Broadcast 710 (Special Edition)

Dr. Ken Cox and Bruce Pittman were the special guests for this Space Show program to discuss space commerce, the coming ATWG Conference just before ISDC and the ACES Entrepreneurial Space Summit at NASA Ames May 16-18, 2007. We began the discussion with Ken giving us the background information regarding the Aerospace Technology Working Group (ATWG) and the basics about their coming conference in Dallas from May 22-24, 2007. Visit www.atwg.org for the full agenda, registration, and details. Dr. Cox mentions cutting edge ways of creating effective commercial space business models, including virtual models, enhanced communications and extensive collaboration. Mr. Pittman then explained the ATWG focus on space commerce, the Entrepreneurial Space Summit at Ames next week, and much more. A listener asked about building successful commercial models in the virtual world, especially Second Life, and both Bruce and Ken said this was happening and referred to the NASA Ames CoLab project. Our discussion focused on expediting space commerce, how to do it more effectively and generally we took the big picture approach during the program though we did speak about space solar power early on in the program. Later in the show, Bruce, in talking about various new types of commercial models we might be able to exploit for commercial space development, brought up the pre-cursor to NASA, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics or NACA. You will certainly want to hear what Bruce and Ken have to say about this as a viable model and why it is presently being examined by many in the industry as a viable space business model. This prompted listener Dave Huntsman to call in and further discuss this model, both from an historical point of view as to what happened with this organization back when it was founded and how it might be used for the future. This prompted a three-way discussion with Dave, Ken and Bruce about non-technical problems and barriers which of course was a key issue in the early days of the formation of NACA. You will certainly want to hear this discussion as its important as we move forward in the areas discussed on the show tonight. If you would like to follow up with Bruce or Ken with comments or questions, please e-mail them at bpittman@alliancespace.net and kcox12@houston.rr.com.