Guest: Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston. Topics: A variety of topics relating to space development & exploration. 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. Our first segment of this 2 hour 14 minute Open Lines program started with a few of my suggested topics including a recent John Strickland Space Review article on SLS followed by a response from NASA which was published in the Huntsville Times as well as on NASA Watch. More about this later as a caller read the two articles, then called to discuss them. However, our first caller was Dr. Jurist who called to mention and congratulate the UND Space Studies Department for the award they received from NASA: The JSC Certificate of Appreciation for 25 years of outstanding leadership in the interdisciplinary leadership of space studies. During John's call, I read the exact wording on the certificate and since John and I are both adjunct professors at UND SpSt, we had much to say about the program, faculty, subjects, students, founders, etc. It’s a fine program and it was an honor to let all of you know about this well deserved award and the UND Masters and PhD program in Space Studies. Next up was our friend Dr. Bryan Laubscher to discuss this year's upcoming Space Elevator Conference to be held August 23-25 at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, WA. See http://www.isec.org/sec for more conference information, registration, the agenda, and logistics. We talked about new developments with the space elevator, and Bryan told us about two other projects, plus he mentioned launch loop for which you can get more information at www.launchloop.com. John in Ft. Worth called as he read the two articles on SLS and the NASA response that I mentioned at the first of our program. His bottom line observation on SLS did not change as he believes it’s a placeholder for both the space workforce and technology until better days favor the space industry. We had much to say about what John Strickland said in his July 15 TSR article and the NASA response by Dan Dumbacher per his July 29th article. You don't want to miss this discussion. In the second longer segment, Tim was first up to talk about Rand Simberg and his theories that space is not important and more risk is needed, not more risk averseness. Tim made comparisons to settlers coming to the New World and I challenged him on it but his bottom line is that most likely most of the population will not be interested in space or space settlement and eventually when technology advances and prices are significantly lower, private companies will take the lead into space. This of course only related to human spaceflight. Our next caller was Mr. Microlaunchers himself, Charles Pooley. Charles was again making the case for his approach to space through Microlaunchers (www.microlaunchers.com) when Dr. Jurist called in on the guest phone line to challenge Charles, especially about financing, time lines, ROI, etc. John kept pushing Charles for how he intended to go from A to B. It was a good discussion with John and Charles, one you will certainly want to hear. John from Ft. Worth called back to talk about a possible rocket shape modeled on the Aquapod water bottle used by Ozarka Water Company. When I told listeners how to see it on the web, Charles emailed back saying the design would not work for a rocket. Oh well, back to drinking the water from it, I guess. Our final call was from Jeff in Tucson who talked about his recent tour of Surrey Satellite when he was visiting in the UK. This is an extensive description with very good and important observations. Since Jeff has also visited SpaceX, we did some compare and contrast analysis between these two state of the art companies, one in the UK and one here in the states in S. California. Also, you will want to take note of Jeff's keen observations regarding Surrey and what makes it tick, including the cost free relationship it has with the Surrey University and its undergraduate as well as graduate students, many of which eventually come to work for Surrey Satellite. Again, this is a very interesting discussion. Please post your comments/questions on The Space Show blog. If you want to email any of the callers, you can do so through drspace@thespaceshow.com.
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