Broadcast 2194 (Special Edition)

Guest: Dr. Madhu Thangavelu. Topics: NEO student intervention & surveillance design projects, advanced technology. Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. In addition, please remember that your Amazon purchases can help support The Space Show/OGLF. See www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm. For those listening to archives using live365.com and rating the programs, please email me as to why you assign a specific rating to the show. This will help me bring better programming to the audience. We welcomed back Dr. Madhu Thangavelu to discuss current graduate student design projects from his most recent USC class which had a theme dealing with NEOs and mitigation strategies. During the first segment of this 1 hour 41 minute show, Dr. Thangavelu focused on the future of the ISS, lunar exploration and settlements, a bit on Mars but mostly on NEO issue and surveillance of dangerous items. He summarized several of the student projects for us including one referred to as "Trojan" asteroids and another referred to as "space rocks to take care of rocks." Also in this segment we talked about nuclear rocket technology and propulsion, asteroid mining, and Directed Energy devices. For the latter, we spoke about the ease of using the technology as a space weapon. Toward the end of the segment we discussed how to enroll in Madhu 's class, especially if you are not a USC graduate engineering student. Our guest summarized the segment saying that planetary defense will happen and his class helps to train and condition creative minds to deal with the problems. In the second segment, Professor Thangavelu received a listener question about Earthship Houses and the Cal-Earth Institute. Madhu also spoke about the recent NASA NIAC Conference held at Stanford University. Regarding the conference, he spoke about many of the keynote addresses and speakers, plus extremely innovative projects. One such project was Contour Crafting which he said was now in Phase 2 (see www.contourcrafting.org). Another listener went into more detail with him on the USC application process to attend his class, then Madhu went back to sharing more with us regarding the NASA conference. He said keynote speakers were from MythBusters, Google, SETI, SSI, and Dr. Pete Worden of NASA Ames. Late in this segment, he talked about the space business model with Elon Musk, Stratolaunch, and more. He fielded a few specific questions on asteroid mining which he did not think was ripe for investor action at this time. He was asked about green technologies & the student design projects, then about his upcoming article in the Journal of Space Philosophy. One of the last topics was the introduction to us of co-robotics, suggesting we check it out at the National Robotics Initiative ( Google co-robotics for more information). Please post your comments/questions on TSS blog above. Dr. Thangavelu can be reached through me using drspace@thespaceshow.com.