John Draim was the guest for this special Space Show program. Mr. Draim, a retired captain in the USN, is an expert on floating launch and we discussed this type of rocket launch for the first hour of the program. We covered the history of floating launch, military vs. commercial launches, the advantages, disadvantages, and technology involved. Mr. Draim said multiple times that he has been involved with air launching of rockets, traditional ground/launch pad rocket launches, and floating launches and in his opinion, the floating launch always has advantages and is preferred. As for why its not mainstream, he suggests the status quo, legacy hardware, the Air Force, and NASA. We talk about out of the box technology, passed over technology, and missed technology opportunities throughout the program and especially in the last half hour so you will want to hear what John has to say about his first hand experiences and what he knows about this subject. Listener questions challenged him regarding the floating launch concept and could not help but wonder why the entrepreneurial community was not going toward floating launch as they do not have to deal with legacy hardware or the status quo. You will want to hear his response to these questions. During the last part of the show, we talked about his concept of TsunamiSat which is either a LEO or MEO satellite constellation that can detect the tsunami wave and track it, allowing real time progress reports and warnings to save lives. You will want to hear about this concept which he says could be implemented at this time. We also talked about elliptical orbits for satellites to target coverage for better market coverage. He suggested that we in the west don't use the elliptical orbit much but Russians do. During this segment, he explains the advantages and limitations of elliptical orbits. If you have comments or follow up questions for Captain John Draim, USN Retired, please send them through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com.
Guest
The Space Show
