Eric Westling is a science writer, pundit on science, technology, and economics. He is the co-author of "The Space Elevator” with Dr. Brad Edwards . In addition, Mr. Westling is retired and is a former Army officer and helicopter pilot, civilian Airline Transport Pilot (ATP), former consultant to many small companies regarding engineering, computer, and business troubleshooting. His most recent papers are on Solar Power Satellites, Economics of the Space Elevator, Energy and time lag in the 21st century , and Eric’s axioms (a list of principles of science, technology and economics). Mr. Westling stats that “Space Development is the only long term answer to the, just starting, energy shortage; which will otherwise continue until we have an economic collapse.” He believes that no-one is doing space development . Instead, we have space technology, not development. NASA has no TRL 10 – therefore no plans to develop space . He defines space development as the rapid expansion of manned commercial projects in space.

Broadcast 772 (Special Edition)

Dr. Bryan Laubscher and Eric Westling were the guests for this Space Show program. We began our discussion with a review of the rocket equation and both Eric and Bryan took us through the chemistry and physics of rockets, mass ratios, etc. With extensive questioning by listeners as well as myself, both guests explained why chemical rocket propulsion breakthroughs were unlikely. I urge listeners to pay attention to this discussion. If you disagree, send our guests a note and explain why they are not correct.

Broadcast 400 (Special Edition)

Eric Westling was the guest for this Space Show program. One field of expertise for Mr. Westling is the space elevator and we began the interview with a comprehensive discussion on the subject. This discussion took us into economics and from there to a discussion about our energy problems, how the space elevator might help resolve them, other possibilities including helium, hydrogen, SPS, etc. We discussed Eric's economic axioms and interested listeners can get a copy of them by sending an email to me.