Dr. Robert Zubrin was the returning guest for this Space Show program. We began our discussion with Bob with a focus on the upcoming 10th Annual Mars Society Conference which will be held on the UCLA campus over the Labor Day weekend 2007. You can register for the conference and find out more about it at www.marssociety.org. This year the conference is speaker-packed and clearly this is a conference to attend. Also, political action sessions are more important than ever because as you will hear in the first segment of tonight's program, there are efforts underway to either delay or even kill the Mars robotic and manned space programs. Bob talks about these efforts at length so for those of you who agree on the importance of Mars science, a return mission, and a manned Mars mission, pay attention to the warnings Bob is telling us about and help take action to make sure these vital programs are not killed or put on a back burner. We move our discussion toward the Devon Island Mission, then the analog site in Utah. You can see the reports from Devon and Utah on the Mars Society website and you can be a volunteer for the two week program at the Utah site. Listeners asked Dr. Zubrin about possible show stoppers for going to Mars, radiation and zero g. You will not want to miss Bob's important, factual discussion of these two important issues. Dr. Zubrin was also asked about using different propulsion to get to Mars faster. Bob had a very interesting take on this, don't miss his reply. Several listeners asked about a private manned Mars mission, its probable costs, the time frame to do it, and why someone or a group of people would fund it. Again, you will not want to miss Bob's discussion about such a mission. We also discussed his new book which will be released in the fall, "Energy Victory: Winning the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil." This issue was developed by Bob based on his insitu Mars work. As part of this book, he has written an excellent article for The New Atlantis titled "The Hydrogen Hoax" and published for Winter 2007. You can read this article at www.thenewatlantis.com/archive/13/zubrin.htm. You can place an advance order for his book and read more about it by visiting the Amazon site, www.amazon.com/Energy-Victory-Winning-Terror-Breaking/dp/1591025915/ref…. You will find his plan to legislate that all cars sold in America within three years be flex fuel cars to be intriguing and worthwhile. If you have questions or comments for Bob, please forward them to me at drspace@thespaceshow.com and I will send them on to Dr. Zubrin.
Guest
The Space Show
