Broadcast 1335 (Special Edition)

Guests: CLASSROOM; Paul Breed, Dr. Jim Logan, Dr. John Jurist, Dr. David Livingston. Topics: New Space Industry. Welcome to The Space Show Classroom Lesson 5 on the New Space Industry. Please remember that if you have questions or comments regarding this program or for any of the participants, post them on the Classroom blog at http://spaceshowclassroom.wordpress.com. Emails sent to me will be posted on the blog on your behalf. As we started Lesson 5, we asked guest panelist Paul Breed of Unreasonable Rockets to define the New Space Industry. This is a detailed and comprehensive discussion on what makes up the industry, why its hard to describe and define, and some of the defining characteristics. For example, is the industry defined by the nature of the customer, who pays the bill, is New Space a publicly traded or private company or something else. We talked about the difference in the government funding Ares and Constellation and the government funding EELV and Falcon 9 and why the latter are considered commercial rather than a government project. We also discussed the difference between the commercial industry and what makes up the New Space industry. I asked the panel about safety issues and NASA objections to handing off human spaceflight to commercial companies on the basis of safety concerns. Listen carefully to what Paul and the co-hosts had to say about this as there were some differing perspectives. Its fair to say that whatever happens, effective oversight is needed, not just for the engineering, but for the management. The need for New Space to make money was discussed throughout the program and as you will hear. Paul suggested space tourism was probably the most likely business to be profitable, especially in the near term. Later in this segment, we talked about the need for most New Space companies to attract capital and this led us to discuss market issues for the New Space Industry. The suborbital research market was discussed as well as the NASA efforts to fund its development. This was questioned by our panel, especially since sounding rockets already cover suborbital research and are far more powerful and cost effective but they are not human tended. Don't miss what our panel had to say about this potential business model. Dr. Logan talked about how NASA had utilized effective human factors research on zero g flights for 30 seconds at a time as part of this suborbital examination, evidencing that an actual suborbital flight was not always necessary. You will find his comments on CPR and the use of defibrillators on the ISS and the research done on the zero g flights to be most interesting. As we concluded our fist segment, Paul said that he would discuss a list of New Space companies and their status in the next segment. As we started the second segment, Paul did go through a lengthy list of most New Space companies, their status and capabilities. Rather than listing all the companies in this summary, let me say that this is a must listen to discussion. Toward the end of the discussion, I asked our panel if VASIMIR was considered New Space. Everyone said no so listen why. We talked about the many businesses attending the Small Sat conference and their being part of or considered to be New Space. Listen to what our panel members had to say about this. The Space Access Society was discussed as was their upcoming conference and many of their participants as this is the New Space conference. The Orbitec Vortex Motor was talked about as were various pumps, both from XCOR and Flometrics. As our program came to a close, I asked the panel for an estimate of where the New Space Industry would be in five years. The consensus seemed to suggest a 50-50 chance for commercial success in the five year time window. Regardless, Paul did say lots of interesting things would be flying around in this time period. Again, any comments or questions you might have for any and all panel members are to be posted on The Space Show Classroom Blog under Lesson 5 Archive Notes at http://spaceshowclassroom.wordpress.com. Emails sent to me will be uploaded to the blog under your name.