Guest: John Strickland; Topics: John's two new book, "Developing Space" and "Settling Space," space policy, sources of energy and power, challenges, policies and human spaceflight, Mars, the Moon, NASA, commercial space, reusability and more.
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We welcomed John Strickland back to the show to discuss his two new books, "Developing Space" which is Book #1 followed by "Settling Space" which is Book #2. John used the books as a guide for our discussion, starting with Book 1. For example, John started off with a sort of recent 10-20 year space history concerning space, commercial space, and NASA. This covered most of the first half of the show though we did side track to other discussions from time to time. One of the things John kept repeating regarding knowing space history was that you can't possibly know where you are going if you don't now where you came from. Follow along with John as he does use the history to take us to recent advancements in technology and science such as reusability rockets.
John's history discussion was interrupted when he got an email question from Bill in Baltimore asking John for his opinion on the FAA possibly stopping the SpaceX work at Boca Chica regarding the launch tower not meeting environmental requirements. As I understand it, the matter is currently under investigation. John had much to say to Bill regarding his opinion, generally thought that Elon Musk would not risk Starship and other projects by crossing the FAA. He concluded his comments saying he hoped the problem with the FAA would just blow over. What do you think about this potential issue? Will it blow over? Should it blow over Please post your comments on this matter on our blog for this show.
Another listener asked John what we the advocates and space enthusiasts should and could do to further the space development John was talking about. John talked about doing many things including supporting events like the NSS ISDC, but also to understand and support development before settlement. He spent some time explaining this so do listen to what our guest had to say on this topic.
Sally from Atlanta asked John about the job we were doing regarding space education. Sally thought we were doing a good job within the industry but a bad job with the general public. Don't miss how John responded to this question. Hint: He went back to his history to talk about history being both good and bad. John moved on to talk next about SSP and cislunar development. He did say that SSP was a great concept and then he explained the premise behind SSP with unlimited 24/7 power to Earth. He talked about the specs for SSP and said multiple countries were interested in it.
Fremont John called suggesting that there were important things needing to be done so he was asking John about them. One thing to be done was to determine the gravity prescription for humans in space. John suggested that eventually space settlement will include children so knowing the gravity prescription was essential. John brought up 1G rotating settlements and free space settlements but that we need experimentation. In addition, caller John brought up asteroid mining and how one could actually build large rotating structures in space. Don't miss the discussion with Fremont John and guest John regarding this call. Guest John then talked about going to Mars and the speeds needed to get there plus Mars approach speeds. He also talked about a Mars taxi.
Ben from Denver used email to inquire about human spaceflight medical challenges. Our guest talked about both radiation and microgravity as the elephants in the room saying that his Book 1 dealt with these issues. Another email came in, this one from Frank, suggesting that we should visit the moons of Mars before the Martian surface as he had heard that would be easier than going to the red planet. Our guest seemed to throw cold water on this idea, started talking about velocities needed for the Mars surface or a Moon and said if the destination was Mars, we needed to go to Mars. He gave us a technical explanation so do listen to all of what our guest said about this question. John then started talking about CO2, O2, Mars, New Horizons and more. John covered this topic in far more detail on an earlier appearance on TSS (see www.thespaceshow.com/show/04-aug-2020/broadcast-3552-john-strickland) so you might want to pick up on that. He had much to say about this idea of a buffer gas for Mars per the earlier referenced show.
Listener Ajay called to disagree with John about his SSP plans. Ajay was suggesting we use thorium liquid reactors for power. I supported Ajay's commentary and talked about the need to have nuclear and/or thorium power in CA and other parts of the country for reliable 24/7 green energy power. John and Ajay had quite the spirited discussion regarding this topic.
As part of John's summary, he pointed to Book 2 regarding interstellar travel and starships with hibernation. Also, he summarized human settlement and talked about settlements as part of our future and terraforming planets.
Please post your comments/questions for John Strickland on our blog for this program. John can be reached through me.
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