Dr. Lee Valentine, Space Studies Institute, Wednesday, 10-6-10

Dr. Lee Valentine, Space Studies Institute, Wednesday, 10-6-10

http://archived.thespaceshow.com/shows/1438-BWB-2010-10-06.mp3

Guest:  Dr. Lee Valentine.  Topics: Space Studies Institute Space Manufacturing 14 Conference.  Please note that you are invited to comment, ask questions, and rate this program on the new Space Show blog, http://thespaceshowoutsidethebox.blogspot.com.  We welcomed Dr. Lee Valentine to this special Space Show program to discuss the upcoming Space Studies Institute (SSI) Conference, Space Manufacturing 14: Critical Technologies for Space Settlement.  This conference will be at the NASA Ames Conference Center in Mountain View, CA from Oct. 29-31, 2010 with the Friday night event taking place at the nearby Sunnyvale Sheraton Hotel. You can find out more about this important conference and the Space Studies Institute by visiting http://ssi.org.  This one hour fifteen minute discussion took place in one segment.  My first question to Dr. Valentine dealt with his work on defeating the Moon Treaty three decades ago.  I asked for his reflections on that important work.  From there, Dr. Valentine provided us with an introduction to SSI which was previously located at Princeton.  Lee also talked about the work of Dr. Gerard K. O’Neill, the founder of SSI, and then provided a brief history of their conferences.  Please note what Dr. Valentine said about attendees needing to be badged and the government requirements for non-US citizens as time is short for the applications.  All the needed registration and hotel information can be found on the SSI website.  From this point forward in our discussion, Lee took us through many of the guests, panels, and highlights for the conference.  You can follow along with our discussion at http://ssi.org/2010-conference-space-manufacturing-14/sm14-agenda.  As Lee tells us about the panels and the guests, you will hear my comments as I know many of the speakers and their expertise.  This is a high powered conference with amazing networking opportunities with speakers as well as attendees that are at the top of their field.  This is all to take place in a personal and warm setting as I am very familiar with the NASA Ames Conference Center facility and since lunch is provided in the facility to enhance networking, I urge those of you who can attend to be there.  Listen to our discussion and the programs we highlight, and the comments offered by both Lee and myself.  Some interesting non-conference related questions came in from listeners.  One listener asked Lee about his interest in space given his being an ER doctor and if his medical background aided him in his space interests.  As you will hear, Lee said it was the opposite but I will let you hear Dr. Valentine's response to this listener for yourself. Its very interesting.  Later in the program, I asked Lee to prioritize the most important sessions or issues for space settlement.  As you will hear him say, the first, second, and third priorities are to reduce the cost of Earth to orbit transportation.  You don't want to miss this discussion as we talked about reducing launch costs and he responded to listener questions about his comments on just how much we might be able to reduce costs within a decade or so.  Later in the program, Lee said the most needed thing in lowering the cost was the use of highly reusable rocket engines.  Don't miss our full discussion on this subject.  As we neared the end of our program, we talked about the need for space property rights and that Wayne White would be making a presentation on this subject at the conference.  Please remember that SSI is a membership organization and as the program was winding down, we talked about membership options.  If you have comments or questions for Dr. Lee Valentine about the conference, SSI, or anything we discussed, don't forget to post them on the Space Show blog URL above and you can send them to our guest at Lee@ssi.org.