Guest: Russell Cox. Topics: The Lunar Initiatives Workshops. See www.lunarinitiatives.com. Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. In addition, please remember that your Amazon purchases can help support The Space Show/OGLF. See www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm. For those listening to archives using live365.com and rating the programs, please email me as to why you assign a specific rating to the show. This will help me bring better programming to the audience. We welcomed Russell Cox to the program for our 92 minute discussion of the Lunar Initiatives workshops. Follow us at www.lunarinitiatives.com. Russell began the discussion by providing us with the background that led him to create the Lunar Initiatives workshop series. The start goes back to 2009 with the lunar missions that showed there was water ice at the poles. He said this changed the Moon and science for all time and opened up an entirely new realm of lunar possibilities and opportunities. He spent some time discussing the key lunar missions & their significance. Next, we turned our attention to the Lunar Workshops, Lunar Art, and the Lunar Challenges. All are described on his website so check them out. Regarding the workshops, he has a LunarCubes workshop, the Lunar Surface Applications workshop, the Lunar Scientific Opportunities in Cislunar Space (SOCS) workshop, and the Lunar Conference. Read about all of these events on his website but for our discussion, we mostly talked about LunarCubes and cubesats, Cislunar space, and near the end of the show, LunarArt. In addition to discussing The Lunar Initiatives events, Russell talked about returning to the Moon, lunar hackathons, prizes and contests, entrepreneurial efforts to go to the Moon, the Google Lunar XPRIZE, cubesats, the Do It Yourself (DIY) emerging markets, and more. Listeners asked him questions about lunar exploration, the technology readiness level of the entrepreneurs wanting to develop a business for going to the Moon, lunar settlement, lunar habitats, and using the Moon as a stepping stone for other solar system destinations. Don't miss his response to these questions. In the second segment, Russell spent more time on human lunar exploration and settlement and the need to push the technology today to do what we can today rather than waiting to be able to do more in future years. He said the road to the Moon is open! Russell described several existing opportunities including one by Space Systems Loral that you will find interesting. A listener asked him if we needed to focus on developing cislunar transportation, then our conversation switched to Lunar Art and their programs and contests in this area. He said poetry and short stories were included in this category and the contest. Late in the segment, Tim called in to raise questions about settlement given the possibility of gamma ray bursts plus comments from Dr. John Lewis regarding the Moon. Before the show ended, our guest addressed a few more listener emails, then spoke more about the LunarCubes program and website, www.lunarcubes.com. Please post your comments/questions on TSS blog above. You can reach Russell through his website or me.