Guest: Kenneth (Ken) Murphy. Topics: The Moon Society, lunar commerce, space finance. You are invited to comment, ask questions, & discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, & any discussion must be relevant & 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 Ken Murphy to discuss the Moon Society as he is now the Executive Director of the organization. We also talked about lunar commerce, space investing, & a host of other topics. We started our first segment of this two hour program talking about the LEAG conference our guest attended earlier in the day on space finance issues. Our next topic was The Moon Society (www.moonsociety.org). Ken is the new head of the organization & he shared much of his plans with us. He talked about many of the projects he wants to undertake & develop plus educational outreach efforts with NASA & others. He also spoke about lunar lava tubes & the interest in them. We discussed the commercial potential of Cis-Lunar Space development throughout our discussion. Moon interests by other national space agencies came up via a listener question & Ken expressed a concern that another nation, say China, would be able to make a claim & work it for choice lunar r/e before we are back to the Moon. We talked about the legal regime & property rights involved in commercial lunar activities. Ken introduced us to the requirement for there to be value to space projects making it worthwhile for others to pay for that value. That said, determining the value of many projects today may be challenging but this is changing. He talked about potential value creating ideas & ventures for Cis-Lunar space & even Mars. Ken was asked about the Google Lunar X Prize & he said was a game advancing program. He told us about his being at the recent SEDS event in Boulder & the consensus that the general public has abysmal knowledge about the Moon. Near the end of this segment we talked about Boy & Girl Scout interest in space & then Ken told us how he now has the Out Of The Cradle blog which is chocked full of interesting information. Visit the blog at www.outofthecradle.net. We specifically talked about the Lunar Library (www.outofthecradle.net/categories/lunar-library). In the second segment, we talked some about the space programs of the presidential candidates but Ken made a point of saying that there was no space leadership by anyone at this time. Tim in San Diego inquired about Moon-Mars competition in terms of a space program. Ken said the Moon was a sandbox for the rest of the solar system. Reda asked what motivated someone to making the Moon into a career over say Mars or something else. Listen to the excellent response offered by our guest. Next, we talked about the business perspective for potential commercial activity & inquired about mining He3 or doing a lunar based SSP program. Ken offered specific suggestions to these & other ideas so listen carefully to what he said. Toward the end of the program, we talked about Moon Day in Dallas & the Art Show that is held at the Frontier of Flight Museum at the Dallas Love Field Airport. Last year the theme was space comic books & this year it is space LP covers. Listen to Ken describe these program. I may see you there at this year's Moon Day events. Toward the end of the program, Tim in Huntsville asked about low cost space access, QuickLaunch, Falcon Heavy, rotating lunar tethers, & the O'Neill mass driver. Please post your questions & comments on The Space Show blog above. You can email Ken at lunadyne@gmail.com.
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