Guest: Lynn Baroff. Topics: Space policy, long duration HSF needs and realities, crew size, costs, internationalization. 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. We welcomed back Lynn Baroff of NASA Ames to the program. Do note that Mr. Baroff spoke for himself, not for NASA. We started our first segment by asking Lynn when we would resume human spaceflight (HSF) and mount a long duration spaceflight mission to Mars, the moons of Mars, or another destination. He said that while we were in a difficult period now, it will eventually happen but he did not know when. He went on to say HSF was hard and costly and listed a few reasons in support of his statement. First, the human race has grown up living in great weather with an atmosphere and protection from solar radiation. Next, we have water, food, fuel, and overall our environment is very benign. Thus, we have to take our environment with us both going and coming and that is a challenge. The issue of mission trades in engineering, medicine, mass, and more came up and were discussed by our guest. One of the major trades focused on was crew size. Next, trades dealing with a variety of engineering & technical options & consequences brought up before we ended the first segment. In the longer second segment of this two hour program, John from Atlanta called to say we needed advanced propulsion. Nobody disagreed but our guest talked about the costs & the research needed to develop advanced propulsion. Our next topic was the mission and the trades in place for a lunar mission, a Mars direct mission, or a Deimos type mission. We talked about the payoffs to the public sector/private sector for undertaking such a mission. Lynn then suggested that for now space exploration was on the back burner though it was conceivable that should the government spend money on space & technology, needed jobs could be created. Alice from Arizona asked for an explanation of payoffs & this caused some problems for both Lynn and me. We talked about why we do space but the reality is a payoff can be different for each person or entity. There simply is no universal payoff, including space settlement. Lynn and I then spent considerable time talking about the communication problem in the space industry with Congress as well as the public. Lynn suggested advertising, I expanded that to industry sponsored PSA announcements/PR & even put forth an idea I have thought about using Fathom Productions. Lynn talked about the need to engage the public with the mission but talked about possible failure points with such missions. As the program drew to a close, Lynn suggested it was very risky to have all the eggs for the human race in one basket and spreading the risk was and is important with space offering a possible solution to mitigate that risk. We also talked about a Bay Area AIAA event planned for Tuesday, Dec. 6 in Mountain View, CA where Lynn interviews me with audience participation. I'll furnish details of this even as it draws nearer for those of you in the area who would like to attend. Please post your comments & questions on the blog URL above. You can contact Lynn Baroff through me, drspace@thespaceshow.com.
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The Space Show
