Guest: Edward McCullough. Topics: Nuclear, advanced technology, lunar manufacturing, Mars. Ed McCullough returned for this two hour plus Space Show program. We started segment one with Ed taking us through his Navy nuclear training and his advanced technology career assignments and work. During this discussion, Ed told us about products, projects, and technologies, how they were created, funded, developed and when possible, implemented. Its a good discussion and most informative so don't miss it. We talked about how to build an RLV, what it would look like, the time frame, the costs, and this is important, its size! In our second segment which lasted for the show's duration, we started off with Ed saying that these visionary projects needed commercial funding. He talked about the size of SSP satellites made in modules on the Moon to an eventual size of 11 KM, then using that technology to make battleship size vehicles to go to the Martian Le Grange points from the Moon. This is a complex discussion so listen carefully. Ed addressed many of the human factors issues including radiation shielding through using large amounts of water, cosmic rays, bone loss issues, and more. In fact, the bone loss issue and radiation became a major part of this discussion with a call from listener John and email and chat questions from other listeners. Please listen carefully to this far ranging discussion, the use of new technologies, bone issues with osteoclasts and osteoblasts and possible bisphosphonate treatment. Listener Reda asked questions about going to space and having osteoporosis so listen up with this important discussion. We talked about the needed levels of gravity and everyone lamented not having the centrifuge experiments on Station to determine the amount of gravity needed to protect humans. We talked about radiation shielding with lunar regolith and much more. Ed was asked about the Delta V needed to go to a Martian Le Grange point from a lunar Le Grange Point and we got a call from listener Theron who gave us that information. You will definitely want to hear this. As you will hear, the transit times at these very low Delta V levels require about two years for a one way trip to Mars. Contrast that with a six to nine month one way trip time from Earth to Mars. Robotic technology for lunar manufacturing was discussed near the end of the show, Ed talked about mitigating the lunar dust issues for manufacturing and maintaining equipment on the Moon. At the end of the show, Ed talked about green energy, contrasting solar, wind, and nuclear. He explained what was needed for grid improvements to take new power from these various sources of possible additional energy. Visit Ed's website for more information, www.explainingthebigpicture.com. If you have a comment or question for Ed McCullough, please email him directly using the email address at the bottom of his website (edwardmccullough at rocketmail dot com)or you can send your question or comment to him through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com.
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