Professor William Burrows was the guest for this special remote location Space Show program. Please note that you will hear background noise on this archived program which was a result of electrical interference traced to hotel electrical wiring. Professor Burrows began the interview with an introduction to the survival imperative which is the title of his book, "The Survival Imperative: Using Space To Protect Earth." From this point forward, a most interesting, informative, and clearly eye-opening conversation followed for the duration of the two hour program. Not only did we go into detail about the survival imperative, we discussed the militarization of space both before and after the Chinese ASAT test last month. We discussed space plans for nations such as China, India, Russia, and the US. This will surely prove controversial for many listeners but its important that all sides of this issue be heard and understood and Professor Burrows does a stellar job in guiding us through the issues and the analytical process. We also talked about reporting and journalism both as to the space community and for our nation in general. Since Professor Burrows is a journalism professor at NYU, he had many important insights to share with us about his peers, academia, and students. We talked about students, especially what's important about space to them, if anything, and much more. We explored NASA, the VSE, and their inability to effectively communicate with the American people about the importance of their missions and why we should be returning to the Moon or doing something else in space. We also talked about funding issues and congress. Early in the program, Professor Burrows explained that survivability was the main reason for going off planet, to the Moon, etc. Listeners took issue with his comments and asked him about the need for the human spirit to explore new frontiers and continue to push outward. You will not want to miss his discussion on this issue. Other issues we discussed included the ISS and his thoughts on it. Don't miss hearing them! As his book has an open letter to congress in it which all of you should read and use with your own members of congress, I asked about its effect, if any, with congress to date. If you want to contact Professor Burrows with your comments or questions, please do so at william.e.burrows@nyu.edu. As always, you can go through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com and I will forward your comments to him. I look forward to welcoming Professor Burrows back to The Space Show for more discussions on these and other important space issues.
Guest
The Space Show
