Guest;  Dan Linehan; Topics: Dan's new book. "The Princess of the Bottom of the World"  with the Multimedia Traveling Companion, his Antarctica expedition climate change and science, penguins and much more.

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Dan returned to The Space Show to share with us his new book, "The Princess of the Bottom of the World" and much more, including the book's Multimedia Traveling Companion.  Our discussion covered two segments and 92 minutes, Note that the book is available in most stores and online outlets but not Amazon.  He said the best place with the best price was Smashwords (www.smashwords.com/books/view/988659?ref=DSLinehan). See the seven episodes at the bottom of the Smashwords website page.   

Dan told us about Antarctica and his expedition there from 2006-2007.  We talked about penguins, climate science, math, space, astronomical work, solar system science, Mars, plus night sky viewing in the Southern Hemisphere.   Whales too were part of the discussion as was select additional wildlife.  In addition, his book was a romance story about his falling in love with his princess on his expedition.  While a good part of the discussion may have sounded like a travel show about Antarctica and the region, listen to how skillfully Dan connected his work, observations, penguins, the night sky, crossing the Drake Passage, emergency orange lifeboats with cubesats, science, and space.  In fact, for most everything talked about, even icebergs, Dan cast a big picture to expand our view and always to include the influence of space, science and environmental/climate awareness.  I must admit, I was easily taken in by Dan's storytelling skills, the subject, and my wanting to know more about this part of our home planet.  Later when Dan talked about seeing Mars when it was close to Earth and astronomy plus telescopes in Antarctica and the neighboring islands and towns at the end of South America, he made it easy for me to relive my seeing Mars close up at the same time with my two sons at a telescope party in San Rafael, CA.  Unfortunately, our viewing was encumbered by Bay Area light pollution. Dan, as you will hear, had no such problems to deal with when he saw Mars from his home in the Monterrey Bay area south of San Francisco. 

Learning about McNaught Comet, the night sky over Antarctica, some of the constellations visible in both hemispheres plus the Southern Cross was most interesting. So were his stories about the Drake Passage and icebergs at the end of our show.  Once again, listen and note how he ties in science, his environmental concerns and climate issues plus how he sees connections to space. Dan provided us with a unique perspective so please post comments about this on our blog for this program.

Dan took us through the seven episodes for the book and explained why he used episodes, not chapters.  He talked at length about the media aspects of his story and the book, plus how one can participate with the Multimedia Traveling Companion even if one does not  buy the book. 

Marshall was our first caller. He wanted to talk about writing a book. This resulted in an interesting discussion between the two.  Several email questions and comments were then received during the balance of our program.  Paul wanted to know if Dan had searched for and found any Martian meteorites.  Joy from St. Louis asked the question about the behavior of a magnetic compass at the south pole.  I asked Dan about his sexy poem to his princess titled "Constellations."  In response, Dan talked about having included some poetry in the story and the significance of his doing that to tell his story.  I asked Dan for his favorite story from his expedition experience.  He proceeded to tell us a great penguin story regarding their behavior in building with rocks.  Don't miss it.  Tim sent in a note about Flatlands which was discussed earlier in the program.  Then Dan was asked what he would do differently if he went back to Antarctica.  Other email questions before the program ended asked about natural wild animal predators in the area plus we had a fascinating discussion about radar, cubesat and GPS tracking of lost lifeboats, and icebergs, including hitting them and even sinking boats in the Drake Passage.  Once again Dan mentioned the inspiration for his work from the Cosmos TV series, both the original series and the new one from just a few years ago. 

Before ending, Dan discussed the role of science fiction, talking about the importance of it in telling stories rooted in science and helping to educate readers about climate and environmental issues.  Before we ended the discussion, I asked Dan how he was getting the word out for his science and environmental message, including the importance of space.  Remember, aside from writing and telling a good story, romance included, Dan wanted to make a difference using science, climate and the environment.  For those of you who get the book and read it, please post your comments about it on our blog.  We would also like your feedback to our interview discussion so all of you do post on our blog.  We want to hear from you.

You can reach Dan Linehan through his website, https://www.dslinehan.com or through The Space Show.