Peter Kokh, the President of the Moon Society, was the guest for this Space Show program. The interview started with Mr. Kokh telling us what the Moon Society is, along with the Lunar-Reclamation Organization. I then asked him to elaborate on his position which was reflected at www.lunar-reclamation.org regarding the new space policy initiative proposed by President Bush. His position paper on this new policy both supports the overall concept approach but opposes several of the assumptions used to explain the policy. A few of the points he opposes include using money to fund the initiative by taking funds away from other space projects and by stating that we are going to the Moon only to use it as a base and stopping off point for going to Mars. Peter Kokh also made it clear that in his opinion, a heavy lift launch vehicle was needed to return to the Moon to stay and most likely this vehicle would come from shuttle derived components. Several listeners as Mr. Kokh about trash, human waste, the lunar environment, and related issues. Mr. Kokh spent a considerable amount of time talking about the need to live off the land so to speak, to utilize our waste, to be environmentally sensitive and efficient and that learning to live like this on the Moon would benefit us here on Earth. He explained why this type of living is both essential and possible, and why NASA does not do it on the Shuttle or the ISS. We also talked about the most likely mining operations that could be conducted on the Moon, about using the back side of the Moon for radio telescopes or astronomy, and what the first commercial missions to the Moon will consist of and be like. Peter Kokh afforded us a thorough discussion about the Moon, how soon we can get there with the private sector, the funding of lunar projects between the public and the private sectors, and much more. This is a most interesting program and a great start for Space Show for 2005!
Guest
The Space Show
