Guest: Rex Ridenoure; Topics: Ecliptic Enterprise overview & updates, LightSail program & mission, NewSpace & more. 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 Rex Ridenoure back to the show to discuss Ecliptic Enterprise, LightSail, the NewSpace Conference & more. During the first segment of our 1 hour 33 minute discussion. I started our discussion by asking Rex how Ecliptic got the LightSail contract from The Planetary Society. Rex relayed the story to us of their involvement with LightSail & I am sure you will find it interesting. This discussion led Rex to update us on Ecliptic activities with their size reduction program for their avionics and their work on cubesat projects. Rex talked about their customer and project base and why they don't have foreign launcher contracts or relationships. ITAR!! He talked about their having been denied ITAR clearance in the past so they don't even bother obtaining it anymore. Rex talked about some of their camera space projects including LCross, transmitting data back via the DSN and the limitations because their cameras could work all the way to Pluto and beyond but the data transmission rate and capacity to do that for video is not available. We then returned to the LightSail project which Rex described in some detail during the balance of our segment. Rex also has suggested we read the blog articles on LightSail via Jason Davis on The Planetary Society website. www.planetary.org/about/staff/jason-davis.html and look for his posts on LightSail. By the way, it is an excellent blog and I recommend you add it to your regular reading list. In the second segment, Rex provided us with an overview of the SFF NewSpace Conference and I totally agreed with what he said having also attended it. In my opinion, it was the very best of all the SFF-NewSpace conferences I've attended since the late 90's. As part of his summary of the conference, I asked his opinion on the Dr. Linda billings Scientific American article that attacked SFF, NewSpace, space settlement, etc. Here is the article in case you missed it: www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-inexcusable-jingoism-of-american…. Let us know on TSS blog what you think of Dr. Billing's article and what Rex had to say about it. Please be respectful and civil, no name calling, even if you strongly disagree with either Dr. Billings or Rex. Since our show ended, Shubber Ali, the original Space Cynic, posted a reply to Dr. Billings on the Space Cynics website. Check it out as I will add all of this to the Open Lines discussion for Sunday, August 2: https://spacecynic.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/the-inexcusability-of-poor-…. As the show neared the conclusion, Rex summarized key points & highlights of discussion. Please post your comments/questions on TSS blog above. Rex can be reached through me or the Ecliptic website, www.eclipticenterprises.com.
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