Guest: Dr. Alan Stern. Topics: New Horizons to Pluto, Uwingu Mars programs. Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. In addition, please remember that your Amazon purchases can help support The Space Show/OGLF. See www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm. For those listening to archives using live365.com and rating the programs, please email me as to why you assign a specific rating to the show. This will help me bring better programming to the audience. We welcomed Dr. Alan Stern back to the program to discuss New Horizons which is on target for its summer rendezvous with Pluto and new Uwingu projects relating to Mars (www.uwingu.com). During our hour long program, Dr. Stern started with New Horizons and he mentioned the 10 AM PDT, 1 PM EDT NASA press conference today regarding New Horizons passing Neptune's orbit plus it being the 25th anniversary of Voyager passing the Neptune system. The press conference is at www.space.com/17933-nasa-television-webcasts-live-space-tv.html but if you miss it, I'm confident it will be archived. Alan reported that New Horizons was in good health, we talked about the course corrections it has made along its trip to Pluto, plus special events planned for its arrival in the Pluto system. Other topics included the Kuiper Belt and Ort Cloud, dwarf planets and just how many planets are in our solar system per a question asked by a listener regarding his son's science class. BJohn asked questions about the Gaia telescope and comparisons of New Horizons to Dawn and the Rosetta mission. Another listener asked about the New Horizons team and its costs so far. We talked about the need for advanced propulsion and what missions would be most suited for it. Doug sent in an email regarding Pluto, Ceres, and the start of a new era of exploration. Lots of comments and questions about Pluto being a planet as Alan referred to Pluto as a planet. Dr. Stern did go over the differences and similarities with Rosetta, New Horizons and the Dawn Mission and he said the Gaia telescope could not do the imaging Bjorn asked about but that Earth-based telescopes could do a good job in some circumstances s could Hubble. At the halfway point, we switched over to talking about Uwingu and their latest Mars project (see http://uwingu.com/beam-me-to-mars). I mentioned on air about a Space Show contest which would award the winner a message to Mars so if you have ideas for such a contest, email them to me please. I plan on sending a Space Show message to Mars and will post it on the blog. Alan also talked about the program naming Mars craters which will appear on their Mars map which is planned to go to Mars on the Mars One robotic mission in a few years. Before the show ended, a listener asked Alan about the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference. Please post your comments/questions on TSS blog.
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