The Space Show

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Add this to another station	Max Vozoff, Friday, 3-4-11 (43.64MB; download) -- Guest: Max Vozoff. Topics: SpaceX, launch industry, human spaceflight safety, space policy, space budgets, commercial space. Please note that you are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. We welcomed Max Vozoff back to the program. Max now has his on space consulting company, MV2Space which he discussed in detail throughout our program. We started off by acknowledging his five years with SpaceX followed by why he decided to strike out on his own and what he hopes to accomplish in the space industry and with his own company. During our first segment, it was not surprising that Max received lots of questions about SpaceX, Falcon 9, Falcon 9 Heavy, Dragon and more. In discussing the Falcon 9 and launch pricing, especially in light of news that EELV pricing is going up, Max talked about the need to have as a primary objective reliability and then a disruptive price. Here he talked about the classic launch and pricing infrastructure and what draws management in so don't miss this important discussion. Later in the first segment, the commercial suborbital industry came up for discussion so don't miss what Max had to say about this developing industry. In the second segment, Max talked about CCDEV, Dragon and DragonLab. He told us about a program to use Dragon for STEM education from all 50 states for K-12 education on a yearly basis. Several listeners asked more questions about DragonLab. Near the end of this segment, I asked Max about SRBs for human spaceflight as compared to liquid rocket motors. We had a good discussion on this and Max had much to say so again, don't miss this discussion. Toward the end of the segment, we talked about the Falcon 9 Heavy and firing 27 engines together. We kicked off the third segment talking about a partnership including Max Vozoff, FIRESTAR Technologies, Inc. and others, Innovative Space Propulsion Systems (www.ispsllc.com). This company hope to be able to replace hydrazine as a fuel with a new monopropulsion fuel, NOFBX. Near the end of the program, a listener asked Max about job applications at SpaceX and how challenging it was to be hired by the company. Mad had much to say about the process and who gets employed so again, don't miss what our guest had to say about this matter. As the program neared the end, we talked about reusability and flight test programs for the Dragon/Falcon 9 system. If you have a comment or question for Max Vozoff, please post it on the blog URL above. You can also email Max Vozoff using mvozoff@mv2space.com. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Sat, 05 Mar 2011 08:54:33 PST
Add this to another station	Dr. Joshua Colwell, Dr. Dan Durda, Wednesday, 3-2-11 (34.73MB; download) -- Guests: Dr. Joshua Colwell, Dr. Dan Durda. Topics: 2011 Next Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, suborbital spaceflight. Please note that you are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. We welcomed our two guests, Dr. Joshua Colwell and Dr. Dan Durda as we began and third and final program in this series from the 2011 Next Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference on the campus of the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando. We started this first segment with each guest providing us with his overview perspective of the conference. Both guests said the conference was cross cutting and interdisciplinary, covering many different fields of space science and development. Our guests provided us with a comparison between the first conference of this kind held last year and this one, then with a look forward to expectations for the industry by the time of the third conference to be held around this time in 2012. I’m sure you will find the year by year comparisons to be impressive. During this segment, I asked our guests a question I have been getting many times over since this series started. The question focused on what can actually be done in 3-4 minutes of microgravity and is suborbital space even relevant given orbital space. You do not want to miss how both guests responded to this line of questioning. I believe they gave the best answer yet to this genre of questioning and concerns for suborbital research flights. As the first segment was drawing to a close, a listener asked about any noticeable difference between the international and the domestic suborbital research groups and the same for international as compared to domestic student programs. Both guests said they could not discern any differences based on location or nationality. As the segment was ending, I asked Dr. Durda to tell us about the actual experiment he was going to fly as a payload specialist. Dan described the three initial experiments, his training, and some characteristics of his proposed flight/mission/experiment. Starting off in the second segment, our lead question dealt with commercial markets for suborbital research as compared to government, academic, and student markets. Also in this segment, we talked about suboribtal and its impact on students as a motivating tool. Our guests had much to say about this so don’t miss this discussion. Dr. Lurio called in to inquire about CRuSR. Later, Laura Seward, a grad student in the program at UCF with Dr. Colwell called in to talk about the marketing session at the conference and to tell us the extent of interest in commercial markets, particularly material sciences by the Japanese. I took the opportunity to ask her some questions about her interest in pursuing space and science studies and the UCF program., as well as the impact on her studies of the suborbital program. We ended the program with our guests providing us with their takeaways from the conference and pearls of wisdom. Summed up, they said from last year to next year, it was concept to reality to flights, lessons learned, and information gained. Please post your comments or questions on the blog URL above. You can email either guest by going through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Thu, 03 Mar 2011 08:52:36 PST
Add this to another station	Bretton Alexander, Tuesday, 3-1-11 (29.10MB; download) -- Guest: Bretton Alexander. Topics: Commercial Spaceflight Federation, commercial space, suborbital research flights. Please note that you are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. You can find out more about the Commercial Spaceflight Federation by visiting www.commercialspaceflight.org. For this program, our guests and agenda changed as George Whitesides was unable to join us due to a delayed flight arrival time and Mr. Alexander had attended a CCDEV2 set of meetings that took him away from the Orlando suborbital researchers conference. Despite the changes, Mr. Alexander was a very welcome guest as I have been wanting to feature the Commercial Spaceflight Federation on The Space Show for more than a year. We started off with Brett telling us about the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, its membership, its purpose and goals. We talked about the realities of going up on the Hill and lobbying/influencing congress to support commercial space development and public-private partnerships with NASA for the commercial space industry, specifically for human spaceflight. Brett had much to say about the budget issues, the congressional focus on cost cutting and NASA FY 11 and FY 12 budget proposals. We also talked about the capabilities of the commercial sector to provide LEO and ISS transportation and that it would be the most cost effective way to develop this transportation system moving forward. Later in our first segment, I asked Brett about his experience in space policy working for both the Clinton and Bush White House so don't miss what he had to say. As one of the authors of the Vision for Space Exploration, he did say he was sorry to see that it did not work out but as you will hear, for budgetary and other reasons, changes had to be made. We talked about using the NASA FY 2010 $18.7 billion budget as the flat budget for five years but of course that has not yet been finalized. At the end of the first segment, we talked about the Open Letter to Congress regarding commercial crew development. You can read the letter at www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1509. In our second segment, Brett went into more detail about commercial crew development (CCDEV), its funding and the second part of the program known as CCDEV2. Later in the segment, I asked what key events we should be on the watch for and he suggested the CCDEV 2 selection later this month, more Falcon 9 and Dragon launches plus the planned Orbital launches for later this year. He also said to watch Virgin Galactic for the engine tests and of course to see how the legislation and the budget unfolds, both for FY 11 and FY 12. If you have questions or comments for Brett Alexander, please post them on the blog URL above. You can also email them to me at drspace@thespaceshow.com. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Wed, 02 Mar 2011 12:20:19 PST
Add this to another station	Dr. Alan Stern, David McBride, Monday, 2-28-11 (28.62MB; download) -- Guests: Dr. Alan Stern, David McBride. Topics: 2011 Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, emerging suborbital industry. Please note that you are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. We welcomed both Dr. Alan Stern and David McBride to the program to discuss the first day of the Next-Gen Suborbital conference, the announcements pertaining to the contracts with the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) to fly eight missions with payload specialists on both XCOR and Virgin Galactic flights. You can learn more about this conference and see its agenda by visiting www.swri.org/9what/events/confer/nsrc/2011/program.htm. You can read the SwRI press release on the flights at www.swri.org/9what/releases/2011/pioneer.htm. During our hour long discussion with both guests, we talked about the conference, those attending, the program and some of the keynote talks as well as the identification of the Payload Specialists that have been named to fly three of the upcoming suborbital missions. We talked with Mr. McBride about the CRuSR program which is now based at Dryden and the funding for the program for both FY 11 and FY 12. In addition, the first suborbital research missions were described in some detail. A question was asked about what was meant by heavy lift, a discussion topic on the conference agenda. We also talked about X-15 as a suborbital research platform given the interest of Dryden which is at Edwards Air Force Base. A listener asked Dr. Stern about the disclosure and disclaimer requirements for the payload specialists as well as the medical standards and wondered if the payload specialist was treated the same as the spaceflight participant (tourist). Another listener asked Mr. McBride about the suborbital vehicle flight control systems given his experience in the field. David then told us about his Virgin Galactic flight simulator experience. Other listener questions wanted to know if around four minutes of microgravity would be sufficient to get useful information. Listen to what our guests said, as well as the training program they are going to be using to be able to maximize their microgravity time and focus to accomplish the research mission. Other questions were asked about NASA overall support for the suborbital industry as well as the research projects. Additional topics included the networking opportunities at the conference, possible suborbital flights from Florida rather than just Mojave and Spaceport America. At the end of our hour, I asked each guest for their takeaways for this discussion. Dr. Stern said there were three, highlighting the growing interest in the industry, the change within NASA to accept suborbital research flights and opportunities, and that the flights are becoming far more real today than they were even a year or two ago. Mr. McBride suggested the increased interest in the industry with NASA HQ along with the push to see an educational outreach objective with the flight. Post your comments and questions on The Space Show blog above. You can send emails to either guest through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Tue, 01 Mar 2011 10:06:34 PST
Add this to another station	Robert (Rob) Godwin, Sunday, 2-27-11 (46.92MB; download) -- Guest: Robert (Rob) Godwin. Topics: George Griffith, science fiction overview, science fiction authors and stories. Please note that you are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. We welcomed back Rob Godwin to talk about two recently published George Griffith science fiction books, "Around The World In 65 Days: The Journal of the Real Phileas Fogg" and "The World Peril of 1910." Both of these books are available on the OGLF Amazon partners page and if you buy them using the following URLs, Amazon will make a contribution to The Space Show/OGLF. Please use www.amazon.com/dp/1897350279?tag=onegialeafou-20 and www.amazon.com/World-Peril-1910-Ron-Miller/dp/B004J10EXO/ref=onegialeafou-20. We started our discussion with Rob by getting background information and an overview of George Griffith who from 1893 to 1895 was the most famous science fiction writer in England. Later on, he drifted into obscurity. Rob talked extensively about both books plus others written by Griffith and we made comparisons with other science fiction writers of the time and even today. Much of the comparison was with H.G. Wells but as you will hear throughout our show, Rob really knows the history and authors of science fiction literature and he took us through a rather complete mini science fiction history. Later in the segment, we talked about steampunk and George Griffith being a sort of Spiritual Ancestor to the steampunk movement. At the end of this segment, Rob talked about tracking down Griffith's family members and the role of Alan Arnold Griffith with the jet engine. Don't miss this very interesting history. In the second segment, John from Atlanta called in and wanted to know about science fiction and space propulsion technology and faster than light travel. Rob introduced us to E.E. "Doc" Smith and his work and stories. We also talked about touring the solar system with science fiction, deep solar system travel and making a social statement using science fiction as did Wells. Richard Godwin asked a question about contemporary parallels to Griffith and Wells being Steven Spielberg who appears to be an anti technologist and Gene Roddenberry who thought that technology would solve our human social problems. This prompted quite a discussion that you will want to hear. Near the end of this segment, I asked our gust about modern day science fiction authors. In our final segment, Don Beattie phoned in to talk about using science fiction to improve STEM education in our school system. Rob had much to say on this subject given his efforts to get science fiction works into various schools and districts. At the end of the program, we talked about science fiction and especially George Griffith as a predictor of capabilities yet to come or be realized. If you have questions or comments for Rob Godwin, post them on the blog URL above. You can also send them by email to me at drspace@thespaceshow.com and I will forward them to him. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Mon, 28 Feb 2011 08:47:17 PST
Add this to another station	Dr. Robert L. Hirsch, Friday, 2-25-11 (43.94MB; download) -- Guest: Dr. Robert Hirsch. Topics: The world energy mess and its relationship to economic & space development & what we can do about it. Please note that you are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. You can also visit the Apogee website for this book, "The Impending World Energy Mess: What It Is And What It Means To You!" at www.apogeeprime.com/prime/bookpages/9781926837116.html. The book is available on the OGLF Amazon Partner's website and if you buy it using this URL, Amazon will make a contribution to The Space Show/OGLF: www.amazon.com/dp/1926837118?tag=onegialeafou-20. Despite the very tough message in this book and our hard hitting discussion on this program, I consider this book and our discussion to be one of the most important books and Space Show programs ever. Without affordable and abundant energy, we will suffer the loss of much of our economy and maybe even our way of life. Space development may some day seem unimportant even to large parts of our own community. I decided to skip the usual segment by segment breakdown for this review. Dr. Hirsch began the interview with an overview of the geological issues regarding the main fossil fuels we use for energy. We talked facts about renewables and green technologies, keeping these options in perspective given our needs are now and in the immediate near term. I believe its worth noting the concluding remarks in the book's Foreword by Dr. James Schlesinger: "Readers of this book may question individual calculations by the authors, but they need to absorb the overall message of the analysis regarding the inability in the decades immediately ahead to increase production of liquid fuels, as demand rises." During our discussion, Dr. Hirsch was clear talking about the difference in liquid fuels and our electricity problems. We also talked about the energy future for the U.S. as compared to Canada, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Europe, and China. Electric cars, wind power, solar power (both terrestrial and space derived) were discussed and Dr. Hirsch said many time over that we need to bring to bear all the tools that we can, but for the near term and now, we are between a rock and a hard place. He told us that alternative fuels, green options, renewables cannot provide us with liquid fuels for transportation and cannot make a sufficient dent in our needs now or for the near term. As you will hear, the authors even have a chapter in the book on what individuals can do to protect themselves as much as possible from these problems and even realize opportunities from the predicament we are in. Much was said about the political agenda of politicians and others which complicate the matter and exacerbate the problems we face. Listeners asked lots of questions about alternatives, finding new oil fields, nuclear power, fusion energy, space solar power, global warming, and doing more drilling in the United States. We talked about the impact of the world energy mess on investment, capital acquisition, discretionary spending, and government policy in how it spends and allocates money. Dr. Hirsch said it was not that clear how this would play out in the private sector with the wealthy using space as the model. This was a comprehensive discussion on our energy needs for the future. Several times during the program we extrapolated to space development issues but the concerns are far broader than just space. At one point when pushed for a time line, Dr. Hirsch suggested 3-5 years until the oil started declining but the current Middle East problems have the potential to speed that up. Please post your comments and questions for Dr. Robert Hirsch on the blog URL above. You can also email them to me and I will forward them to our guest. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:12:01 PST
Add this to another station	Dr. John Brandenburg, Tuesday, 2-22-11 (52.84MB; download) -- Guest: Dr. John Brandenburg. Topics: "Life And Death On Mar" and the evidence for a one time large nuclear reactor process on Mars around 200 million years ago. Please note that you are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Dr. Brandenburg's book, "Life And Death On Mars: The New Mars Synthesis" can be purchased from the OGLF Amazon partners page and then Amazon contributes to The Space Show/OGLF. Please use http://www.amazon.com/dp/1935487361?tag=onegialeafou-20. During our first segment, Dr. Brandenburg put forth his theory and talked about components in the Martian atmosphere that supported a long ago nuclear catastrophe on Mars. We specifically talked about Xenon 129 and 132 but he also talked about other elements supporting the theory of a long ago nuclear explosion. While our guest discussed nuclear fusion and fission physics, this is a very important segment for our discussion so do stay with the discussion though for many of us, myself included, it was challenging given the lack of background in the subject. One of the major issues facing his theory which he repeated throughout the discussion was the absence of a large crater on Mars which would have resulted from a catastrophic Martian nuclear explosion. At the end of the first segment, Charles called in to discuss parallels with Uranium, specifically U235 when both Earth and Mars were formed. In the second segment, Charles called in to further discuss the natural fission deposits found in Africa which seem to have been deposited slowly over time. Charles was asking if the same thing could have happened on Mars, thus there would be an absence of a large crater. Charles and John had quite a lively discussion on this and related issues. The subject of Thorium in India came up and then Dr. Brandenburg talked about some of the Voyager findings and mentioned presenting his theories to the Pentagon's Mars Desk. Thorium reactors were discussed later in this segment when Tim called in from Huntsville. Later in this segment, I asked Dr. Brandenburg to tell us why those of us interested in Mars and even wanting to go Mars should care about this theory. You don't want to miss was Dr. Brandenburg had to say about living in a living universe and the need to become space fairing. He also talked about science being conservative and Martian science being even more conservative. John from Atlanta called in and talked more about controlled fusion and the subject of hybrid reactors came up, that is, putting a uranium blanket around a Tokamak which Dr. Brandenburg said would facilitate reaching breakeven very quickly. Don't miss what Dr. Brandenburg had to say on the subject of fusion energy, especially using hybrid reactors. A listener asked him about his science fiction novels which he publishes using the name Victor Norgard. We then talked about his upcoming poster presentation at the upcoming 42nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, "Evidence For A Large, Paleo-Nuclear Reactors On Mars." Near the end of our discussion, our guest talked about space being a long term technology investment. As our discussion was drawing to an end, he took a listener question regarding the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos. Dr. Brandenburg had much to say about the Moons, especially Phobos being the ideal place for the first Earth base to study and explore Mars. His pearls of wisdom stated that Mars lived as Earth lived and in many ways, may be pointing the way to us. If you have comments or questions for Dr. Brandenburg, post them on the blog URL above. You can also email them to me at drspace@thespaceshow.com and I will forward them to our guest. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Wed, 23 Feb 2011 08:11:59 PST
Add this to another station	Dr. Eligar Sadeh, Monday, 2-21-11 (43.55MB; download) -- Guest: Dr. Eligar Sadeh. Topics: Towards a National Space Policy, commercial launch, NewSpace and space industry stakeholders. Please note that you are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Visit our guest's website, Astroconsulting International at www.astroconsultinginternational.com. In our first segment, Dr. Sadeh brought up the National Space Strategy Study and said we as a nation really only have a policy for the security space community though there are other components comprising the full space industry community. Many times throughout the show our guest referred to the recently released National Security Space Strategy document. We talked about the fact that not all space industry stakeholders have had a voice in the policy creating effort. We talked about the National Space Strategy Project for example and here he mentioned that while there were commercial space stakeholders participating in the program, NewSpace was not there. Later in the segment, the subject was the Europeans taking the lead with their Draft Code of Conduct for Outer Space Behavior and the fact that some guidelines are needed and now there are no guidelines. I translated guidelines into rules of the road. Dr. Sadeh talked about the need for space governance and what that might look like if in place. We talked about many in the private sector segment and NewSpace not wanting regulation or intrusive rules of the road and that to many, this constitutes a political risk to the development of the emerging commercial space industry. In our second segment, Dr. Sadeh then brought up the subject of low cost space access. He said this was not specifically a goal of most of the commercial space industry and that the actual launch price was only a small part of the overall space access cost, including space operations, and that commercial companies sought out other factors that were more important to them than just the launch cost. Don't miss this discussion. He did mention that two stakeholders, Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) and NewSpace did have low launch costs as a primary goal and he stated that these industry segments needed to be at the policy developing table. Eligar talked about the impact of space tourism in this segment and we discussed the perspective of DOD with unfettered civilian space access. Eligar did a good job in outlining the DOD perspective followed by his own perspective. You might be surprised by what he had to say. In our third segment, a listener asked him to connect the dots to troubles in the Middle East and increasing oil prices to space policy. In his response, he talked quite a bit about national security space but he did say that he doubted an added emphasis on national security space would crowd out the commercial space interests. He then outlined the commercial space segment within DOD space. We also talked about the possibility of creating a new cabinet level organization for space development. Later, a listener asked what he would say were he a keynote speaker at a NewSpace Conference given their dislike for regulation. He said that he would point out that regulations are going to happen, he pointed to AST for being able to create constructive and industry friendly regulations and he suggested that NewSpace and other stakeholders come to the table and play a role, exerting their leadership in policy making. He talked about Newspace needing to be proactive and to be a leader, not to be passive. If you want to offer a comment or ask Dr. Sadeh a question, please post it on the blog URL above. You can also send it to Dr. Sadeh by email either through the Contact page on his website or by using esadeh@gmail.com. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Tue, 22 Feb 2011 08:44:26 PST
Add this to another station	Robert A. Adamcik, Sunday, 2-20-11 (43.46MB; download) -- Guest: Robert (Bob)A. Adamcik. Topics: Space Shuttle Discovery and the space shuttle in general. Please note that you are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. We welcomed Robert (Bob) Adamcik to the show, author of the new Apogee release, "Voyages of Discovery: The Missions of the Space Shuttle Discovery. This book is available on the OGLF Amazon partners page and if you buy it there, Amazon contributes to The Space Show/OGLF. Please use www.amazon.com/dp/1926837134?tag=onegialeafou-20. In our first segment, our guest was asked why he focused on the Discovery shuttle. As you will hear, Arthur C. Clark had a lot to do with his focus on Discovery along with other reasons he discloses during our interview. I asked him about his biggest surprise he came upon while researching his book and it had to do with STS 131. Don't miss what he had to say about this mission. Charles called in to ask about the new genre of spacecraft being built, capsules, rather than winged vehicles. Our guest reminded Charles about Dream Chaser which is a winged vehicle. Toward the end of the first segment, listeners pointed out that Discovery had only flown (including the last mission scheduled for later this week) 39 missions yet it and all shuttles were rated for 100 missions. The listeners wanted to know if Discovery could fly 100 or more total missions. You might be surprised by the Bob's answer to this set of questions. In the second segment, we asked Bob for a list of his top three favorite missions. STS-120 was at the top of the list, followed by STS-51A, and then STS-63. You will want to hear what he had to say about each mission and why it made his favorites list. Our guest was also asked why Discovery was the return to flight shuttle after both the Challenger and Columbia accidents. Later in this segment, we focused on the payload capacity going to and back from the ISS and what it will be like in the future given the absence of this capacity/capability. Bob had much to say on this subject. As we started the last segment, we talked about the John Glenn flight, STS-95, Oct. 29, 1998. Our guest, having his roots in Ohio, then told us about the Buckeye mission, STS-70 in that the entire crew was from Ohio and what had to happen to make sure everyone was from Ohio. Later, we talked about Bob's research efforts including NASA, Rockwell, and Boeing. As you will hear, NASA had lots of information available but much of what both Rockwell and Boeing had was discarded! Later we talked about heavy lift and if we needed it. Our guest said absolutely. Don't miss his comments on this. He also said Hubble was perhaps the most significant of the Discovery missions. Near the end of the interview, he was asked about the issue of using solid rocket boosters (SRBs) for the shuttle and human spaceflight. Don't miss his response to this question. If you have questions or comments for Robert Adamcik, please post them on the blog URL above. You can also email Bob at robert.a.adamcik@gmail.com. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Mon, 21 Feb 2011 09:32:41 PST
Add this to another station	Marcia Smith, Friday, 2-18-11 (44.57MB; download) -- Guest: Marcia Smith. Topics: Mostly the FY 2011 and FY 2012 NASA budget, commercial space, and the federal budget process. Please note that you are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Please visit SpacePolicyOnline at www.spacepolicyonline.com for more information and to read Marcia's timely and important news articles regarding NASA, all of space, and much more. While our program unfolded in three segments, our discussion topics all focused on the FY2011 budget yet to be finalized and the newly announced FY 2012 budget, particularly the NASA portion of the budget. Ms. Smith updated us as to the status of FY2011 which has not been finalized and we learned the process it still must go through to become the nation's 2011 fiscal budget. We both talked about FY 11 in general and specifically the NASA part of the budget. At the same time, we discussed the newly proposed FY 2012 budget, including the NASA portion of it, and the fact that discussions and debate on the new budget must commence and move forward even without a resolution to what the FY 11 budget will be. Confused? Well, if you are, Marcia Smith will clear up all of your confusion in this 90 minute discussion. We did break down the components of the FY 12 NASA budget and compared them to the 2010 budget, the NASA Authorizations for FY 11 and FY 12, and we discussed the likely impact of budget cuts. As you will hear, areas of risk were pointed out and highlighted. You will hear both listeners and me refer to various tables on Marcia's website. To access this information, visit http://spacepolicyonline.com/pages/images/stories/NASAs_FY2012_Budget_Request.pdf. In talking about budget cuts, both Marcia and I made the point that non-national security and defense discretionary funding, even if cut by 100%, would not make much of an impact on the overall crisis we face re the deficit and debt that is mounting up. For spending reductions to focus only on the discretionary items, it seems almost futile as the bulk of our national spending is in the entitlements part of the federal budget. We talked throughout the interview about commercial space, human spaceflight, space exploration, and science missions. We also talked about competing interests in congress and the need for the space enthusiast/advocacy community to speak with a united voice to be more effective. Other issues that were addressed included international cooperation, foreign competition, and the restrictive language to be debated in the House CR bill forbidding NASA to work with the Chinese. Listeners had several questions regarding the possibility of shutting down the government due to both sides being unable to reach a compromise on the budget. Marcia made a very strong case for evaluating the public benefit of gov. programs so that quality programs, including NASA, are not cut with regard to merit. One of her suggestions as we neared the end of the program for the 11th hour situation we now find ourselves in regarding FY 11 and probably FY 12 was to use the FY 10 budget across the board. We took several questions about the budget and the ISS as well as continuing some aspects of Constellation, specifically the new heavy lift vehicle. The issue of NASA as a jobs program came up and you do not want to miss this part of the discussion. As you will hear, we must decide as a nation how important it is to move to a technically literate workforce that can also inspire the youth and students of the nation to move us forward. If you have questions or comments for Marcia Smith, please post them on the blog URL above and you can also email them to Ms. Smith at the email address info@spacepolicyonline.com. Selected by: David Livingston [ stations ], Sat, 19 Feb 2011 11:00:52 PST
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