Guest: Martin Schwab was the guest for this Space Show program which discussed space development and usage from a political science perspective. Topics included planetary defense, space in Hawaii, finding and cataloging NEOs and the statistical probability of one hitting the Earth. We discussed the NEO impact scenario from a policy and political science perspective, that is, public funding for something that has a low statistical chance of taking place anytime soon. This was an interesting discussion that you will want to hear.

Guest: Rand Simberg was the guest for today's Space Show program. Our discussion started by mentioning that Richardson had withdrawn his name from consideration for Secretary of Commerce in the Obama administration. We talked about this for a few minutes as there were some possible space ramifications to his appointment and now with his withdrawal. We then moved on to the issue of comparing COTS and Shuttle as was done on the RocketsandSuch blog and copied over to the Space Cynics site per our discussion last week.

Guest: Dan Adamo was the guest for this Space Show program to discuss his White Paper, "Revisited Virtues of Lunar Surface Rendezvous (LSR)." Mr. Adamo started out explaining the nature of the current NASA plan for returning to the Moon which requires launching on Ares 1 and then Ares V over a four day critical launch interval. Dan explained the differences with LSR as he sees it and the NASA plan, making sure that listeners understood the programs and how LSR was unique.

Guest: Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston. Nearly all the first hour of the program was devoted to business planning, due diligence, engineering, and number crunching analysis. I went through the business plan outline I use, responded to listener questions and comments and talked about some do's and don'ts regarding business planning, negotiations, and talking with investors as well as others. Later in the show, several listeners asked me about my thoughts on 2008 space milestones, my view of things to come in 2009, and my take on Dr. Griffin as NASA Administrator.

Guest: Jim Muncy returned for this Space Show program to discuss space policy in 2008 and its transition to 2009. We talked about the current Administrator Dr. Griffin and his efforts to remain at NASA plus what this would mean for continuing with the VSE and Aries as planned. Jim also mentioned some important public sector 2008 milestones, including the Zero G contract, the recent Cargo Resupply Services Contract, and improvements in DOD and Space Command.

Guest: Tom Olson was our guest for this special Space Show program which took a look at space in 2008 to get an idea of what space in 2009 will look like. We started the discussion with an update from Tom on his effort to win clemency for Walt Anderson as President Bush decides these issues before leaving office. Tom explained the process and said it was now just a wait and see what happens. We then shifted to a post on the RocketsandSuch blog (See http://www.rocketsandsuch.blogspot.com/ for more information).

Guest: Dan Shaw was the guest for this Space Show program to discuss the subject of his doctoral studies work, Collaborative Tools and Techniques in Aerospace. We talked about the need for such services given the ever increasing quantities of data, images, etc, that need to be displayed, catalogued, and brought to the public. Museum and private company archives were discussed, but so were Space Show archives for transcription.

Guest: Kris Kimel, president and founder of KSTC, was the guest for this Space Show program to discuss Kentucky Space (Please see : www.kentuckyspace.com for more details). Mr. Kimel explained the origins of Kentucky Space and later in the show, he told us about his ambitious 2009 plans which include three balloon launches and up to two suborbital launches.

Guest: Robert Zimmerman returned to this Space Show program to honor Apollo 8 on its 40th anniversary and to discuss the state of the space industry as we wind down 2008 and look forward to 2009. Bob suggested that perhaps Apollo 8 and the reading from Genesis on Christmas Eve forty years ago as Borman, Anders,and Lovell orbited the Moon was perhaps the most important space mission of its time. You will want to hear Bob tell the story of Apollo 8, how Genesis was selected to be ready by the astronauts, and the role of NASA PR at the time in the selection of the reading passage.

Guest: Dr. Nader Elhefnawy returned to The Space Show to discuss the role of space throughout literature. As you will hear, space in one form or another has been part of literature since early times although it is not normally considered as a destination or place. In addition, now it's almost exclusively found in science fiction and this genre is waning in interest and popularity. You will want to hear what Dr. Elhefnawy has to say about this throughout this program.