Guest: Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards was our guest for this Space Show program. We started our discussion with an update on the Optech meteorological lidar unit flown aboard the NASA Phoenix Mars Lander. As Bob reported to us, all worked to their complete satisfaction with the unit. We then discussed the Odyssey Moon Limited venture which was the first contestant in the Google Lunar X-Prize competition. To learn more, visit http://www.odysseymoon.com. We talked about new additions to the company, the need to form an American subsidiary to partner with NASA in a public/private venture, and the need for people to bring to the table real space business experience. We engaged in a fairly comprehensive discussion about what it takes to close a business case for going to the Moon for commercial purposes and a listener even asked Bob how they could do something commercial while NASA seems so bloated in what they are doing to return to the Moon, this notwithstanding the scope of the Google Lunar X-Prize activity versus returning to the Moon with humans. This is an interesting discussion, you will not want to miss it. In addition to much time spent discussing going to the Moon and the competition in the Google Lunar X-Prize, we talked about big picture space development and space policy. This is also an important discussion you won't want to miss. Google's interest in space was discussed as was ITAR, space education and the ISU, and the importance of vision. If you have questions about Odyssey Moon, the Google Lunar X-Prize or anything discussed on this show, please send them to Dr. Bob Richards through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com. In addition, you can use the Contact page on the Odyssey Moon website (http://www.odysseymoon.com/index-4.html) for the Canadian office, info@odysseymoon.com. If you use the latter address, please put to Bob's attention and reference The Space Show in the subject line.