John and I welcomed DR. Robin Andrews from the UK to discuss planetary defense with us. Robin introduced us to the term "City-Killer" which pertains to the size of an asteroid that could potentially hit and damage Earth. This type of asteroid, were it to hit populated area, could do serious damage and injury to the area of impact. The damage would be considered localized rather than global. Robin provided us with a few examples of such asteroid impacts over history, plus the size of such a rock hitting the Earth would be around 140-160 meters across. Our guest talked about the recent NASA DART mission which sent an ipactor to an asteroid to test if it could be moved, possibly out of the way of hitting Earth. The DART mission was successful. Robin pointed to the U.S. as the main researching entity on such dangerous impacts though he did shout out to ESA and a few other organizations. He was asked about the decision making process to possibly absorb an impact in an area or to evacuate the area, a decision nobody wants to make. Robin was asked questions about rubble pile asteroid along with other kinds of rocks, plus he talked about other potential interceptor missions including nuclear and using the idea of a gravity tractor to tow the asteroid out of the way. Robin supported others in this field by saying the warning time to get involved in defending Earth from an incoming rock was critical as we needed to get to the potential dangerous asteroid when it was still fairly far from Earth. In the second part of our program, John asked Robin what he would do with an unlimited budget for planetary defense. Robin spoke to having infrared observations, testing nuclear interceptors and having rockets and missions on standby if needed bo te used. He commented on existing and soon to be existing hardware that would be useful in the search for the "City-Killer." Vera Rubin was one such tool he mentioned. When asked if a nuclear interceptor might trigger an EMP, he said no because the nuclear explosion would be millions of miles from Earth.

We welcome Coyote Smith back to the program for a wide-ranging discussion that covers the Grissom Space Seminar, the Space Force's 5th anniversary, great power competition in space, and the evolving nature of space warfare. Toward the end of our 65-minute conversation, Coyote also provided an update on space-based solar power.

We had multiple listener calls and emails offering thoughtful questions and comments. In our discussion of the Space Force, Coyote offered a quick analysis of the pros and cons of remaining part of the Air Force versus becoming a stand-alone service. Related subtopics included space rescue operations, weapons in space, EMP threats, and the vulnerability of large satellite constellations.

We also touched on Artemis, the return to the Moon, and broader plans for the future of space development.

You can find more information at www.thespaceshow.com for the episode dated Tuesday, May 20, 2025.

We welcomed Dan Adamo back to the program to discuss his work recently presented to AIAA pertaining to human spaceflight travel between Earth-Mars waypoints. Dan's PDF is on our blog for this specific page. We started by addressing each slide so you need to open the PDF and follow along. For Part 2 in a week, the PDF is must to understand our discussion. In this segment, Dan defined many of the terms & concepts used in his presentation regarding "Interplanetary Synodic-Rosonat Waypoints." Additionally, Dan used the U.S. mature airline industry for potential comparison points for they to be defined potential interplanetary travel system. Dan did disclose that his work was very speculative so keep that in mind during the discussion, especially when we talked timeline and travel times from Earth to Mars. The Moon, lunar habs, development & such were part of our discussion but the focus was on the Synodic-Resonant Waypoints. Dan received multiple email questions along with several calls from listeners. While our program was technical, we were careful to get Dan to explain in "laymen" terms what he was talking about. He also invited more listener questions, especially from the archive listeners, even telling listeners how to direct email him. Many times over, Dan suggested this was a potential interplanetary roadmap plus he wanted it to be part of any future Earth-Mars mission planning. Dan was even asked about waypoints for Earth to Europa in the Jovian system. Don't miss what he said about travel to Europa. Please be sure to listen to Part 2 of this program, 25 May 2025 at noon PDT. Listen the same way you do to all Space Show programs. Thank you.

Dr. Bhavya Lal was our guest for this Friday Space Show program, mainly to discuss her very important Space Review article dated March 17, 2025 and titled "Is the Moon in America' future?" Note that early in the interview, Dr. Lal called our attention to other similarly important Space Review articles which you can easily find her name. I strongly suggest you review them. Not only did we talk about the Moon and why it should be in the U.S., in fact all humanity's future, we talked about Mars, potential NASA science and related budget cuts and more. Bhavya and I had a great but short discussion on just why space science and exploration is important for everyone as we each related personal stories of just how space science positively impacted our lives. Other topics include nuclear power and energy for space, fusion development, national security needs re the Moon and for space in general, and the importance of sooner than later time lines for Artemis and our return to the Moon. Our guest also stressed the need for strategic thinking in space planning, figuring out what should come next & developing alternate/backup plans. This hour plus interview is packed with important wisdom provided by Dr. Lal. We were most fortunate to have her as a guest. For all who hear this program, including policy folks, government mission think men and women, industry, advocates and the general public, really listen to what Dr. Lal shared with us. Thank you.

John and I welcomed Anatoly Zak of RussianSpaceWeb.com to discuss the recently disclosed Soviet era program to explore Venus, the Vener-72 mission. This mission made the current news given the failed Venus probe reentered Earth's atmosphere May 10, 2025 after orbiting Earth for more than 50 years. During this two segment program, Anatoly described the entire Soviet Venus exploration program along with the two probes making up the V-72 mission with one of them failing. This was an exciting and informative walk through both Soviet and planetary exploration history. Don't miss it. For more information about Anatoly and his Russian space news website, visit www.russianspaceweb.com.

Welcome to our ISDC 2025 preview program. Aggie Kobrin & Rod Pyle were with us to let you know what you will experience at this year's ISDC in Orlando. For more info, visit https://isdc.nss.org. Aggie and Rod took us through the list of very exciting speakers and program track participants that you will hear, including the likely next NASA Administrator, Jared Isaacman. Along with the conference schedule, you will have the opportunity to participate in special tours of KSC, the Cape and the great musuem that has one of the few remaining Saturn 5 rockets on full display. There will be a SpaceX band gig to die for, lots of networking opportunities, astronauts to meet plus many awards to those you have heard of but now get the opportunity to meet. If you are into wildlife, just drive around the Cape and see most of it. We fielded several questions about the conference, the schedule, logistics along with the Orlando area. Space Settlement has a great track as does Living in Space with Dr. Bell. AI is strongly represented at this event along with other important topics such as space health, New Space, and more. We talked about the great value of joining the National Space Society (NSS) with membership benefits include the great quarterly print magazine, Ad Astra. For more information on this event, contact our guests or DrSpace @ [email protected]. Be sure to check our our new Substack page, doctorspace.substack.com.

We welcomed Dr. Jaimie Blok of Cal Tech and JPL to introduce us to and talk about the new SPHEREx space telescope now scanning all of the sky. This is a most interesting two segment discussion about SPHEREX, scan skies, what is being searched for and more. Please read the full summary when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Wednesday, May 7, 2025.

Dr Bae returned to the program to discuss his new book, "Photonic Laser Propulsion" plus he explained the technology, answered many listener questions plus we talked time lines, a general development plan, the Moon, Mars, beamed laser propulsion comparisons, chemical launch rockets, economics and our vision for humanity's future. Dr. Bae started out with a lengthy intro to the book and his photonic laser propulsion work, he used a quote about inspiration from Carl Sagan and much more. Later in the discussion, when he was asked for his plan to get his ideas and work to policy makers and those that develop tech, he thought that would be take up by maybe other governments, interested parties, private funders. He thought his work was complete as a scientist by developing the tech and putting it out there for all in his book. We talked about funding, specifically gov. vs private funding. Also mentioned was human spaceflight, tourism, and settlement. Don't miss how it tech might apply to each of these categories plus timelines for them. Read the full summary of this program when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Friday, May 9, 2025.

Jim Class, well known adventurer and Forbes writer joined us to talk about his adventures, even his almost space adventures. His bio mentions many of exploits but hearing him tell us about them is better than reading about them. For instance, his discussion of the U2 flight and what he had to do re the "space suit" required for U2 flights. He has videos and more on his Forbes website, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimclash. Read the full summary when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Tuesday, May 6, 2025.

Marc Feldman, co-author of the important new book, "Space Piracy: Preparing for a Criminal Crisis in Orbit," was our guest for this program. Marc did an excellent job talking about software and hardware risks from the ground and space. He talked about the power of cartels in commercial businesses and how they will evolve to space activities. He used many examples, answered listener email and phone questions plus he talked about the Space Force and why they as yet do not have these risks on their view screen. Don't miss the full summary of this program when it appears at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Sunday, May 4, 2025.