Ted Spitzmiller returned to The Space Show to discuss his newly published "Astronautics: Book 2 - To The Moon And Towards The Future, A Historical Perspective of Mankind's Efforts To Conquer the Cosmos." We began our discussion with a bit of history regarding the circumstances that led us to the Moon and then we looked forward to examine our national as well as the international environment of today at a time when we are working to return to the Moon. This proved to be a most interesting discussion, visionary, and educational. You do not want to miss it. We talked about learning lessons from history for both the good and the bad and we asked Mr. Spitzmiller about the lessons we should learn that will aid us in our efforts to go forward with the VSE as well as the lessons that will likely hinder us. We also spoke about Mars and as you will hear from our guest, he strongly supports a humans to Mars mission for a variety of reasons, even bypassing the Moon. There were several listener questions about about this, including bypassing the Moon for a visit to a NEO. Hear why Ted does not favor such a NEO mission, especially over a mission to Mars. Other listener questions dealt with the use of the ISS and its potential commercial value, mass drivers, alternatives to chemical rockets including nuclear power. Toward the end of the program, we talked about scramjets, Point A to Point B scramjet or suborbital transportation, and the needed regulatory overhaul to support such changes in technology. The subject of the business SST jets came up, how they handle the pressure creating the sonic boom and how these companies are already working to change the regulations to allow for super sonic flight over the U.S. Ted's book is widely available at book stores and online, its published by Apogee and would make a great holiday gift. If you have comments or questions for Ted, please send them to him at ted_ spitzmiller@hotmail.com.
Guest
The Space Show
