Dr. Haym Benaroya was the guest for this Space Show program to discuss the upcoming Rutgers Symposium on Lunar Settlements (www.lunarbase.rutgers.edu) from June3-8, 2007. Dr. Benaroya began the discussion by describing the basics of this particular symposium/conference, the keynote speakers, the single track format, and the small size to allow for power networking. As the interview continued, Dr. Benaroya received many listener questions regarding engineering questions for the Moon, Mars, even NEO's! He provided his opinion on the state of the art for lunar engineering projects in comparison to building homes and high rise buildings in San Francisco, a known earthquake risk area. His comments on this issue are most interesting. The subject of the Moon or Mars came up and turned into a lively discussion topic. Haym put forth a powerful case for returning to the Moon before attempting a humans to Mars mission. Listen and see if you agree with him. As for the conference, its easy to register from the website and there is still space to attend and even submit a paper. Papers will be published in a conference proceedings and The Space Show will let listeners know when this publication is available. During other parts of this program, Haym talked about some of the upcoming talks that will be given at the symposium. This symposium will cover many important and interesting topics ranging from human factors to hard core engineering and even business issues. Other listener driven questions address ITAR as a possible conference problem, lunar settlement human and policy issues, even engineering lunar structures to allow for taking pets with us at some point in the future. This is no doubt going to be a fascinating, relevant, and interesting conference. If you can attend, do so. Dr. Benaroya is happy to take your comments or questions. Please email him at benaroya@rci.rutgers.edu.
Guest
The Space Show
