Guest: Gary Hudson. Topics: Obama space policy and FY 2011 budget. Gary Hudson was our guest today to speak about the Administration's space policy program and the Fiscal Year 2011 space budget recommendations. In our first segment, Gary defined heavy lift in the context of history. For example, early in the space days in the 1960's, heavy lift was thought to be a million pounds to orbit. Today we talk about 50 to 200 tons to orbit. During this segment we also talked about a Mars mission and commercial launchers and their readiness to transport humans to LEO. The subject of human rating the EELVs was discussed and Gary had much to say about this. We concluded this segment with a detailed discussion about the GAP facing our human spaceflight program. As we started the second segment, we received a call from John in Montana continuing the man rating discussion by asking about the acceleration profiles on Atlas and Delta, citing NASA acceleration standards for launch trajectories. Gary discussed these profiles in the context of the Black Zone Argument. Do not miss what Gary had to say about acceleration profiles and this issue. Anthony from the UK brought up the issue of risk averseness and Gary had much to say about this. This subject led me to go off on one of my rants about the subject and my apologies in advance to anyone I may have offended with my energetic commentary. Mr. Hudson brought up and addressed the COTS program as this segment concluded. We started the third and final segment by discussing the Orion Lite lifeboat concept. Gary liked the idea, talked about it at length and introduced us to the concept of space taxis. This is a discussion you will not want to miss. A listener asked him for his thoughts on the Augustine Commission and our guest said he thought it was the best space panel/commission ever. The issues of having goals and specific deadlines was addressed and Gary said the goal was to be truly space-fairing and to be able to go throughout the solar system with human beings. He said the administration program was very goal oriented. When asked if he was concerned that another nation might get to the Moon before we got back there, he said no. Don't miss his full comments on this subject. At the end of the program, Gary was asked to tell us what he saw for our space program five to ten years out and if our domestic and global economic problems would interfere with space development and expansion. He suggested that we segment our space issues from the rest of what is going on, to compartmentalize. Humans are adaptable and he believes humanity and space will prevail despite present day challenges. If you have comments or questions for Gary Hudson, please send them through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com.
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The Space Show
