Guest: Dr. Chris Impey. Topics: We talked about Dr. Impey's latest books on planetary missions & commercial + HSF in addition to astronomy & cosmology. 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. Chris Impey for a one hour one segment discussion about his two recent books, "Dreams of Other Worlds: The Amazing Story of Unmanned Space Exploration," and his newer book "Beyond: Our Future in Space." We started our discussion with Dr. Impey describing "Dreams of Other Worlds" which describes 11 unmanned space missions that have made a difference in our understanding of distant worlds. We focused on a few of the 11 missions including Viking, Cassini, Voyager, & the WMAP mission. I asked Dr. Impey what would have been included had the book been written later. The Dawn Mission would have made it, so would the Kepler Space Telescope, New Horizons, Curiosity, and probably others. We then switched to the use of ground based telescopes and here Dr. Impey talked about how many of the telescopes are being repurposed for a new life doing different types of observation astronomy. Dr. Impey was asked about his favorite missions. He mentioned Viking and the WMAP microwave telescope mission and this led to his talking about The Big Bang, dark matter, and dark energy. I asked Chris about the recent article in The Economist about the two Chicago area scientists proposing a new theory on dark matter. Chris had read the article and had some interesting commentary on it and the proposed theory. Robert sent in an email asking our guest why there have been no life detection experiments on the NASA and other planetary missions. This sparked a good conversation on the subject which you do not want to miss. Chris proposed a very plausible reason why no suck experiments have been carried out but let us know what you think by posting on the blog. Another topic discussed was planetary protection. Linda from Austin asked our guest about the UofA astronomy and cosmology programs and students, then Bill asked our guest if he had read "The Martian" or seen the movie. Chris had both read the book and seen the movie which we discussed for several minutes. Don't miss this discussion as Dr. Impey made some interesting points about both the book and the movie and the plausibility of the story line including the initial dust storm which caused the problems for The Martian. Before the end of the program, Chris fielded some questions about future missions. We addressed the Europa Clipper mission but he said many may be disappointed for what was not being included on the mission so again listen to what he had to say. He suggested a Titan mission would be interesting. In his book "Beyond" Our Future In Space," Dr. Impey addressed the new commercial missions & human spaceflight. Chris guided us through all sorts of possibilities for future human spaceflight. Nuclear propulsion came up with Dr. Impey having much to say about how beneficial it would be if we had it though it was still futuristic. We spoke of advanced technology & the Decadal Survey and its impact on the type of science projects that get undertaken due to funding. Will sent in a note asking about the recent article about Elon Musk wanting to get to Mars in 10-15 years given the various risks Earth faced, including extremism. Dr. Impey also said it was probably unrealistic to think that one could have a $500k ticket price for Mars, another part of the Elon Musk article. Dr. Impey offered us good summary comments so don't miss them. The last question dealt with a possible science backlash and referenced the following Huffington Post article: www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/solar-farm-suck-up-the-sun_566e9aeee4b0e29…. Please post your comments/questions on TSS blog above. You can reach Dr. Impey through me or his University of Arizona faculty page.
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