Guest: Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston; Topics: We discussed a variety of space and related topics ranging from equity crowd funding, commercial space telescopes, Moonwards, lunar landers and more. Please direct all comments and questions regarding specific Space Show programs & guest(s) to the Space Show blog which is part of archived program on our website, www.thespaceshow.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.
Welcome to our 1 hour 21 minute one segment Open Lines discussion for this Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017. I opened our program with special announcements about Space Show programming for the coming week given my plans to be in Florida for Space 2017 were cancelled due to Hurricane Irma. I mentioned a few suggested topics including going over our policy on self-invited guests and not promoting crowd funding projects on TSS. Our first call was from Randy, CEO of www.Spacefab.us. Spacefab is doing an equity crowdfunding commercial space telescope project. I took advantage of Randy’s call to find out exactly how an equity crowdfunding project works. We have mentioned these new types of crowdfunding opportunities but so far Randy is the only one I know doing this for a space project. We talked with Randy about equity crowdfunding projects, how they work, SEC regulations and rules, equity dilution, forms of equity available, limitations on the number of equity participants, dollar amount investment requirements and more. Randy was most generous with his time and expertise and we learned much about an equity crowdfunding project. I believe this is an important and information oriented discussion that all of you should hear and keep in mind, especially if you are thinking of this type of crowdfunding project down the road. In addition, we talked at length with Randy about commercial space telescopes, the market for them, the type of usage and their application, and more. Kim sent in a question if Randy was using free form optics and that generated an interesting discussion on commercial space telescope development and technology. Their telescope will do Earth imaging but down the road they want to do metal asteroid mining and more. Visit the SpaceFab website for more information and contact Randy if you are interested in what they are doing, their equity fund raising, or their telescopes. I am sure we will hear more from Randy, both in terms of the equity funding venture which will go for six months or less, and their telescope development and activation. By the way, Randy referenced Title 3, Regulation 3 regarding the equity funding via crowdfunding. Other issues we talked about with Randy included the investment amount and number of investor limitations and rules, due diligence regarding the project management, later rounds of fundraising and equity dilution, and the time frame for raising the equity funding.
Doug called to talk about his inflatable mockup of a lunar lander. He posted photos of it on the blog for this show and described each of the photos that he posted so be sure to check them out on the blog for this program. Doug mentioned his plans to show his mockup at a suitable location near the launch site of the first Falcon Heavy lunch currently scheduled for November 2017. During his call, Doug described the segments of his inflatable hardware, talked about what it would be like to be inside of it, how he inflates it, the size of all three modules together plus he said the mass totaled around 250-300 pounds. Let us know what you think of his inflatable lunar lander mockup per the photos on the blog. Post your comments on the blog too.
Jeff from Tucson called in to talk about the NASA call for lunar lander proposals. You can read about it here: http://spacenews.com/nasa-preparing-call-for-proposals-for-commercial-lunar-landers. Jeff also talked about returning to the Moon, going to Mars, and advantages for going to the Moon as part of being able to go to Mars. Let us know if you agree with Jeff. Post your preferences re Moon or Mars on our blog. Jeff and I also talked about the new NASA Administrator as President Trump recently appointed Congressman Jim Bridenstine of Oklahoma to the position. Senate confirmation is needed but I suspect he will be approved. Jeff also mentioned the SpaceX launch of the Air Force secret X37B, and the progress being made with commercial space via new rockets, human spaceflight vehicles and capsules and more.
Freemont John called to talk about O’Neill colonies as compared to going to the surface of the Moon. He also said one could simulate being on the surface of the Moon on the orbiting colony but I thought that was a nonstarter. What do you think? John then mentioned Kim’s Moonwards idea of a mothership to return pregnant women from the Moon back to Earth. Don’t miss what he had to say about this. In addition, he talked about establishing a lunar base on the Moon. Kim made several attempts to call and talk to John but the Skype connection was so bad we could not understand her so we aborted the effort. John posted a blog comment about his discussion. Kim may be able to post a reply and we will get the discussion we could not have on the phone by John and Kim discussing it on the blog. John mentioned the need for nuclear reactors and propulsion for the Moon and talked time lines for some of these ideas to happen as possibly 30-50 years from now!
Before I ended the program, I again went over the unusual programming this week which consists of my making recommendations for Starship Congress talks you should watch for each normal Space Show day and time given there will be no live programming this week for reasons relating to Hurricane Irma. All the show information for the week can be found in the Upcoming Show menu to the right on our homepage. Remember, these are not Space Show programs and they will not be archived but you can comment about them on our blog.
Please post your comments/questions on TSS blog for this show. You can reach any of the callers or those sending emails through me.
The Space Show
