Guest: OPEN LINES. Topics: NASA bureaucracy, Return to the Moon or Mars, low cost space access, North Korea space program, SPESIF, astrosociology, education. This was our regular Open Lines program and runs slightly longer than two hours. Our program started with a call from listener Marshall about the NASA bureaucracy and what is known as “bureaucratic drift.” This was an interesting discussion which we applied to other government agencies, even national healthcare given comments from other listener. Don't miss it. The topic of how the NASA budget gets distributed was discussed though actual details of how the Administrator decides to make the allocation were unknown. John called in to ask about returning to the Moon or going on to Mars as I mentioned this during the discussion with Marshall. I believe you will find this to be interesting given I report on what listeners tell me about Mars, the Moon, etc. I also provided my opinion and, as I have made clear before, if we go to the Moon we should go to stay and the present way of doing that is so expensive, I doubt we would stay and I doubt that the private sector would pick up and take over from the government program. We also addressed some of the serious human factors issues impacting long duration space flight or settlement, mostly in the context of a “Humans to Mars” mission. Some of this discussion centered on the mental and psychological issues involved and, when caller Mel was on the line, Mel was asked about this given Mel's knowledge of the subject and studies with Dr. Rygalov. Mel's call was mostly a report on the SPESIF Conference, which was concluded in Huntsville in February 2009. In particular, Mel updated us on the astrosociology segments which took place at SPESIF. The educational paper Mel delivered can be found at http://sites.google.com/site/melsmarsh/cv by scrolling down to the Conference Presentation section and selecting "Overcoming challenges: Creating an astrosociology curriculum." While at Mel's site, I recommend reading the journal and conference papers listed. Listener Terry called with challenges to our existing political system, the way we do space, and lots of comments about the N. Korean space program and their missile that is on the pad and currently getting major focus in the news. Terry has some very specific political, global, and space ideas. See what you think of them. Toward the end of the program, Charles called in to talk about Space Access and their coming conference April 2-4 in Phoenix. He spoke about the N-Prize speakers planned for the conference, his recent Google Technology Talk, Microlaunchers and its specific approach to space development, and much more. If you have questions or comments for any of the callers to the program, please send them to me and I will forward what you have to say to your requested Space Show caller. Please use drspace@thespaceshow.com for all your comments and questions for this Open Lines show.
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