Guests: Dr. Madhu Thangavelu, Perry Edmundson. Topic: The Cosmic Mariner space cruise ship concept developed by Perry Edmundson. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We do not permit the commercial use of any Space Show program or part thereof, nor do we permit Space Show programs to be edited, placed on YouTube, or other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted in news articles, papers, academic & research work, but must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact Dr. Livingston for questions about our copyright and trademark policies. We welcomed back Dr. Madhu Thangavelu and our new guest, Perry Edmundson to discuss the Cosmic Mariner space cruise ship concept which Perry developed while a graduate student in Dr. Thangavelu' s Space Exploration Architectures Concept Synthesis Studio. You can find Perry's slides and his presentation paper on The Space Show blog. Our first segment of this nearly two hour discussion covered the basics of the USC class taught by Dr. Thangavelu, including prerequisites and needed student background. Madhu talked about class objectives & goals along with explaining his methodology in teaching the class. We then switched over to Perry who began explaining the Cosmic Mariner concept. If you follow along with his slide presentation which is on the blog, you will see terrific illustrations plus his comments will be supplemented by important visuals. Perry explained the concept, talked about his design incorporating inflatable modules, the three main elements of style he incorporated in his design, the role of the ISS, and why he decided to make use of the ISS. As for challenges to bringing the concept to reality, he talked about radiation issues along with other human factors issues. One issue he zeroed in on dealt with the psychological issues faced by crews on longer missions. Life support was discussed along with the need for far more powerful propulsion such as nuclear electric propulsion. Perry spent some time discussing nuclear propulsion and related issues. Madhu brought up the benefits of using hosted payloads & both our guests talked about SpaceX & its progress toward human spaceflight. In our second segment, Perry talked about bandwidth issues and urged the use of optical transmission as a solution path. Trent asked about the NASA Gateway Program & we talked about using his cruise ship concept to go to Mars. Perry explained what some of the modifications would have to include to make his concept viable for Mars. Again, he stressed the human factors challenges. John from NJ called in to talk about funding issues & challenges. He also asked why the ISS was being used given it may meet its end in a few more years. Perry suggested that his concept would provide a new purpose for the ISS. We talked about the development of new technology for problem solving & were introduced to the concept of "technology evaporation." Please post your comments/questions on The Space Show blog.