Guest: Dr. Ioana Cozmuta;  Topics: Gravity-Free Consulting, G-Space, Inc, microgravity manufacturing, cislunar space, value added space development, NewSpace economic development and more.

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We welcomed Dr. Ioana Cozmuta to our two segment 91 minute program.  Please check the blog for associated links provided by our guest as you will want to check out this recommended information.  Note that there were audio issues for this program.  In addition to our guest being disconnected from her phone line twice, I forgot to switch the live stream button back on after returning from the second phone line disconnect.  I used the emergency backup file to replace the 6-8 minutes of airtime that were lost before the error was discovered. Unfortunately, the audio on the backup was not as clear as our primary audio but by using it, nothing was lost due to these glitches.  100% of our program has been archived and is podcasting.

We started our program by asking Dr. Cozmuta to tell us how she got to the point of leaving NASA after 16 years and starting the two businesses.  Our guest was also asked to provide a short introduction for us to each company, Gravity-Free Consulting and G-space, Inc.  The first part of the discussion focused on how our guest got to NASA, what she did for 16 ears at NASA, how she got her commercial, value oriented and NewSpace orientation which led her to create her two women owned businesses.  Next, our guest started focusing in on NewSpace, global economic growth through space, public benefits from space plus the peaceful uses of space and the ensuing economic growth.  In this part of the discussion, our guest mentioned her timing for leaving NASA and jumping into the entrepreneurial world.  I picked up on her comments about timing and started a new line of discussion about entrepreneurial timing or when do you start being an entrepreneur.

Regarding entrepreneurial timing, I asked our guest to elaborate on what she meant. For example, was the time right due to her age? Her at the time life situation?  What factors caused her to consider her timing. Ioana did elaborate on all of this for a most interesting part of the interview.  Listen carefully because she offered very wise and critical evaluation metrics for when to start a business, what age, what kind of energy do you have, what can you commit to doing and much more.  How about posting your comments on this part of our conversation.  We would like to hear from you with your thoughts on our blog.

Another question for our guest asked her to compare and contrast the two corporations she started.  In addition, the listener asked where the two businesses might overlap.  Ioana took us through the nuts and bolts of both Gravity-Free and G-Space.  In the process of doing this, she talked about space manufacturing, new materials needed, and the essential need for space infrastructure, including infrastructure development for cislunar space.  Our guest talked about a business risk portfolio, giving out equity and more.  She then said that G-Space was formed as a B Corp which she explained in detailed and contrasted with the more traditional C Corp.  As for NewSpace, Ioana talked about it being for a socio-economic benefit.  Also mentioned was the need for AI platforms, software and expanding technologies and manufacturing for microgravity.

Todd from San Diego sent her an email asking if she was concerned about vulnerabilities to government and excessive regulation.  Our guest said so far this was not showing up as a problem. That said, make sure you hear all of Ioana's comments on this topic. Part of her response focused on the example of the Business Finland Model for a Space Economy (www.businessfinland.fi/en/for-finnish-customers/services/programs/new-space-economy).  As we were approaching our segment break, George in Denver inquired if the return to the Moon let's go to Mars focus was helpful per her perspective for NewSpace global economic growth.  More was then said about the need for advanced machine learning and AI, especially for the cislunar development referenced earlier. 

We fielded two emails from Luis in Venezuela.  His initial email asked our guest how promising she saw NASA's approach to migrating LEO to commercial initiatives.  In addition, he wanted to know if this helped her work.  Following this email, Fremont John called to talk about microgravity manufacturing and LEO.  Don't miss the Ioana and John discussion.  What do you think about orbital manufacturing, scaling up the process, and the use and need for high value material in space, plus the need for quarterly revenues.  Post on the blog about this part of our interview.

In the second segment after sponsor messages were read, I discovered the error mentioned earlier in the show.  I spliced in the dialog missed through my mistake which is why the audio just before the break was noticeably not as good as the audio in general for the program.  That said, with my apology once again, we opened the segment with a phone call from Jeff in North Carolina.  Jeff was also talking microgravity, building in space, existing experiments, and more.  Ioana talked about the need for optimized priorities.  Jeff asked about graphene and the acoustic levitator technology. 

Luis sent in his second follow up email which said "I agree Moon focused Public-Private partnerships will be very challenging. That's what I meant that freeing up NASA LEO budgets to some degree by migrating it to commercials might help, though I read that has its own challenges and has been met by some pushback from Congress among others. Do you have any insight into that?"  Our guest had much to say about LEO, the politicization of LEO and space plus how best to do both short term and long term projects. 

Moving toward the end of the program, I asked Dr. Cozmuta what she thought would be the impact on space and NewSpace of Covid-19.  Our guest had much to say but thought most of the impact would start being felt six months to a year from now.  Your comments on the Covid-19 impact on the space industry and NewSpace would be appreciated so do post them on our blog.  As we approached the end of the program, our guest offered  concluding comments, a few summary statements, what it will be like to have competition in space and the fact that need to learn to play better with one another in space.

Please post your comments/questions for Dr. Cozmuta on our blog for this show. You can reach our guest through me or either of her two website.