Guest: Paul Breed. Topics: Lunar Lander Challenge (LLC), rocket technology, space vision and policy. We welcomed Paul Breed back to The Space Show to discuss his recent LLC experiences. We started our first segment with Paul giving us an update as to this year's LLC and the Unreasonable Rocket effort to win both phases, the 90 second and the 180 second phase. You can learn more about his efforts and work at his blog and website, http://unreasonablerocket.blogspot.com. Paul tells about his errors and the mistake he made in going for both phases rather than focusing on only one of the two goals. This is a most interesting and instructive discussion so don't miss it. During this discussion, Paul was asked why errors like what he was describing are so often made in rocketry and space projects. See if you concur with his answer to this question. In our second segment, Mr. Breed explained his choice of launch location and the advantages to being under the amateur launch rules. Later in this segment, we began discussing the next step for the LLC contestants and the issues of drag and energy came up, especially in terms of going orbital for not only the LLC companies but for NewSpace in general. This is an important discussion, don't miss it. We also addressed market concepts and science payloads between 100,000 feet and LEO. See what you think about our saying the market in this area is uncertain. Paul did mention the space tourism market which may be real but is also largely unknown and will remain so until the flights starting taking place and the market unfolds. He talked about Russian rockets and how they use propellants compared to American rockets. Near the end of this segment, the questions was asked about what is new, what is advanced since the 6o's? Paul talked about electronics and the use of some composites. As we started segment three, we talked about Earth to LEO transportation and the NewSpace industry. Here Paul talked about Space X and also what was known about Blue Origin though as we all know, Blue Origin maintains very tight control over its press announcements and company information. The subject of autonomous spaceflight vehicles came up and Paul had much to say about this that was positive. Again, its an important discussion, don't miss it. We began segment four with a discussion on the commercial potential of SSP and could SSP be the needed silver bullet to drive down launch prices. Paul talked about space tourism as a silver bullet and mentioned a threatening NEO as another possible silver bullet. The subject of human spaceflight came up and we talked about it in the context of a NASA jobs program and the need to do human spaceflight exploration and exploitation. This led to a discussion about reforming and remaking NASA to more of a DARPA or NACA organization. I asked Mr. Breed for the five year vision for his company and he said he would like to be able to work on and achieve some orbital capabilities but first needs to replenish bank accounts after his LLC efforts. He said he definitely wants to do more in space with long term meaning. If you want to send a question or comment to Paul Breed, please use paul@rasdoc.com but you will have to first reply to his spam filter.
Guest
The Space Show
