Guest: Open Lines. Topics: Space Show website & crowdfunding, space industry news, issues, & events covering timely topics. 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. For those listening to archives using live365.com and rating the programs, please email me as to why you assign a specific rating to the show. This will help me bring better programming to the audience. Welcome to our final Open Lines program for May 2015. During the first segment of our 1 hour 46 minute program, I threw out some suggested topics for discussion including Space Show website changes, our planned crowd funding project for financing the new website, a satirical article in The Onion, "NASA Announces Bold Plan To Still Exist By 2045" (see www.theonion.com/article/nasa-announces-bold-plan-still-exist-2045-50398), and the possibility of the government regulating lunar and asteroid mining plus other topics as well. Tim from Huntsville was our first caller. He misunderstood my comment about The Onion article and wanted to know what bold plan NASA was announcing for 2045. I clarified the matter with him but he still seemed to think the article had more to do with the reality of NASA today rather than just a comedy article in The Onion. I disagreed with him but he did say that space policy based on a two term administration and then changing was not productive and should be changed. Later in my conversation with Tim I mentioned an LA Times article by Jerry Hirsch which was highly critical of Elon Must for taking government subsidies. Little did I know that this article would be the hot topic of the day on this Open Lines program. The actual article, "Elon Musk's growing empire is fueled by $4.9 billion in government subsidies" can be read at www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-subsidies-20150531-story.html#pa…. As I sated on air with several callers and emailers, I thought the article was incomplete and a hit piece since it ignored the basic economic facts of government non-cash subsidies. Dennis Wingo called in to refute the article though Kelly Starks emailed us in support of the main theme of the article. During John's call from Florida, I was asked to see if the article's author would come on The Space Show. I commented that I was probably not that interested in talking to him and noted my experience with general audience journalists (not all of them) as compared to talking with space journalists. In the meantime, Marshall called to chime in on the presidential cycle and space policy and what it means for long term space projects. We did note several projects that have survived through various administrations such as Hubble, many of the planetary science missions, SLS and more. In the second segment, Tom, a first time caller to the show from Seattle, wanted to talk about his view of the space industry being immature. By immature, he meant that doing only a hundred or fewer launches a year and not that much new being done in space indicated being immature to him. He also supported Rocket Lab, Planet Labs and the emerging cubesat industry. We talked about the need to lower the cost of space access to get more players and ventures in space. Michael Listner called into to talk in detail about the newly passed House commercial space bill. He said it was passed on party lines and would go to the Senate and there would have to be compromises for it to go to the President. He talked about problems areas including company liability for example. He also mentioned the new title for astronauts who will fly on the Dragon and CST 100, Government Astronauts. By giving the crew this title, they will not be designated spaceflight participants, thus their safety can be regulated NASA and the spacecraft will need some sort of certification or something to fly government astronauts on board. This will allow NASA to set crew safety standards. He referenced a Space Review article which you can read here: http://thespacereview.com/article/2759/1. Doug from S. California was our next caller. He introduced us to the term paraterraforming. Doug explained this to us in some detail. He also called it "reversible exploration." This discussion included noting the ethical issues around any type of terraforming, radiation, energy requirements, and more. Please post your comments/questions on TSS blog above. Also, please post suggestions or email me regarding crowd funding incentive and video ideas for creating a new Space Show website.
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The Space Show
