Broadcast 1794 (Special Edition)

Guests: Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston. Topics: A short film - Angelfish, human factors for space travel, artificial gravity, space communications, science fiction movies & long term science projects, risk taking. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and 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. This is about a 2.5 hour Open Lines discussion. We started by talking to Michael Tyburski, an independent film maker who made a short film, Angelfish, and used The Space Show clips in the background. Michael described his film, why he put The Space Show in it, and more. Visit www.michaeltyburski.com for more information. Next, Dr. Jurist talked with us about artificial gravity & the chart he created to show just how big the radius would have to be to spin at 1G & other levels including lunar as well as Martian gravity. This chart is on The Space Show blog so you can follow along with what Dr. Jurist talked about regarding artificial gravity and spin rates. Our last caller for the first hour long segment was Jay who discussed the Space Literacy Foundation (www.spaceliteracy.org). Jay talked about the need for better space communications with the public as a way to facilitate more support for space. He also responded to questions I asked him about myths dealing with our early space program and the general population. If you are interested in what Jay is doing, contact him through his website. In our second longer segment, Ron called in to talk about the history of the wheels on the Lunar Rover and an ad campaign by Goodyear that incorrectly describes the history of the rover wheels. Ron talked about the use of piano wire, how the original wheels were made, who made them, and more. The paper about this important history that we mentioned on air can be read at www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/lrv_historical_origins.pdf. We talked about the history of the lunar rovers, the cosmic radiation impact on them over time on the Moon, and their design which included harmonic drives and engineering to shield from lunar dust problems. He mentioned a good source of information, a journal edited by Eric Jones & Ken Glover, the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal. You can find this journal at www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj. Ron directed listeners to the document section for Apollo 15, 16, and 17. John from Atlanta followed Ron, had much to say about the recent success of the Dragon & Falcon 9, then he talked about human factors, one way Mars missions as being suicidal, the regulatory environment & the possibility of excessive or restrictive regulations. We also talked about the new sci-fi movie, Prometheus. The article I mentioned about the movie can be read at http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html. If you plan on seeing the movie, I suggest you see the movie first, then read the article which is titled Prometheus Unbound: What The Movie Was Actually About. It is written by Cavalorn. Tim was our final caller. He took issues with human factors medicine & Dr. Rowe. Also the risk of over regulation, especially if someone dies going to space. He expressed his thoughts on other things as well. While our discussion was civil, as you will hear, I did not agree with much of what he advocated. I urged him and other space enthusiasts to be more inclusive of other ideas for space exploration and development rather than just believing their way is the best or even the only way. If you have comments/questions, post them on the blog. If you want to email those that called us, send your note to me & I will forward it for you.