Joshua Carlson, Sunday, 4-24-22, #3858, Time:  1 hour 29 minutes

Guest:  Joshua Carlson; Topics:  The author used his recent book, “Spacepower Ascendant: Space Development Theory and a New Space Strategy” to discuss national security space, space settlement, space policy, competition, timelines and more.

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We welcomed Josh Carlson to the program to discuss national security space, space policy leadership, the private sector, Chinese and Russian lunar and other space competition, all in the frame work of his book referenced above.  During our almost 90 minute discussion, our guest focused on the four phases of space development and the why of it all.  You will hear him mention the four phases early in our discussion but they addressed exploration, exploitation, expansion and exclusions all in that order.  In addition, he talked about visionless leadership and policy makers but listen to all of what he said on this subject. 

Given the many topics that were either mentioned or discussed during our time with our guest, I will use the Tags as a short summary of the program content.  The tags are repeated below for your convenience.

Tags: 

Joshua Carlson, space economics, space exploration problems, securing space trade lanes, space expansion cost, space exploitation, our phases of space development, future Chinese Moon base, U.S. Moonbase, leadership needs vision for space, space conflict, space does not change people but people change space, competition, the Russian threat, military theory, Space Force vision, private sector space leadership, navigation, reconnaissance, timing and communications, nuclear propulsion, OODA Loop, Chinese space plan discussion, space development timelines, Mars, asteroid belt, Uranus for He3, SLS program, U.S. space allies, Ukraine and Russian ASAT test,  space tourism, space settlement, settlement is solid expansion, fitting all space ideas together through leadership and space expansion, Spacepower Ascendant: Space Development Theory and a New Space Strategy by our guest.

Much time was spent talking about the Chinese program, particularly their Moon program goals, ambitions and timelines. As for Russia, due to recent events and the economic situation in and around Russia, while he still saw them as a threat, he said it was significantly less than the threat posed by China.   Listeners emailed in questions about the U.S. private sector, especially private sector leadership, asking our guest if he thought it was better than government leadership.  Don’t miss his remarks when answering this questions of this nature.  In addition, our guest connected the dots with space policy and military force/policy.  He talked about astro politics, nuclear propulsion and much more.  Lunar competition with China was a significant issue with our guest. 

One additional point made by our guest which has not been mentioned that often on TSS was the use of the dollar as the international trade currency.  He mentioned that now Saudi Arabia will also accept the Chinese currency for oil payments, the Yuan.  Listen to what he said about this and why he believed it to be so  his for both space and most everything else despite not being frequently discussed on news and talking head shows. 

Later in the segment, Penny asked our guest about space tourism and settlement.  Once again, listen to his response, especially about space settlement and how he viewed it as compared to tourism.  Our guest made frequent mention of his book, especially in the program summary.  Note that both on TSS and in his book, our guest suggested specific actions and steps to take to strengthen all aspects of space development, exploration and exploitation. 

Please post your comments/questions for our guest on our blog for this show.  If you want to get in touch with Josh, you can do so through our blog or through me.