Embedded below the fold. Lots of science. Lots of uncertain science. We then finish with a discussion of commercial smallsats and the politics of NASA.
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Embedded below the fold. I started with the Chinese and North Korean space programs, and ended up comparing them with the competitive and chaotic American system of private enterprise which is forcing down the cost of getting payloads into orbit while pushing the entire industry to greater innovation.
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Embedded below the fold. I like John Batchelor’s description of our discussion about NASA’s fantasy asteroid manned mission: “Vaporware.”
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The podcast is now fixed and available! John Batchelor thanks Willi for spotting the problem.
Embedded below the fold. John Batchelor titled this appearance very accurately: “Condemning Orion.” He likes to say that I am sometimes cranky. I was especially cranky tonight in reviewing why I think the way NASA is selling Orion is an outright lie.
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Embedded below the fold. The main topic was Curiosity and its journey into rougher terrain as it climbs Mount Sharp.
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Embedded below the fold. I especially like the title that John Batchelor gave this segment: “Would you buy a used booster from SpaceX?”
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Embedded below the fold. Spent a lot of time talking about Curiosity’s future route up Mt. Sharp, including the possibility of getting a closer look at the balanced rock seen earlier.
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Embedded below the fold. I spent a large portion of the podcast talking about the medical problems caused by long-term weightlessness, and how it might limit our ability to send humans to other planets. We also touched on the possible consequences to space policy should Donald Trump pick Newt Gingrich as his VP.
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Embedded below the fold. John Batchelor was especially thrilled by the Curiosity image of the balanced rock.
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Embedded below the fold. Not only did we talk about Juno and other recent science news, we also discussed the absurd banning of Doug Messier from the NasaSpaceFlight.com website.
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Embedded below the fold. Lots of planetary science to start, followed by commercial space.
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My two hour appearance on the Space Show with David Livingston is now available as a podcast and can be downloaded here.
I spent the first half hour outlining the general conclusions drawn by me in writing my policy paper, Exploring Space in the 21st Century, for the Washington think tank, the Center for New American Security. I then spent most of the rest of the show discussing and debating my conclusions with various callers. If you want to get a taste of what that policy paper will say, you should definitely listen to this podcast.
Embedded below the fold. Batchelor’s title focuses on our Russian discussion, but I also talked about the Chinese space program, NASA’s proposed satellite refueling mission, and a whole bunch of recent planetary discoveries.
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Embedded below the fold. Not only did I get to describe my talk at CNAS in greater detail, but this week’s space stories tied into that talk perfectly!
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Embedded below the fold. Lots of science in this segment.
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Embedded below the fold. Batchelor was really fascinated by the net gun to catch space junk.
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Embedded below the fold. This aired on Friday, but weekend activities caused me to forget to post it. Sorry.
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Embedded below the fold. I like Batchelor’s title: “The Leaning Tower of Musk.”
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Embedded below the fold. I outlined some history of the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as provided some added context to why there was so much more press excitement surrounding the space plans of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, compared to the press disinterest in recent years of similar NASA proposals.
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Embedded below the fold. I like Batchelor’s title: “Blue Origin & the Profit Motive in Space Engineering.”
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Embedded below the fold. This segment I spent a lot of time talking about the state of ground-based astronomy, spurred by the problems at TMT and the beginnings of the construction of E-ELT.
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Embedded below the fold. Spent some time talking about the NASA budget, SLS, and the differences between SpaceX’s plans for Mars and Lockheed Martin’s.
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Embedded below the fold. Topics: Belize, Congress, SpaceX, and Texas cows, among other things.
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On Friday afternoon I spent 90 minutes with Robert Pratt on his radio show, Pratt on Texas. Unlike most radio hosts, Robert wanted to hear my thoughts not just on the state of the aerospace industry, but also on today’s politics. The conversation thus ranged beyond space during the last half hour. If anyone wants to hear this conversation, the podcast be found here.
Note: The podcast now works at this link.
I will be spending an hour today at 5 pm (central) with Robert Pratt to talk space and politics, ranging from SpaceX to the ignorance of Houston officials of U.S. currency. Though broadcast throughout Texas, the show is also available online at the link.
As John Batchelor so accurately labeled, “Blast-off!”. Embedded below the fold.
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Embedded below the fold. The focus tonight was about the uptick in investment capital going to space, fueled by the drop in launch prices.
Note that I was also on Coast to Coast tonight discussing the same thing during the opening news.
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Embedded below the fold. Discussed the SpaceX proposal to send Dragon to Mars, as well as the ramifications of SpaceX’s first Air Force launch contract.
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