Venus

Guest: Dr. Rosaly Lopes. Topics: Volcanoes on Earth and throughout the solar system, lava, plate tectonics, dangerous experiences, comparing Titan, Mars, Io, Venus, & Earth. Dr. Lopes discussed both terrestrial and solar system volcanoes and volcanic processes with us for this show. As author of "The Volcano Adventure Guide," we learned much about Earth volcanoes and even visiting them as adventure tourists.

Guest: Dr. Jim Bell was our guest for this Space Show program. Among the many topics discussed on the show, we talked about his new book, "Mars 3-D: A Rover's-Eye View of the Red Planet" which is widely available and offers unique 3 D views of the Martian planet. Dr. Bell spoke also about one of his earlier books, "Postcards from Mars." We talked about the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity as he has been part of the rover team since the start, the Phoenix Lander, and Mars Express. Regarding Spirit and Opportunity, we noted that the 5th anniversary of Spirit was just observed. Dr.

Guests: Dr. Tom Jones and Dr. Ellen Stofan were the guests for this program to discuss their new book, "Planetology: Unlocking The Secrets Of The Solar System." We started our discussion with Drs. Jones and Stofan telling us how they got together and collaborated on this book which contains 250 unique color photographs plus an equal amount of exciting and informative text.

Guests: Randa and Rod Milliron of Interorbital Systems, Inc. returned to The Space Show today in order to update us on new developments with their company. Having just returned from the SmallSat Conference and seeing the Millirons there, we decided to start our discussion with their presentation subject from SmallSat regarding Cubesats. Then, we focused on ocean launch which Interorbital is using. Their Sea Star rocket is being designed for CubeSat launches with engine testing and test flights at the end of this year and commercial operations due later in 2009.

Guest: Dr. E. O. (Neal) Smith, author of "When Culture and Biology Collide: Why We Are Stressed, Depressed, and Self-Obsessed," was the guest for this Space Show program. Dr. Smith's website is www.eosmith.com and you can find out more about his book there as well as learned about his other work. In fact, all his past journal articles are available for download. While you might think this program and his book are not space related, as you will hear during the program, it's very easy to connect the dots from what Dr.

Dr. Mario Acuna was the guest for this Friday morning Space Show program. We began our discussion by talking about radiation to Mars and on the surface of Mars. This was an in-depth discussion. We eventually broadened the discussion to cosmic rays, solar events throughout the planetary system, shielding, and related topics. We then focused on magnetic fields and discussed them regarding Mars, Earth, Venus, many of the moons in our system, newly discovered planets, all the planets in our system, and our technology to learn about planetary magnetic fields.

Randa and Roderick Milliron of Interorbital Systems were the special guests for this Space Show program. Interorbital Systems (www.interorbital.com) is planning orbital space tourism, eventual lunar visits and an even futuristic space tourism mission to Venus. During this interview, Randa and Rod explain their unique offshore ocean launching system, the selected launch sites, their progress with AST and other regulatory issues, their time line, and their plan to sell tickets for space tourism now at a discounted price.