Guest: Greg Cecil. Topics: STEM for Middle School students, human spaceflight, Mars & 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 welcomed Greg Cecil back to the program for this 1 hour 37 minute discussion. During our first segment, Greg summarized his space shuttle experience when working on the thermal protection system at KSC, talked about keeping in touch with former shuttle employees and letting us know that in his opinion, shuttle was retired too early. After the shuttle program was closed down, Greg began consulting and teaching science to middle school students. He talked about the difference in a public inner city school as compared to teaching in a private school. His observations are important, especially about parent involvement & support in the student's education. Greg devised space related projects for the students & created scientific experiments to fly with the J.P. Aerospace high altitude balloon flights. Greg described some of the experiments and the benefits in working with John Powell of J.P. Aerospace. We talked about the impact of the flights and making the payloads. I asked if the impact will remain with them as they go through school, possibly in selecting a space or science education and career. Greg also attended the recent Explore Mars Humans2Mars Conference and here he offered us many valuable observations. Listen to what he had to say about NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden's talk, then later the talk given by NewSpace advocate and co-founder of the Space Frontier Foundation, Rick Tumlinson. The differences between the two talks and approaches led to Greg's conversion to being a NewSpace proponent. Greg talked about SpaceX and suggested it was risky for any one company to be the face of NewSpace, either intentionally or by chance. In the second segment, Greg talked about the movie, "I want To Be An Astronaut." Doug emailed in a comment based on our first segment discussion given Greg's comment about NASA budgets being tight & being a show stopper for grandiose HSF missions such as those to Mars & as reported in the NRC Pathways HSF study. Greg responded to Doug, then I let got with one of my infamous rants directed not just at Doug but we space enthusiasts in general for having lousy communication skills. In this instance, my rant was about Doug focusing on technology and never ever making the case for the WHY or the need to do what he suggested in his question. Greg then spoke to the importance of knowing your customer, congressman, market, and effectively communicating the WHY & the NEED. Later, after the rant and aftermath of the volcanic eruption, Greg spoke to how best to approach members of congress and state legislatures. We then talked about the RD-180 engine, SLS, & HSF spaceships. As our discussion was ending, Greg pointed out the risks associated with putting all our HSF eggs in one basket and one company. He closed by saying never give up plus he provided his email address at the end of the show. Please post your comments/questions on TSS blog. You can reach Greg through me or the address he gave out on air as the show was ending.