Show program, mainly to discuss her very important Space Review article dated March 17, 2025 and titled "Is the Moon in America' future?" Note that early in the interview, Dr. Lal called our attention to other similarly important Space Review articles which you can easily find her name. I strongly suggest you review them. Not only did we talk about the Moon and why it should be in the U.S., in fact all humanity's future, we talked about Mars, potential NASA science and related budget cuts and more. Bhavya and I had a great but short discussion on just why space science and exploration is important for everyone as we each related personal stories of just how space science positively impacted our lives. Other topics include nuclear power and energy for space, fusion development, national security needs re the Moon and for space in general, and the importance of sooner than later time lines for Artemis and our return to the Moon. Our guest also stressed the need for strategic thinking in space planning, figuring out what should come next & developing alternate/backup plans. This hour plus interview is packed with important wisdom provided by Dr. Lal. We were most fortunate to have her as a guest. For all who hear this program, including policy folks, government mission think men and women, industry, advocates and the general public, really listen to what Dr. Lal shared with us. Thank you.

John and I welcomed Anatoly Zak of RussianSpaceWeb.com to discuss the recently disclosed Soviet era program to explore Venus, the Vener-72 mission. This mission made the current news given the failed Venus probe reentered Earth's atmosphere May 10, 2025 after orbiting Earth for more than 50 years. During this two segment program, Anatoly described the entire Soviet Venus exploration program along with the two probes making up the V-72 mission with one of them failing. This was an exciting and informative walk through both Soviet and planetary exploration history. Don't miss it. For more information about Anatoly and his Russian space news website, visit www.russianspaceweb.com.

Welcome to our ISDC 2025 preview program. Aggie Kobrin & Rod Pyle were with us to let you know what you will experience at this year's ISDC in Orlando. For more info, visit https://isdc.nss.org. Aggie and Rod took us through the list of very exciting speakers and program track participants that you will hear, including the likely next NASA Administrator, Jared Isaacman. Along with the conference schedule, you will have the opportunity to participate in special tours of KSC, the Cape and the great musuem that has one of the few remaining Saturn 5 rockets on full display. There will be a SpaceX band gig to die for, lots of networking opportunities, astronauts to meet plus many awards to those you have heard of but now get the opportunity to meet. If you are into wildlife, just drive around the Cape and see most of it. We fielded several questions about the conference, the schedule, logistics along with the Orlando area. Space Settlement has a great track as does Living in Space with Dr. Bell. AI is strongly represented at this event along with other important topics such as space health, New Space, and more. We talked about the great value of joining the National Space Society (NSS) with membership benefits include the great quarterly print magazine, Ad Astra. For more information on this event, contact our guests or DrSpace @ drspace@thespaceshow.com. Be sure to check our our new Substack page, doctorspace.substack.com.

We welcomed Dr. Jaimie Blok of Cal Tech and JPL to introduce us to and talk about the new SPHEREx space telescope now scanning all of the sky. This is a most interesting two segment discussion about SPHEREX, scan skies, what is being searched for and more. Please read the full summary when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Wednesday, May 7, 2025.

Dr Bae returned to the program to discuss his new book, "Photonic Laser Propulsion" plus he explained the technology, answered many listener questions plus we talked time lines, a general development plan, the Moon, Mars, beamed laser propulsion comparisons, chemical launch rockets, economics and our vision for humanity's future. Dr. Bae started out with a lengthy intro to the book and his photonic laser propulsion work, he used a quote about inspiration from Carl Sagan and much more. Later in the discussion, when he was asked for his plan to get his ideas and work to policy makers and those that develop tech, he thought that would be take up by maybe other governments, interested parties, private funders. He thought his work was complete as a scientist by developing the tech and putting it out there for all in his book. We talked about funding, specifically gov. vs private funding. Also mentioned was human spaceflight, tourism, and settlement. Don't miss how it tech might apply to each of these categories plus timelines for them. Read the full summary of this program when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Friday, May 9, 2025.

Jim Class, well known adventurer and Forbes writer joined us to talk about his adventures, even his almost space adventures. His bio mentions many of exploits but hearing him tell us about them is better than reading about them. For instance, his discussion of the U2 flight and what he had to do re the "space suit" required for U2 flights. He has videos and more on his Forbes website, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimclash. Read the full summary when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Tuesday, May 6, 2025.

Marc Feldman, co-author of the important new book, "Space Piracy: Preparing for a Criminal Crisis in Orbit," was our guest for this program. Marc did an excellent job talking about software and hardware risks from the ground and space. He talked about the power of cartels in commercial businesses and how they will evolve to space activities. He used many examples, answered listener email and phone questions plus he talked about the Space Force and why they as yet do not have these risks on their view screen. Don't miss the full summary of this program when it appears at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Sunday, May 4, 2025.

We welcomed both Marc Hon and Avi Shporer from MIT to discuss the lucky discovery of a planet that is rapidly disintegrating nd producing a comet-like tail. The team tells how they discovered this item by looking at images and data from the TESS satellite . During our discussion, we learned that there were other disintegrating planets but that they are rare. According to their data, in another million to two million years the planet will be gone. It is very close to its sun, very hot and 140 light years from Earth. Read the full program summary when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this dated, Wednesday, April 30, 2025.

We welcomed Dr. West to the program to discuss her paper which is on our blog, "Freedom In Outer Space Is At Risk." In addition, we talked about her additional work concerning weapons, nuclear and otherwise and how best to avoid space weaponization. Other topics included space debris, NGOs, China and Russian space goals, the Outer Space Treaty Article One and how best to assure freedom of space for all. We talked about what appears to be a growing contradiction including commercial space and military space. Our questions were by email but to the point. Please post comments, questions or your concerns on our blog for this show. Read the full summary of the program when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Friday, May 2, 2025.

John Hunt returned with news and timeline updates regarding the evolving UAP story. John talked about the different whistleblowers and what they had to say. Since none of them have any hard evidence, just their stories and observations, I kept asking John why we should believe what they had to say. John listed many good reasons why they might be credible. We also talked about government behavior which seems to yell out loudly that there is something to hide and coverup. Otherwise, why would secrecy and classification be such a big thing? Due to some early audio issues that were resolved during the broadcast, we did not have as much audience participation as expected but there were still some good listener questions and comments. John attempted to address my skepticism although I confess that while I know the information and the people mentioned by John, and I do want to believe, I am still a skeptic absent hard evidence. Please read the full summary when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Tuesday, April 29, 2025.

Welcome to our Open Lines discussion covering many topics Note my message for a Drupal 7 expert to assist in maintaining our website. If you are that person or know someone please refer them to me. We talked about the suggested NASA science cuts, the Roman telescope and the size of its mirror. Another topic was the Russian "nuclear" possible satellite that is reported tumbling and out of control. There was much speculation about the purpose of this satellite per the Reuters article. Michael Listner, Atty, called in to help clarify the satellite situation for us. Fremont John called about the space budget plus he uploaded several great documents to the blog for this program. John had additional topics for us that he mentioned. Artemis was a topic as was the FH plan suggested and promoted by Dr. Kothari on many programs and with other formats. We talked about China and their lunar plans plus the possibility we just move on to Mars leaving the Moon for China. Ft. Worth John brought us some of the SLS and Orion issues plus some of the FH constraints were it selected as the return to the Moon architecture. Please read the full summary of the program when it appears at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Sunday, April 27, 2025.

Ajay was back with us to discuss his approach to returning to the Moon using Falcon Heavy rather than the infrastructure planned for in Artemis. Our guest went through the economics supporting his plan but also the faster timeline which he said would assure us getting back on the Moon before China. In the second half of our program, our guest promoted the use of a Molten Salt Thorium reactor for our power, also in space. He pointed the progress being made on bring thorium power to market in both China and Russia. He talked extensively about the reserves of thorium for the US, China, etc. and the advantages in using Thorium Please read the full summary of the show at www.thespaceshow.com for this program on Wednesday, April 23, 2025.