Guest: Dr. Paul Spudis. Topics: We discussed his new book, "Blogging The Moon: The Once & Future Moon Collection," plus lunar policy and science. Please note that you are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. You can purchase "Blogging the Moon" from the OGLF Amazon partners website using www.amazon.com/dp/1926837177/ref=as_li_tf_til?tag=onegialeafou-20. Remember, when you buy the book through OGLF, Amazon makes a contribution to The Space Show/OGLF. You can follow the blog articles for Dr. Paul Spudis at http://blogs.airspacemag.com/moon. Paul's website is www.spudislunarresources.com. Also check out his "Rationale for Cislunar Space on his website at www.spudislunarresources.com/Rationale.htm. In our first segment, Dr. Spudis explained the format and structure of his new book which is made up from essays he has written on his blog. That said, it did not take long before the listeners started asking Dr. Spudis policy question after policy question regarding our Moon program or lack of a Moon program. In fact, our first question asked Dr. Spudis to clear up the confusion about our return to the Moon with humans given the confusing media, policy statements, and behavior coming from Congress, the Administration, and NASA. This discussion was dominant during our full program today. In responding, Dr. Spudis talked about budget issues, the FY 11 CR and lack of a final budget, the challenges in planning when nothing is final thus making it difficult to move forward. Paul talked about the lack of a cohesive strategy and the lack of leadership. John called asking how foreign space agency competition might impact US space policy. Dr. Spudis did not think it would but listen to his full discussion on this important issue. Dr. Spudis said he was holding out hope that we would eventually influence a critical mass that would realize we need space in our economy just as we need other things and when that happens, policy and programs will move forward. Heavy lift launchers were discussed so don't miss what was said about them. Additionally, he mentioned that claiming to have insufficient funds for parts of our human spaceflight program were not true because he and others have shown in plans on his blog and elsewhere that the shuttle side mount plan meets all the needed congressional, policy, technical and mission requirements, and is affordable. We finished this segment with Dr. Spudis saying how space has always been a bipartisan issue. We started the second segment with Paul talking about his blog article referenced above on propellant depots. Much of this segment was focused on the subject of depots. Later in the segment, I gave in to temptation and went on one of my anti-Kool Aid fantasy land rants about knowing the difference between reality and something that may be real at some point in the future is not yet in existence today, often not even beyond Power Point Level 1 today. Paul offered gentlemanly comments on my rant, then we went to break to start the final segment. In our third segment, we talked about the mutual interaction with science missions and policy. Dr. Spudis talked about exciting lunar science concerning the lunar poles and the mapping of near sunlight areas on the Moon. Listeners asked about international cooperation for lunar space projects which Dr. Spudis has both supported and participated in. Near the end, I asked him how lunar missions ranked in terms of NASA priority with outer planet missions. As the program ended, I asked our guest for a rating on his level of optimism for the near term for returning to the Moon and human spaceflight. If you have comments or questions for Dr. Paul Spudis, post them on the blog URL above. You can also email Dr. Spudis at spudis@lpi.usra.edu.
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