astrosociology

Guest: Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston. Topics: Commercial space, space policy, California space industry, NASA and more. 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.

Guest: Mel Marsh: Topics: Informed consent, space tourism, minor children, technology evaluation, anthropology, and astrosociology. Mel Marsh returned to The Space Show for this program. In the first segment, we focused on Mel's paper, "Ethical Issues Regarding Informed Consent for Minors for Space Tourism." You can find this paper and more of Mel’s work at his website: www.melsmarsh.com .

Guest: OPEN LINES. Topics: NASA bureaucracy, Return to the Moon or Mars, low cost space access, North Korea space program, SPESIF, astrosociology, education. This was our regular Open Lines program and runs slightly longer than two hours. Our program started with a call from listener Marshall about the NASA bureaucracy and what is known as “bureaucratic drift.” This was an interesting discussion which we applied to other government agencies, even national healthcare given comments from other listener. Don't miss it.

Guest: Dr. Sherry Bell. Topics: Transhumanism, space settlement, sex in space, Department of Space. Dr. Sherry Bell was our guest today to discuss the new Aerospace Technolgy Working Group (ATWG) book, "Living In Space: Cultural And Social Dynamics, Opportunities, And Challenges In Permanent Space Habitats." Dr. Bell told us about several of the chapters including a forward by Dr. Buzz Aldrin and others which separates commercial space from NASA and calls for the establishment of a cabinet level Department of Space.

Guest: Jim Funaro. Topics: Contact Conference, NASA Ames, ET contact, anthropology, science fiction, Mars, SETI, Mars Phoenix Mission. Jim Funaro returned to discuss with us the upcoming Contact Conference to be held at NASA Ames from April 3-5, 2009. NASA Ames is located in Mountain View, California. You can find out more about the conference, the Contact group, register online, and make hotel reservations on the Ames base by visiting http://www.contact-conference.org .

Guest: Sharon Weinberger, author of "Imaginary Weapons," was our guest for the first hour followed by a half hour of Open Lines. Sharon provided us with the history of her research regarding her book and we began our discussion with nothing less than the hafnium 5 kiloton hand grenade. From this point, we discussed how such projects are funded, the dream of an isomer bomb, DOD and DARPA standards, and much more. At different points in the discussion, we extrapolated to NASA and space expenditures using Ares 1 and other space projects.

Guest (first hour): Professor Joanne Gabrynowicz was the guest for this special Space Show television show filmed on location in beautiful Cape Canaveral, Florida. We started our interview by discussing the relevance of space law as well as recent changes in this area, particularly in regards to Earth observation and remote sensing. Professor Gabrynowicz went over the original purpose of satellites for scientific research and the process by which countries agree to make relevant data freely available to countries affected by a natural disaster.

Guest: Glen Robertson was the guest for this Space Show program to discuss the upcoming The Space Propulsion & Energy Sciences International Forum (SPESIF) conference in Huntsville, AL from Feb. 24-27, 2009. Please visit http://www.ias-spes.org/SPESIF.html for online registration and details. As we learned, this conference is the successor to the very well-known and established STAIF conference previously sponsored by the University of New Mexico and held in Albuquerque, NM.

Guest: Dr. E. O. (Neal) Smith, author of "When Culture and Biology Collide: Why We Are Stressed, Depressed, and Self-Obsessed," was the guest for this Space Show program. Dr. Smith's website is www.eosmith.com and you can find out more about his book there as well as learned about his other work. In fact, all his past journal articles are available for download. While you might think this program and his book are not space related, as you will hear during the program, it's very easy to connect the dots from what Dr.

Guest: George Whitesides returned for this special Space Show program to discuss the upcoming ISDC conference, May 29-June 1 at the Capital Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC. However, the Space Investment Summit will be held at the same hotel on May 28 and anyone attending ISDC should fill out the special registration for the Summit and attend it as well. The ISDC website for further information is www.isdc.2008.org. During the ISDC segment of the program, George talked about the keynote speakers and several of the planned panel discussions.