Space Elevator

Guest: Alfred Zaehringer. Topics: rocket science, rocket equation, Mars, chemical rockets, space tourism, low cost space access. Al Zaehringer returned to The Space Show to discuss his two books. Al was the editor of "Rocketscience: The Journal of the Detroit Rocket Society, Inc. 1947-1952," which is available from http://www.apogeebooks.com. This is a must have reference book, one of the very best of its kind.

Guest: Dr. Bryan Laubscher. Topics: Space elevator, space elevator traffic management, planetary defense, elevator timeline, Japanese space elevator. Dr. Bryan Laubscher returned to update us on the space elevator conferences from 2008 and the upcoming 2009 conference which will be August 12-16, 2009 in Redmond, WA. Some of the many space elevator topics discussed included the progress being made with carbon nanotubes (CNTs), space policy and the elevator, the Japanese elevator, and more.

Guest: Rand Simberg was the guest for today's Space Show program. Our discussion started by mentioning that Richardson had withdrawn his name from consideration for Secretary of Commerce in the Obama administration. We talked about this for a few minutes as there were some possible space ramifications to his appointment and now with his withdrawal. We then moved on to the issue of comparing COTS and Shuttle as was done on the RocketsandSuch blog and copied over to the Space Cynics site per our discussion last week.

Guest: Thalia "ad.astra" Kohls was our guest for this show to discuss alt.space and NewSpace from an outsider's perspective. Thalia shared with us her views and experiences in communicating with NewSpace participants on blogs and in other venues and you will hear why she is critical of this community. I too have shared many of her experiences and commented on them during the show. We also spoke about engineering, science, and inspiring space projects like humans to Mars. Thalia expressed the view that she was not very optimistic about seeing a return to the Moon in her lifetime.

Guests: Dr. Bryan Laubscher and Dr. Martin Lades were guests for today's Space Show to discuss the space elevator and the upcoming space elevator conference (www.spaceelevatorconference.org). We started our discussion with the basics of the space elevator concept and why at this point in time convergence is necessary for the space elevator's development. Our two guests covered these issues in some detail and then more when listeners starting asking about why we need a space elevator.

Guests: Dr. Michio Kaku was the guest for this special Space Show program co-hosted by Dr. Bob Krone. We started the discussion by asking Dr. Kaku about his new best-selling book, "Physics of the Impossible." Dr. Kaku explained to us the three classes of impossibilities involving science, technology, and engineering. You will definitely want to hear this discussion since it relates to many potential space developments. As a result of listener questions and questions from co-host Dr.

Guest: Dr. John Jurist was the guest on this program to discuss his hypothesis as to why space cadets behave as they do. His paper, "Dorky Space Cadets: An Hypothesis," can be found on the Space Cynics site as of March 13, 2008, http://spacecynic.wordpress.com/2008/03/13/ . Click on the link provided to Space Cynics and scroll down to his article starting with "Dorky." During our discussion today, Dr. Jurist explained how he created the hypothesis and what types of research, tools and methodologies he used to formulate his theory.

Guest: Dr. Phil Chapman. Dr. Phil Chapman returned for this special Space Show program dedicated to the memory of Sir Arthur C. Clarke who passed away today. As it turned out, Dr. Chapman knew Sir Arthur, so for the first part of the program, we talked about Arthur Clarke and Phil shared his experiences with him with us. If you have not yet seen it, Arthur Clarke recorded a video for his "Last Message To Earth" recorded on his 90th birthday this past December.

Dr. Brad Edwards and Carla Sabotta were the guests for this Space Show program focusing on the space elevator. Please be advised that due to extremely wet weather in the Seattle area and the Bay Area, plus the use of cell phones, there is unavoidable phone line noise on this program. We started the program with Dr. Edwards providing us with an update on the climber games that were held in Salt Lake City. Brad explained the various teams, the technology being used, what happened to the contestants, and more.

Dr. Brad Edwards returned to The Space Show to discuss energy issues from space, SSP, alternative energy, and of course to update us on the space elevator. The first part of the program focused on space solar power and the need to be starting the development of an SSP test station along with other alternative energy programs given the long lead time to the establishment of commercial working alternative energy systems. Dr.