Guest:  Sarah Scoles;  Topics:  Commercial Human Space Flight concerns and issues per the WIRED article by our guest plus we discussed her new book, "They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers."

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We welcomed journalist and author Sarah Scoles back to the show to discuss her Wired Magazine article, "The WIRED guide to Commercial Human Space Flight," plus her new book, "They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers."  We started our one segment 95 minute program by talking about her article on human spaceflight which you can find, download and read the 2019 article here:  www.wired.com/story/wired-guide-commercial-space-flight.  We followed the human spaceflight discussion with Sarah talking with us about her new book and the UFO culture, not so much any particular UFO events though a few were mentioned.  Finally, at the end of the program I provided shout outs to our sponsors.  Be sure to listen through to the conclusion of our sponsor thank you messages.

Regarding her essay on commercial human spaceflight, Sarah brought up serious challenges including radiation, microgravity and many more that were perhaps a result of the two just mentioned challenges.  She address the ISS environment that was partially protected as compared to BLEO and deep space environmental concerns.  Also talked about was the issue of life support development by the leading commercial companies wanting to go to deep space.  As has been noted before on multiple Space Show programs, most of the talk regarding the commercial efforts focuses on engineering and hardware.  We hardly hear a word about life support, human factors issues and how they will be mitigated and more.  In addition, Sarah suggested that the psychological issues resulting from long space missions and Earth separation anxiety are hardly ever mentioned but that they were very real.  We talked about these issues as TSS has been bringing them up almost since our start 19 years ago. 

Space tourism was discussed with a focus on markets and demands.  One listener asked our guest if the presale of Virgin Galactic ride tickets confirmed the existence of a viable marketplace.  Don't miss how our guest responded to that question.  Mars came up and the Mars One project was discussed.  Sarah talked about the unique difference is humans for Mars as compared to LEO, BLEO and even the Moon. 

Our friend Marshall called to talk about the psychological issues and suggested Earth analogs like Devon Island and Utah were not really adequate simulation analogs. Both Sarah and I agreed with hum but listen to how Sarah explained it.  Sarah then brought up the topic of space anthropologists and their perspectives.  This was a most interesting and professional discussion so don't miss it. You might even want to post comments pertaining to it on our blog. 

Sarah's article mentioned the negative view as expressed by sci-fi author Gary Westfahl in his essay "The Case Against Space."  You can read his July 1997 essay here:  www.depauw.edu/sfs/essays/westfahl%20case.html.  Sarah and I discussed why we did not agree with Gary's message, the role of inspiration and value, STEM and much more that Gary seemed to ignore.  Please post comments about this essay and our discussion on our blog. 

For the remainder of or program, we talked about Sarah's new book, "They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers."  Sarah shared with us the purpose of the book plus she wanted it to be a study of the UFO culture, not an investigation of specific UFO events.  She conducted many interviews with various people representing different perspectives on the UFO culture.  She said there were lots of views on the subject from hardline believers to US government history buffs, to those focusing in on declassified documents for archives and those tracking down specific happenings or events.  Sarah said that according to polls, about 68% of the public think there is something to the UFO thing and that the government is hiding information.  Sarah further broke down interest groups into categories including spiritual, scientific, and  consciousness.  These grouping are discussed in her book.  In addition, our guest talked about seeing things that people can't explain though she thought their might be explanations for the events other than ET like explanations.  I then asked her about events such as Tic Tac.

Sarah covered Tic Tac in the book, did interviews on it and was up on the topic.  We talked about it at some length in the context of her book so don't miss all of what she had to say about it.  John Hunt called to talk about the viability of the ATIP congressional investigation and to offer an explanation as to why many believe it was really about DOD military issues, not UFOs or Tic Tac.  What do you think about John's commentary on ATIP?  John and Sarah had an interesting discussion on the topic.  R

Concerning Tic Tac, I commented how frustrating it has been for me that I cannot get one Tic Tac person to be a Space Show guest, even when I have had good introductions and contacts to people that could be a guest.  Sarah offered up that she had similar experiences in trying to get specific guests interviewed for her book.  She never heard from people she asked for interviews. We offered up some theories as to why we were not getting folks for interviews. Maybe some of you would like to comment on that so post away on our blog.  John Hunt then asked Sarah what the issues were that caused her to get no response for Tic Tac interviews.  Listen to what Sarah said and then how John seemed to accept the reason as understandable.  Your thoughts belong on the blog, please.

I asked Sarah why we say we see saucers for our UFOs. She talked about the early Washington State sighting by Kenneth Arnold for the history of the saucer sightings.  John Hunt, still on the phone, said there were now many different shapes of vehicle being sighted and he brought up the Navy videos for both the East Coast and the West Coast.  Sarah moved on to talk about Roswell, then Daren called to talk about lights in the night sky objects.  I mentioned the Phoenix Lights incident.  Sarah was then asked for her thoughts on the current History Channel Project Blue Book TV show.  Both Sarah and I commented on it and the fictionalized story lined used by the History Channel to reference real Project Blue Book stores.  John Hunt sent us a short email saying that the History Channel had taken many liberties with Blue Book reports to produce the current TV show which was for the most just entertainment.

Sarah offered u closing comments plus she talked about her upcoming book tour schedule which she hopes to be able to put on her website, www.sarahscoles.com.  Sarah also told us how we could get an autographed copy of her book.

Please post your comments/questions on our blog for this show.  You can reach Sarah through me or her website.