Guest: Open Lines with David Livingston; Topics: March Storm, prizes, settlement, Space Show book, crowd funding, suborbital, UFOs, Falcon 9 reusability.  Please direct all comments and questions regarding specific Space Show programs & guest(s) to the Space Show blog which is part of archived program on our website, www.thespaceshow.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.  

Welcome to our Open Lines discussion.  During the first segment of our 2 hour 6 minute show, after the usual announcements, John from Freemont was our first caller to talk about his recent experience participating in March Storm. He said it was a very positive experience and being able to talk to our elected representatives or their key staff members was exciting and productive.  Some of the issues March Storm advocated for this year included amending NASA and the National Space Policy to make settlement a priority of our space policy.  Also to offer a prize for an ultra low cost space access development technology.  John talked about his training provided by the March Storm team, the Alliance For Space Development which worked with Congressman Dana Rohrabacher who on March 16 of this year introduced the bill "Space Exploration, Development, and Settlement Act of 2016."  You can find out more about this bill and how you can support it by visiting http://allianceforspacedevelopment.org/new-worlds-2015-october-16-and-17.

After John's call, I talked about a possible new crowd funding project I am considering.  The project  calls for me to write a book about the first 15 years of The Space Show as our 15th on air anniversary is just around the corner on May 22. I wanted to put my ideas out there to test the market, to get your feedback, ideas and suggestions.  I am serious about wanting your feedback and more so listen to what I put out there and comment on the blog or send me an email. 

Mike called from Phoenix to first say that he supported my book idea for The Space Show history.  He also talked about shows he liked the best including programs with Zimmerman, SpaceX, etc.  We also talked about show ratings, how many people listen to the show, and making changes to the new website to provide this information to me which I can then report on from time to time.  As you will hear, we are behind in a few items that were to be part of the development of the website, including what Mike was suggesting plus the Honor Roll and some repairs still needed.  These items are being delayed as Spencer is busy teaching his class in Asia and he has not had the time to finish them.  Rest assured we are on top of this but some of it, like fixing the errors on show times per different browsers (all the programming is there, it is just that the browsers report different times, mostly showing the program to be shorter in time than they are).  This error is on most older shows and it is due to how those shows were recorded, processed and uploaded to the old FTP site which was based on a very outdated Windows server.  We are now recording, editing, and processing shows differently so the newer shows do not reflect this problem.  The fix is to use a bulk program to re-record all the older shows over a period of several days, using the new format, and replacing the old programs on the FTP site with the newly processed programs.  Spencer needs to do this when he returns from Asia.  One interesting side discussion from Mike was about the medical treatment of burn victims in the burn unit.  How we got to this topic was just in passing but when Mike said they put the burn person in a chemically induced coma, sometimes for multiple months while repairing the skin, do surgery, I asked him for more details about that.  I thought it was an interesting side discussion on a topic I don't know much about and hope I never have to experience with myself, a friend, family member, loved ones, even my dog.  Imagine being put in a coma for 9 months and waking up without any knowledge of what went on in the world during those 9 months.  I wonder how the patient get's brought up to speed regarding the lost time.

In the second segment, we fielded listener emails.  Sondra from Philadelphia inquired about suborbital flight and realistic times.  I suggested she attend the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference coming up in Broomfield, CO from June 2-4, 2016.  You can find out more about the conference and suborbital spaceflight by visiting http://nsrc.swri.org.  If you attend this conference, call in on an Open Lines show and give us a detailed report.

John from Ft. Worth was the next caller which filled most of the rest of the time for the program.  John brought up the pledge that presidential candidate Hilary has made to get to the bottom of the UFO mystery.  Hilary made such a promise because her key campaign guy, John Podesta, convinced her to declassify UFO files (www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/john-podesta-hillary-clinton-ufos_us_56d730c9e4b03260bf78f129).  John from Ft. Worth and I are both UFO fans and we often exchange UFO related email and fun blurbs with one another but seldom do I talk about UFOs on the show.  This time I allowed the subject to be discussed because of the campaign promise made by Hilary and the extent of belief in UFOs as evidenced over past years by Mr. Podesta.  I still believe that the subject is so full of garbage that it would be hard to detect anything real from anything.  If the subject matter interests you, you will find John's comments interesting.  So what do you think?  Will Hillary get substantial votes because of her promise to declassify UFO information?  Are UFO voters a big part of the voting public and do we know anything about their party affiliation?

John also talked about my book idea, then we talked about suborbital space tourism and why it always seems to be two years away.  John talked about the reusable first stage of the Falcon 9 and what it might involve in terms of refurbishment and such.

Please post your comments/questions in the comments section for this archived program on The Space Show website.  You can reach any of the callers or emailers through me.