Happy New Year and my best to all for a safe and healthy 2021.  Don't forget, there is still plenty of time left to support The Space Show with a Pay Pal gift or your check.  For questions, please email at drspace@thespaceshow.com. 

Guest:  Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston; Topics:  Multiple Open Line Topics discussed with a variety of callers.  See the tags and key words for major discussion topics.

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This program was our last Open Lines program for 2020.  It was a long one, coming in just under three hours with one intermission break for sponsor messages.  For starters, Robert Jacobson was back with us to summarize commercial space for the year. Robert, the author of the award winning book "Space Is Open For Business," talked about many things including mergers and acquisitions, various commercial space company transactions that made the news such as Relativity Space raising $500 million in private funds,  Robert mentioned Voyager taking over NanoRacks and Lockheed buying out Aerojet Rocketdyne.  Later, Robert talked about Virgin Galactic, their publicly traded stock, space tourism along with Blue Origin, Artemis and the Biden Administration plus he reviewed the sample return missions this year.  Before signing off, Robert talked about his new business, Lunaprise, which he has brought to our attention on his earlier appearances on the program.  

Bill from Raleigh called to talk about space solar power. His call put this topic on the front burner for the entire Open Lines program so other than Bill's initial call, SSP turned out to be the hot topic of the day.  An initial focus of the SSP topic dealt with SSP not being favored by environmental movements.  This prompted me to read an email I got from a space hating 75 year old New York City woman telling me all that was wrong with space as space folks were not saving the Earth.  Having read her letter on air without providing her name, some listeners commented on it and there have been a few blog comments posted about it as I prepare this program summary.  I did invite the woman for a discussion on TSS but she not so politely turned me down. 

The SSP topic led to more on electric vehicles which had been a discussion topic a few weeks ago. Listeners were interested in comparing the efficiency of an EV with a fossil fuel burning car.  This discussion led to a call by Marshall who wanted to mention that terrestrial solar took up goo crop land, taking it out of action for the solar panels.  He cited a few examples in his call.

Ft. Worth John called with predictions for SLS, Biden and Artemis, Tic Tac, and JWST.  Doug called to comment on an earlier comment about Starship making it to orbit in the coming year.

We started the second segment with a call from Gene in Pasadena about his never ending SSP quest.  Gene had much to say and explain as to why SSP is not in favor with environmental groups.  He also updated us on his ongoing work and effort to bring his ideas to key space policy makers.  He suggested a pathway for how the Biden Administration might get interested in SSP.  Listeners asked questions wondering how Musk felt about SSP.  Gene talked about Tory Bruno and George Sowers being supportive of it but that it was a mammoth infrastructure undertaking as to cost, hardware and transportation.

Fremont John called with his predictions on SLS, VG and suborbital space tourism, SpaceX with a Starship orbital fight, and Artemis,   He also had more to say on the efficiency of EVs.  Don't miss his commentary on this subject.  Another topic that came to our attention was the Trump SPD #6 from Dec. 16, 2020 saying it was OK for nuclear propulsion fuel to be at an enrichment level of less than 20%.  The Ultra Safe Nuclear company is working with this level of enriched fuel so I was asked to bring them back on the show. An invitation to Chris Morrison on this very subject went out on Monday, Dec. 28, 2020. 

Dr. Doug called near the end of the show to discuss his inflatable analog hab which will be installed near Provo, UT and on the order of the MDRS.  Doug will post photos of it on our blog so what the blog commentary for the information which will be on his website, www.developspace.info.  As for his opinion on SSP, he said he did not have much of an opinion because he did not see it as a big part of the space settlement discussion.  Since Doug is a medical doctor and also a public health specialist, I took advantage of his being on the show and asked him about the Covid vaccine, the risks of taking it, how to slow the spread of Covid in S. California and other areas and more.  Doug was generous with his time and expertise on these topics.

Before ending, Tony called to tell us how to see a Starship launch at Boca Chica and how to find out when one was planned. I posted his info on the blog.  We also got a late email from Ed who took great photos of the Jupiter Saturn conjunction.  Over the next few days I will be uploading some of his photos to the blog.

Please post your comments/questions for any part of this program or any guest on our blog.  You can reach the callers through me here at The Space Show.

Happy New Year and my best to all for a safe and healthy 2021.  Don't forget, there is still plenty of time left to support The Space Show with a Pay Pal gift or your check.  For questions, please email at drspace@thespaceshow.com.