Guest: Dr. Ken Davidian: Topics: Ken discusses his new paper "What Makes Space Activities Commercial." This was an interesting, somewhat technical and most informative discussion regarding commercial space, government space, and the driving factors behind the projects and goals.
We Welcomed Dr. Ken Davidian back to the show for a thorough discussion of his paper which has been posted on Acta Astronautica. A good short review of his paper appeared in an article by noted space journalist Leonard David on his blog. Check it out here: "Space Tourism: Evolution-Driven Market Place:" www.leonarddavid.com/space-tourism-evolution-driven-marketplace. In addition, Ken has posted links to some of his presentations about his work on our blog so be sure to check out this additional information.
Much of our discussion with Ken formed around drivers or as he called them, change motors. Note that that space tourism was used as an example for this body of work but our guest used additional examples during our program to drive home specific points. Ken specifically spent time talking about both teleologic and evolution change mechanisms or drivers (change motors). He talked about how government could be supportive of commercial. Ken brought in the use independent variables but he responded to listener questions and comments that were a bit more general in their focus. This was an important and detailed discussion so don't miss it.
Listener Todd early on asked Ken about the apparent gap between business and academic communities. Ken discussed this gap which he agreed did exist. He referred to is as a gap between the practioner and academia. By the way, Musk, Bezos, SpaceX and Blue were frequent examples cited by our guest and listeners depending on what was being talked about at any given time. Also, market segments and their specifics were part of the analysis as to what makes space activities commercial. Later, a hot button discussion focused on commercial market differences from government markets plus how governments could enable commercial market development. A big factor that was discussed zeroed in on the issue of uncertainty. Toward the end of the discussion, we talked about space being a right or a privilege. For sure you want to hear this part of our discussion. This was followed by a call from Fremont John about Public Private Partnerships (PPP) and hybrid supercharged business models. Ken had much to say, then John asked him about space settlement using the gold rush days as an example of a frontier settlement model. Ken talked about space settlement as being of the evolution type but with no rules. Then he said it was starting to show characteristics of teleologic so again, don't miss out on any of our space settlement commentary. Before ending, we talked more about space tourism and the evolution motor. Repeat customer concerns were brought up as were retention and other issues, including licensing.
Ken offered us a summary, talked about his future plans and next paper plus his participation in the upcoming conference with the IAC in Dubai.
Please post your comments/questions for Dr. Davidian on our blog for this show. You can reach Ken through me or the email he gave out on air at the end of the discussion
The Space Show
