Guest: Dr. John Brandenburg. Topics: Life on Mars. 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. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. To purchase Dr. Brandenburg's new book, "Life and Death On Mars," please do so through the OGLF Amazon Partners link at www.amazon.com/dp/1935487361?tag=onegialeafou-20. In the first of two segments in this two hour interview, Dr. Brandenburg said that having found microfossils in the CI meteorites as reported in the work of Dr. Richard Hoover in the Journal of Cosmology, past life on Mars is confirmed and this is the now the period of our experiencing the Second Copernican Revolution. Most of the first segment focused on past life on Mars, what it means, what groups oppose this conclusion and why. Here Dr. Brandenburg talked about political and social agendas that adversely impact the disclosure of life elsewhere in the universe. Later, we talked about the upcoming Mars Science Lab (MSL) experiment, methane vents, Viking, and more. Dr. Brandenburg did say that Mars was geothermally completely dead and then put this science in the context of STEM education and why space and science are so important for inspiring students to do the hard STEM work. He also said our space program was steeped in geopolitics and talked about the global impact of our space shuttles and the U.S. space program. John received several listener questions about the Martian biosphere and he talked about Mars once having had an ocean. He suggested the Mars climate system collapsed around 500 million years ago. In reference to the biosphere, he talked about the Lyot impact crater. In the second segment we talked about terreforming Mars and using Phobos as a main base to explore Mars. The issue of a manned flight to Mars came up and our guest took on several spirited questions in an intense debate from listeners revolving around human factors issues and the ability to land a large payload on Mars. I referenced an earlier Space Show program on the payload landing issue with a program from Nov. 13, 2009 with Drs. Braun and Manning as guests (http://archived.thespaceshow.com/shows/1256-BWB-2009-11-13.mp3). As Dr. Brandenburg was discussing Martian colonization, listeners asked him if Martian gravity was suitable for sustaining functional human life. Don't miss what our guest had to say about this and other life support issues for humans going to and living on Mars. Toward the end of the program, we talked about the Xenon 129 and natural nuclear reactors on Earth and probably on Mars. As our interview was ending, Dr. Brandenburg outlined what he suggested as the best path for a manned Mars mission, he talked about the Tidus Bodes Law and the Quantum Gem Gravity Theory. If you have questions or comments for Dr. Brandenburg, post them on the blog URL above. Dr. Brandenburg can be emailed using spaceranger137@yahoo.com.
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