Guest:  Dr. Robert (Bob) Zubrin; Topics:  Mars Society Conference Oct. 14,19, 2021, why space, why Mars, Mars exploration, space exploration and our culture, drivers for a Mars settlement and more.

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We welcomed Dr. Bob Zubrin back to the program for a 60 minute plus discussion regarding the upcoming Mars Society 2021 Conference which will be virtual from Oct. 14-21.  Bob made the important point that conference was free but if you wan to ask speakers and guests questions, you need to register (still free).  Please follow our discussion by visiting the conference website, at www.marssociety.org and clicking on the conference in the upper part of the home page. 

Regarding the conference, Bob went over the key speakers for each day of the conference which you can easily follow as the Convention Schedule page.  Note that there might be some late changes to the schedule.  Bob also said there were around 180 talks at the conference.  All will eventually be available on the Mars Society YouTube channel so if you miss the event you can see it all later, talk by talk. 

Bob highlighted several of the talks and speakers focusing on the Martian helicopter, virtual reality for Mars, a new online Mars settlement game being developed, and Starship plus Mr. Musk.  Throughout our discussion Bob referenced Starship often along with vision and Elon Musk. 

I believe you can pick up most of the conference information from listening to Bob with the conference website available at the same time on your computer.  Later in the show, nuclear power for Earth, the Martian surface, for propulsion and fusion were discussed.  In addition, Bob was asked to comment on some of the naysayer comments about humans in space, space tourism, the billionaires and such.  To respond, Bob said that the question of why humans in space and on Mars was answered in his latest book, "The Case For Space.#  He told us that about a third of the book zeroed in on the question of why space.

Bob's response to the nuclear inquiry and why space consumed the balance of our interview time.  By the way, Bob mentioned thorium and the molten salt reactor potential. There were several email questions on these topics plus Bob went back through history, including pre-WW2 and WW2 history to talk about why a culture needs to explore to push forward.  I personally believe Bob is one the best at making this case for space and Mars so I will just leave it for you to listen to what he had to say during this portion of the interview.  From my perspective, it is hard to say and explain the need for nuclear power, humans in space, space exploration and getting humans to Mars any better than the way Bob does it.

Jumping to the end of the program, our friend in Canada, Phil, sent in an email asking Bob about the driver for a Mars settlement as he saw no way for commerce or profit to be sufficient in supporting a Martian settlement effort. Bob's response was that an economic driver was not necessary.  Bob  supported the idea by saying people will go to kick it off because of its importance to humanity and making a profit will not be the motive for going.  Phil disagreed but it was a great discussion and Bob's commentary on this subject provided a terrific conclusion to our interview.

Please post your comments/questions on our blog for this show.  You can reach Dr. Zubrin through me or The Mars Society website.