Guest: Dr. Paul Spudis. Topics: Science, ARM, 2016 elections & space policy, return to the Moon and much more. 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 welcome back Dr. Paul Spudis for this 1 hour 52 minute discussion. Note that we lost our phone connection with Dr. Spudis several times in the second segment. I've removed the dead air and related time sequences but you will know when we lost the connection. Each time we got Dr. Spudis back on the line we then started where we were cut off. No discussion comments were lost. I apologize for the inconvenience. In Part One, I asked Dr. Spudis how he assessed a change in space policy that might include a return to the Moon as a result of the 2016 presidential elections. Its an interesting space policy and historical discussion you don't want to miss. I then directed our discussion to the article Dr. Spudis wrote on his blog, www.spudislunarresources.com/blog/overthrowing-science, "Overthrowing Science." I urge you to read this article as we spent the balance of the first segment discussing his observations and perspectives and the order of scientific development and progress. As we approached the end of the segment, I asked Paul how we could protect ourselves from the misleading and manipulative information often presented to us as science. He offered a few suggestions including the need to be skeptical & to do at least basic due diligence on the subject from a variety of sources. In the second segment, we turned our attention to an article, www.theverge.com/2015/1/19/7560263/nasa-asteroid-redirect-mission-politc..., "Is NASA's asteroid mission the agency's political downfall?" For about half of this segment, Paul went into detail on the ARM, why it was problematic at best, the constraints of such a mission, and more. For those interested in the ARM, this is an exceptionally detailed discussion so don't miss it. Listeners then wanted to return to classic Dr. Spudis so the lunar questions started coming in via email. Doug sent in a few emails asking about lunar volatiles, LCROSS, and the use of lunar solar panels for the energy of a lunar habitat. Paul said initially the power would be solar but it would have to evolve to nuclear fission reactors. BJohn wanted to know about the Lunar Resource Prospecting Rover plus he asked questions about lunar results from asteroid hits. Tim asked about a reusable lunar shuttle and Dr. Kiehl asked lunar mining and crater questions. Several other listeners sent emails comparing terrestrial geology to lunar and Martian geology, even asking if studying petroleum geology in grad school would be relevant to space planetary geology since the person wanted to work in the space industry. Toward the end Paul was asked about the progress of cislunar development. I asked our guest for closing comments so again, listen sharply as he had important things to say for us all. Please post your comments/questions on TSS blog above.