Guest: Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston. Topics: An Open Lines program covers a wide variety of topics of interest to the listeners. 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. Welcome to this 2 hour 20 minute Open Lines discussion largely driven by listeners calling the program. In our first hour segment, I listed the usual possible discussion topics which I won't repeat here. As to be expected, listeners had their own ideas as to what they wanted to talk about though we did address some of the issues I previewed including NASA & the treatment of their chimps in the early space program given that PETA wants to establish a chimp empathy museum at KSC, NASA budget cuts & the recent congressional hearings, the Defense Intelligence Agency Chinese space program wake up call, & more. The congressional hearings of last week made it to our discusses as listeners focused on what was said by Senator Nelson, Senator Hutchinson, NASA Administrator Bolden, & Dr. Tyson in his short presentation. Listeners also talked about the comments by Texas Congresswoman Eddie Johnson regarding commercial space/crew on the House side. Also in the first segment, Tim called in to inquire about a possible IPO for Space X. In our second segment, Dr. Jurist called in to express his disappointment at the elimination of funding for the Operationally Responsive Space office/program. This took us to a discussion about national security space & I asked Dr. Jurist about the Defense Intelligence Agency wake up call regarding the Chinese space program as expressed by their director Ronald L. Burgess. Somehow we then got off on the topic of the planned retirement of the B-52 in 2040, about 88 years after it became operational. While Dr. Jurist was talking with us, Tim sent in several email questions for him on microgravity experiments to determine what level of gravity was needed for humans for space settlement & long duration flights. John Hunt followed with comments about VASIMR, nuclear propulsion, & even fusion powered spacecraft down the road in our future. Tom Hanson of the Living Universe Foundation called in to let people know they are seeking Foundation board members (www.luf.org/contact). I then introduced another topic from a current article in Popular Science, a 20,000 mph train to space (www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-03/all-aboard-20000-mile-hour-lo…). This article refers to a newer version of StarTram & this brought in several more callers including Trent from Australia. Other listeners chimed in on the train to space idea as well though most did not take the article very seriously. I introduced the news that Turkey had agreed to the Moon Treaty & then Terry called in at the end to talk about the X-37C & that it might become a crewed vehicle. Please post your comments/questions on The Space Show blog URL above. If you want to contact any of our callers, send your note to me & I will forward it for you. If you want more info on any of the news stories I mentioned, let me know & I will send it to you.
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