Broadcast 776 (Special Edition)

Dr. Pat Hynes and Dr. Tom Burton were the guests for this Space Show program. Our subject to be discussed was the International Symposium for Personal Spaceflight (ISPS) to be held in Las Cruces, NM from Oct. 24-25, 2007. Visit http://spacegrant.nmsu.edu/isps/index2.php for the agenda, information, registration, and more. We started our discussion with an overview of new speakers and developments for the ISPS. Pat updated us with the program introduction and speakers for the morning session of the first day. Tom described his session on the first day and we asked him any space engineering questions throughout this program. One listener even asked him for his engineering opinion on the new Google X Prize award for a private company getting a working rover to the Moon. You will certainly want to hear his answer. Many questions came in for Pat and Tom about Symposium logistics, meals that are included with your registration, internet facilities at the conference, question periods for the speakers and panels, and much more. This is a comprehensive discussion of the quality of this conference, even coming down to the expected weather for our Las Cruces visit and the dress code for the conference location. As a result of listener questions, Pat told us about the student scholarship program for attending the ISPS and other student programs. We asked Tom why he was attracted to this conference given his being the head of the NMSU Department of Mechanical Engineering and he listed two main reasons. His response to this question is important to hear and it led to a discussion about math, engineering and educational issues we are facing in the country, our schools and even down to the K-12 level. For sure, if you are attending the ISPS, listen to this show as it will give you important information about not just the ISPS but also the speakers and even the X Prize Cup. If you have not yet decided to attend or if you are unable to attend, also listen to this show as its full of important information, brief bios of important space developer businessmen and women and much more. Furthermore, all the comments about outstanding networking opportunities and foods and refreshments, well, they are an understatement! If you are interested in learning more about the NMSU Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, visit http://me.nmsu.edu/. Contact information is provided on this website for further questions or comments. Make sure you mention you heard Dr. Burton on The Space Show. For those of you wanting to contact Dr. Hynes or the ISPS office, please call 505 646-6414. You can email questions or comments to nmsgc@nmsu.edu. Again, mention The Space Show in the subject line of your note.