Guest: Louise Riofrio was the guest for this Space Show program. We started our discussion with out-of-the-box cosmology theories on the speed of light. She postulated theories about this represented by the equation, GM+TC^3. Check out her blog/website ( http://riofriospacetime.blogspot.com ) for details on this theory and the rest of her cosmology research. Louise talked with us about space and time being the same and said we were hardwired to equate space and time. Do not miss this discussion. We spent about half the show discussing cosmology and physics with Louise, including peer review and out-of-the-box theories and what happens to them given mainstream efforts to toe the line for the status quo. See what you think of this discussion and the experiences that our caller John, Louise, and I bring to the table. During the middle of the program, we switched to the subject of the positive pressure spacesuit as Louise has developed a model of it and often models it at various space conferences. She is also working with parties at NASA and parts of her spacesuit may be used on the new lunar spacesuits being developed for our return to the Moon and lunar settlement. Louise describes how a positive pressure spacesuit works, how it differs from a traditional spacesuit, and how the helmet and visor will work on the spacesuit she is developing. We also talked about some of the problem areas of such a spacesuit and what is being done to compensate for the weak points. She explained movement in the suit, sweating, and punctures and damage to the suit. Other topics we discussed included educational outreach for science and space and teaching kids STEM subjects as Louise does it using unusual methods and tools. She also talked with us about her part in the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and additional space shuttle flights. Toward the end of the show when we were engaged in some light hearted discussions, Louise mentioned the reality of a three dimensional prototyping machine or, as they would say on Star Trek, a replicator. She talked about having seen shoes made by such a machine and action figure toys. We spent several minutes talking about this device and the progress being made to actually make these machines commercial. Louise also brought to our attention the need for a huge GEO communications satellite for high bandwidth for future cell phone conversations. Listen to what she says about this and what it would mean for our future phone capabilities. I asked her if she could compare such a large GEO COMSAT and antenna dish to a GEO solar power satellite array and the answer was no, we are still too far away from the SSP structure which would have to be many times large than what she was talking about for a COMSAT. Check out this URL to see Louise modelling her spacesuit: http://bp2.blogger.com/_SjBd7nY9Kp0/Rosgr1FW3pI/AAAAAAAAARY/4iomNEJKz2Y…. If you want to send a comment or question to Louise Riofrio, do so through her website using the comments section. Make sure you mention you heard her on The Space Show. You can as always send your comments and questions for her to me in care of drspace@thespaceshow.com.
Guest
The Space Show
