We welcomed Dr. Larry Kuznetz back to the show to discuss Mars spacesuits, his UC Berkeley call program and project on developing and building a Mars Spacesuit plus Mars spacesuit requirements. This is an excellent discussion about what is needed for a Mars spacesuit and why the Mars suit must be different than all other spacesuits that have been made so far. Our program is 88 minutes in two segments. Read the full summary at www.thespaceshow.com for this program on this date, Sunday, January 22, 2017.

We welcomed Dr. Geoffrey Landis back to the program for a 98 minute discussion on a variety of topics including laser beam propulsion, Starshot, interstellar flight. solar system settlement, Venus, Mars, the Moon, fringe physics, Newtonian physics, EmDrive, human interstellar flight, the role of science fiction in science and vice versa, antimatter and much much more. Read the full summary of this program at www.thespaceshow.com for this program this date, Tuesday, January 17, 2017.

We welcomed back to the show Courtney Stadd to discuss presidential transitions and space policy. Courtney headed up the space transition team for President-elect Bush from November 2001 until President Bush was sworn into office on Jan. 20, 2001. Based on his experience, he had much to say about being part of a presidential transition and being part of the space team in particular. We also talked about the National Space Council and the position of the NASA Administrator. One of the questions asked was should the NASA Administrator be an engineer given the structure and work of NASA. He was also asked how people with good ideas and specific space industry knowledge can be heard by a transition team as well as the administration. Courtney shared his thoughts and impressions on the Trump space transition work so far, starting up a new National Space Council, and commercial space back in 2001 as compared to today. Courtney was asked many compare and contrast and predict questions regarding the development of the new commercial space industry over the past nearly two decades. Our guest talked about expectations, why in some cases the expectations were not met and more. Red the full summary of this program at www.thespaceshow.com for this program on this date, Monday, January, 16, 2017.

Welcome to our 1 hour 55 minute Open Lines Show. Se started the first segment with a special call from Dr. Bill Rowe who briefly discussed his Neil Armstrong Syndrome, the calcium-magnesium ration which he said was unknown in space, cardiovascular issues in space and the high cost of getting research data from NASA. He took a listener call from Marcio in London who had several questions pertaining to what Dr. Rowe talked about. After Bill's call, I threw out discussion topics including the Wall Street Journal articles on SpaceX finances, the movie Hidden Figures, the successful Falcon 9 return to flight and first stage recovery, plus a UK Mirror story on strange lights being photographed by astronauts on the ISS. In the second segment, our first call was from Marshall who seemed to be supporting Bill's comments about our not being prepared for long duration human spaceflight right now. John from Fremont called to discuss the Wall Street Journal articles, especially the comment about reusability so far coming in at about a 10% cost reduction. That seemed to be a topic picked up by several listeners later in the segment. John from Ft. Worth called to talk about reusability economics and the ISS strange lights. Dr. Doug was a caller who wanted to talk about his ideas as to what SpaceX may or may not be doing for Mars, manufacturing, etc. He also told us about his ne website regarding transportation architecture for the Moon and Mars. Check out www.lunarcots.com/meta. More will follow on this site. Doug also told us how SpaceX would be paying for the Mars trip. Let us know what you think by posting on TSS blog. Our final caller was Marcio calling back from London, this time to talk about his project, The Engine of Levitation. Check out his website for more information: www.engineoflevitation.com. Marcio was unable to tell us much about his project due to his patent process. That said, he did state that his new technology would violate Newtonian physics which he said was necessary for advanced propulsion. In his discussion, he cited the EmDrive as an example. Feel free to contact Marcio through his website or post comments about his project on TSS blog. As I understood him, he does not yet have proof of concept but is working that. Please post your comments/questions on TSS blog.

John Batchelor and I welcomed Jim Cantrell of Vector Space Systems to this double segment Hotel Mars program. Our discussion focused on the new dedicated small launchers including Jim's company, Vector Space Systems, his business market, rocket capabilities, 3D printing of certain rocket motor parts, launch sites, and customers. During our Hotel Mars double segment, Jim introduced us to the two Vector rockets under development, the Vector R and the Vector H. He provided us with the launch capability for each rocket plus he talked about being able to launch dedicated smallsats from either a polar orbit from Kodiak, Alaska or an equatorial launch from Launch Pad 46 at the Cape. Additionally, he addressed possible downstream technologies for consumers to direct their satellite function via their smartphone. Vector is also developing the capability to custom build smallsat constellations for customers. John asked Jim about 3D printing. Jim said they use it for making rocket injectors out of aluminum and that they will expand the use of 3D printing over time. When asked about 3D printing their rocket fuel, he said their rockets were liquid fueled rockets. Jim told us that use carbon fiber for much of their rocket structure. Earth science came up in the discussion as Vector has a new agreement with ICEYE of Finland for smallsat Earth Science (http://www.iceye.fi/#intro).

We welcomed Dr. Mark Bauerlein, author of "The Dumbest Generation," to our 90 minute discussion on education, the adverse impact of the digital age on students, and serious issues facing both students and our educational system in the country. We applied much of what our guest had to say to aerospace and science. Our discussion was far ranging, including primary school through college, new trends toward college safe places, and other politically correct developments moving rapidly across our educational institutions and systems. During the second segment of our program, we talk about the upper 10% of students in targeted fields such as the STEM fields, their potential leadership roles, but also in many cases their lack of knowledge across a wide range of cultural and historical areas. We also talked about college administrations including the Ivy League and top tier schools, plus the essential role of the individual and the family in improving education in our country. While this program may seem off topic to some listeners, education remains key for continued aerospace, commercial space, entrepreneurial, and science development and expansion. Our guest puts many of the issues in the spotlight with a fresh, new and important perspective. Read the full summary of this program at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Friday, Jan. 13, 2017.

We welcomed Barry DiGregorio to the show to discuss the Viking life detection experiments by Dr. Levin and others. Barry took us through his research to show us why he believes that Dr. Levin's experiment did confirm molecular life on Mars. If you look at the bio for Barry on our website, you will also see links to some of his published papers supporting his argument. Barry also talked about the recently released paper regarding the Curiosity rover finding long chain organics on Mars and why that is so significant. Please read the full summary of this program at www.thespaceshow.com for this program on this date, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2017. Note that the audio was below standard given heavy storm activity in the SF Bay Area and its impact on our phone lines.

We welcomed Rob Godwin back to the show regarding his book "William Leitch: Presbyterian Scientist & The Concept of Rocket Space Flight 1854-1864." While Leitch is not well known today, he was quite the scientist, astronomer and forward thinking person during his time. Not only is Rob's book most interesting about the story of William Leitch, it also takes us into the history of the early days of rocketry and the start of the interest in spaceflight. Read the full summary of this program at www.thespaceshow.com for this program on this date, Monday, Jan. 9, 2017.

We welcomed back to the show Dr. Rachel Armstrong to discuss both her new book, "Star Ark: Living, Self-Sustaining Spaceship," plus the development of an interstellar culture to help us prepare for the eventuality of interstellar spaceflight. Lots of topics came up ranging from technology to culture, to finance and economics and much more. Our discussion was thorough and engaging. Please read the entire summary of this show at www.thespaceshow.com for this program on this date, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017.

Welcome to our nearly 90 minute discussion with Amir Blachman of Axiom Space (www.axiomspace.com). Axiom is developing a private commercial space station along with preliminary modules for the ISS until it is retired. During our discussion, we talked about markets, finances, economics, and customers for a potential commercial space station. We also talked about the customer base being a combination of governments, public players and private sector companies. Private space station manufacturing and technology were big topics as were future realistic trends. In addition, private space station in locations other than LEO were talked about but our guest was clear about starting with cislunar space. Don't miss his explanation for this. I urge you to read the full summary of this program at www.thespaceshow.com for this program for this date, Friday, January 6, 2017.