Guest: Dr. Claude Piantadosi. Topics": We discussed Dr. Piantodosi's book, "Mankind Beyond Earth," human spaceflight, Mars missions, radiation, microgravity. 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. We welcomed Dr. Claude Piantadosi to the program to discuss his new book, "Mankind Beyond Earth: The History, Science, and Future of Human Space Exploration." If you buy the book using this Amazon URL, www.amazon.com/Claude-A.-Piantadosi/e/B001IU0QRS/ref=onegiantlea20, Amazon will contribute to The Space Show/OGLF. During our first segment of this two hour discussion, we compared the space environment to the undersea environment, and live support and environmental issues with a nuclear submarine as opposed to what we have available today for space flight. Our guest talked about the advantages of human spaceflight (HSF) over robotic missions, plus the contributions to advancing technology, science & our understanding of our own environment derived from HSF. Radiation & microgravity issues were mentioned and listeners started asking detailed questions pertaining HSF and Mars missions. Much of this segment focused the two planned Mars missions and the human factors challenges. In addition to a comprehensive analysis from the medical perspective, listeners also pointed out that Inspire Mars would likely have indirect if not direct public money supporting the mission. Most were less supportive of the mission if it included public money, direct or indirect. Dr. Piantadosi talked about radiation & microgravity unknowns and variables. He also talked about our current time line for meeting human factors & life support challenges over the near term which was not good. In our second segment, we talked about affordable space & how to achieve it. Heavy lift and SLS came up as did fuel depots and reusability. A listener asked about older people being more radiation resistant or tolerant. Long duration spaceflight mental issues came up and our guest talked about them in the context of crew selection and training. Procreation in space was discussed as was the mass needed for water radiation shielding. Our guest suggested that since the shuttle retirement, our space program had lost its focus. He said there were no plans to get us the next level of information needed for travel beyond the Van Allen Belts. He also talked about a lunar first program to learn and get the needed information to go to an asteroid or Mars, suggesting this might be a 15-20 year research program. In the context of lengthy missions, our guest addressed sequestration and the need for international projects and financing. When asked if the recently announced private deep space missions had an edge over public mission, he did not think so. Don't miss what our guest said about this. In closing, he urged us to engage in critical reading and critical thinking about problems. Space is essential & we need to move forward with it using a good development & exploration plan. Please post your comments/questions for Dr. Piantadosi on The Space Show blog above. You can reach our guest through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com.
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