space weapons

Guest: Dr. John Hunter. Topics: Quicklaunch, LLC, hydrogen gas guns, propellant depots, Mars exploration. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright.

Guest: Dr. Leik Myrabo. Topics: Beamed energy propulsion. We welcomed back to the program Dr. Leik Myrabo for updates and new information regarding his work in the area of beamed energy propulsion with his company, Lightcraft Technologies, Inc. (www.lightcrafttechnologies.com). Please note that you are invited to comment, ask questions, and rate this program on the new Space Show blog, http://thespaceshowoutsidethebox.blogspot.com.

Guest: Professor Dr. Frans von der Dunk. Topics: International and transatlantic space governance. Professor Dr. Frans G. von der Dunk of the Space and Telecom Law Center of the University of Nebraska Law School in Lincoln, NE was our guest for today. Please visit their website to find out more about their program, http://spaceandtelecomlaw.unl.edu/home. In our first segment, Dr. von der Dunk told us about the recent conference, Space Security and Space Tourism: Challenges to, and Transatlantic Perspectives on Governance.

Guest: Dr. Clay Moltz. Topics: Space Governance, Lunar Governance, space policy. We welcomed to the show Dr. Clay Moltz from the Dept. of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School. If you are interested in downloading and reading the paper we discussed during the show, you will find it at www.au.af.mil/au/ssq/2009/fall/moltz.pdf. In our first segment, we led with the successful launch of the top secret Air Force X37 and the possibility that it might be a space weapons system.

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.

Dr. Stephen Johnson was The Space Show guest for this very interesting two hour program. We began with a comprehensive discussion of military space and weapons in space given the recent news about the Air Force considering deploying certain space weapons in the not so distant future. This is perhaps the most complete and detailed discussion on this topic so far on The Space Show as Dr. Johnson examined many different components that go into space weapons consideration.