Guest: Thalia Kohls. Topics: space policy, space advocacy, women and space exploration, outreach. We welcomed back Thalia Kohls to the program for her perspectives on the current space policy debate, her thoughts on the different participants in the debate, the space enthusiast community, attracting new space cadets to the space bandwagon and more. Our program was in three segments but it was a long one in that it was more than two hours. In our first segment, Thalia introduced us to her views regarding New Space, the administration's space policy, the need for setting goals and timelines and why, and the lack of civility in many segments of the debate. As a recent college graduate, she talked about her peers who study and do things because they know what to expect on the date the semester ends. I believe her comments to be on point regarding goals and timelines. Thalia then talked about angry space community rhetoric and what it does to her and her peers. Simply put, it does not make friends and it alienates large groups of people. She was asked about going to space and she did say it excited her but not many of her peers. She expressed need for realism in assessing the likelihood and costs involved in getting to space anytime soon. Several questions came in about using tax payer money to fund space programs and Thalia had much to say about this as well as the media and its role in reporting space policy news, other news in the country, in fact being totally agenda driven. Thalia said that ideally, a bipartisan media was needed. At the end of this segment, I asked Thalia to compare some of the fantasy thinking in the space community with what it took to graduate college. Was there a place for fantasy thinking in that venue? You might be surprised by her response. In the second segment, we talked about the frontier mentality expressed so well by many space enthusiasts. Thalia spent much of this segment telling why this approach to space was a turn off to her and many of her friends/peers. Others had much to say about this too and we discovered that its not always a good approach in selling space to others. I'm sure many will disagree with much of what was said on this issue. During this segment, I gave Thalia a Mars quiz that a listener sent in to us. Don't miss it. In our last segment, John from Billings called in regarding the frontier development model cited by so many in the space enthusiast community. As you will hear, this model is not universally appreciated and as Thalia said, can drive people away from having an interest in space. We talked about Lewis and Clark and compared their expedition to what it would be like going to Mars. Thalia also commented on cost plus versus fixed price contracts and then STEM education. The school she mentioned without the science lab was the TAF Academy in Kent, Wa. We talked about NASA as a jobs policy and what her peers thought of that. Then we got into women in space, the frontier model, pioneer women and why women don't usually call The Space Show. Thalia had much to say about this and women in space advocacy in general so don't miss this discussion, the caller, and listener questions. See if you agree with what was said about why women don't call The Space Show. Spiritualism as a driver for an interest in space was discussed and you don't want to miss it. If you have questions or comments for Thalia, please email her at thalia.ad.astra@gmail.com.
Guest
The Space Show
