Zubrin interview on Coast to Coast AM

[neutrino78x]

Recently -- this past Thursday night/Friday morning -- Robert Zubrin was interviewed on the American radio show Coast to Coast AM, with regard to the Augustine Commission. Of course he thinks their recommendations are nonsense, especially the fact that they claimed a heavy lift vehicle would cost $35 billion, whereas SpaceX said they would do it for $3 billion.

The show is from 10 PM to 2 AM Los Angeles time, and the interview was 12 AM to 2 AM Friday morning.

You can pay to get achieves of Coast to Coast, or you can download achieves from local radio stations. To get the interview from KSFO in San Francisco, click these links:

Zubrin Interview Part 1
Zubrin Interview Part 2 (mostly taking questions from callers)

Now, the date as I post this is Sunday, 20 September, 2009. You have to download these files before EDIT: this coming Friday, 25 September, at which time the current ones will be erased, and they will be replaced with a new recording of the current Friday.

To see a written response from The Mars Society to the Augustine Commission, click here.

(note that I, the original poster, changed the date in that last paragraph (in italic) )

 

[neutrino78x]

(btw, once you download the files, you have to fast forward to about 6 minutes into it, unless you want to listen to news, traffic, and weather. on the first file, once you hear the CSI Miami theme song ("who are you"), you're at the right place. And it does include the ads that were broadcast, so you have to fast forward through those.)

 

[hansolo0]

Thank you! I like to listen to the show for kicks sometimes at night, but Zubrin is more on the up and up than most of the guests

....I listened to the 2nd part where they had the callers and had to cringe. Half of them were morons who thought there was some alien or other conspiracy nut, how the moon was fake or so forth. Zubrin must have bust a gut from trying no to laugh. :lol:

The first part is definitely the better one. Sad that gov't is constantly getting in the way of the manned space program anymore. I'm convinced they don't want to succeed. Those at Nasa are more interested in just keeping their jobs, so they will produce outrageous figures so new ideas will just keep being spun that will cost more money and so forth and never actually produce results.

Hopefully we'll get a president who recognizes this and do more outsourcing instead and just offer aerospace companies limited money to get people to Mars and beyond, as Zubrin suggests!

 

[435T]

awesome, thanks man

 

[neutrino78x]

Thank you! I like to listen to the show for kicks sometimes at night, but Zubrin is more on the up and up than most of the guests

Yeah I know! Luckily they have not had that crazy guy Richard Hoagland on in a while. Why can't they have a credible scientist as their science adviser??? Such a waste, because it is a popular show. You know who should be science advisor??? The Bad Astronomy guy!!!! He's the guy who makes a blog called Bad Astronomy, now on Discover Magazine, and he used to work as a professional astronomer, but now he's famous for being a skeptic!

Sometimes they have good guys on there though, like Zubrin, and sometimes Michio Kaku!! (string theory guy)

....I listened to the 2nd part where they had the callers and had to cringe. Half of them were morons who thought there was some alien or other conspiracy nut, how the moon was fake or so forth. Zubrin must have bust a gut from trying no to laugh. :lol:

lol that's how I feel about that show usually...

The first part is definitely the better one. Sad that gov't is constantly getting in the way of the manned space program anymore. I'm convinced they don't want to succeed. Those at Nasa are more interested in just keeping their jobs, so they will produce outrageous figures so new ideas will just keep being spun that will cost more money and so forth and never actually produce results.

Yeah, the part about $35 billion for a heavy booster when SpaceX would do it for $3 billion was compelling!!!

Hopefully we'll get a president who recognizes this and do more outsourcing instead and just offer aerospace companies limited money to get people to Mars and beyond, as Zubrin suggests!

I'm hoping that, if Obama doesn't do this in the first term, he will do it in the second...

--Brian

 

[TC_sc]

NASA is always reinventing. NASA also has so many safety regulations they have to follow. NASA is bloated and they do like any large corporation, they rob Peter to pay Paul. Private industry can always do things cheaper than government. Building a rocket isn't rocket science anymore. Did I really say that? Unless you are out to gain more efficiency from the engines, rockets basically work the same as they did 30 years ago. It doesn't take ten years to design and build a rocket capable of carrying people to ISS.

I make a call for NASA to begin sharing rocket technology with American companies that will sign agreements to keep that technology safe. Why should Space X have to spend years designing a fuel turbine that NASA developed 20 years ago? We can make space travel cheaper. We need a reusable craft for ISS crew transfer. That can't be that hard to build with all the information we gained from flying the shuttle. We know we can safely fly lifting body designs.


I forgot what thread I was in. In the winter when I like to stay up late writing or scripting I have the show on. I guess I have been listening to it since its inception. I do think if I hear about chemtrails one more time I will scream

 

[neutrino78x]

It doesn't take ten years to design and build a rocket capable of carrying people to ISS.

Yeah, exactly!!!! So frustrating...It took less than 10 years to go to the moon the first time, now it will take 20+ to get back????

I make a call for NASA to begin sharing rocket technology with American companies that will sign agreements to keep that technology safe. Why should Space X have to spend years designing a fuel turbine that NASA developed 20 years ago? We can make space travel cheaper. We need a reusable craft for ISS crew transfer.

+1!!!! could not agree more. I know that SpaceX does have a contract to deliver cargo to ISS. But, they are still working on human rating for Falcon 9. I guess our best hope is that Falcon 9 gets completed and human rated before the Space Shuttle has been retired for too long. Then we can use them instead of the Russians.

I guess I have been listening to it since its inception. I do think if I hear about chemtrails one more time I will scream

Indeed. The show they have on tonight is a case in point. They are going to be talking about the pyramids. Will they have on a credible archeologist, talking about what geniuses there must have been in Egypt in that period, that they could figure out how to make a pyramid with ancient technology? NO, they are going to have someone talking about anti-gravity and alchemy being used!!!!!! Of course, my hypocritical self listens to it as I go to sleep typically!!! It is just that it could be MORE entertaining if they had a real archeologist talking about the latest scientific developments in that area!!!!

--Brian

 

[hansolo0]

(me) Hopefully we'll get a president who recognizes this and do more outsourcing instead and just offer aerospace companies limited money to get people to Mars and beyond, as Zubrin suggests!

(neutrino78x)
I'm hoping that, if Obama doesn't do this in the first term, he will do it in the second...

I think in the interview Zubrin mentions what he thinks O'bama will do. He said O'bama will probably be pitched a softball of 'cancel it' the maned space program or at least Aries , after being told it's failing and way over budget, and how could he not? At best they may try something else. It's unlikely O'bama would outsource this to Aerospace firms, as he is very left leaning, practically socialist and would favor gov't control.

Zubrin was astounded and I totally agree that at the meeting or whatever it was of new ideas for manned space travel that Sally Ride and others made presentations at they made estimates way more than they should be for cost, and as you also mentioned in one of your replies. No one disputed them! That blows the mind.

I think Bush actually put forth the idea of outsourcing for alternate means to get to the ISS after the Columbia disaster(as part of the shuttle retirement option), and I think that has thankfully gotten the U.S. some other options assuming SpaceX works out. But, that doesn't necessarily mean a Republican is automatically good for the space program....look what Nixon did, he gave us the shuttle in favor of making a moon base or going to mars or even another skylab for that matter :twisted: :evil: . However it's more likely a Republican would favor private industry, and that I think is the way to go in the near and distant future for manned space travel. Gov't just has little incentive to do so anymore.

It blows my mind too that some of you have mentioned that we can't even go to the moon as fast as we did 40 years ago! For that matter we're way more advanced, have done it before, and it's taking us longer to do it this time around! Clearly, there is no incentive any more. Back then we had to beat the Russians.

 

[TC_sc]

Obama is more likely to remove all funding for NASA except for earth sciences. He'll sit back and talk about how important NASA and manned space travel is while having some czar or the congress do the foul deed for him. The only hope for NASA is if there are enough of the contractors that have union workers. He will want those contractors to keep getting contracts.

At least for the short term we have to look to private industry to get us to LEO. The life of the shuttle might be extended so that those workers aren't lost, but time is running short on that. I read that already those contractors are laying off workers in preparation of the shuttle's retirement. I say we are nearing the point where a clear decision has to be made or we will have nothing flying in the foreseeable future.

Maybe the slow development of Orion and Aries is just a jobs program. Something surely has it moving at a snail's pace. Maybe NASA has learned to move slow to keep those dollars coming and and job security. Maybe we need an independent study of NASA.

 

[neutrino78x]

Well Obama has already increased the NASA budget, as reported in the angry at nasa thread. As far as incentive, recall that I see the sea as a metaphor for space: the Navy provides law and order, and claims territory, and the merchant vessels are the ones that do the commercially viable stuff. So for example, if there is an asteroid with trillions of dollars in gold, it is not the mission of the Navy/NASA to mine it; that is the mission of merchants/SpaceX et al. Part of NASA's mission should be to come to the aid of merchants in emergency situations, therefore NASA needs a rocket that it controls, and that would be Ares/Jupiter. There is always going to be a need for both the government and the merchants in any frontier, including The Final Frontier.

 

[hansolo0]

Looks like tc was right after all. I think Obama did the right thing for the wrong reason. I don't think he really cares about Nasa - he just outright canceled Aries... I'm not sure that's the best although now the private sector can step up. I wish he would have allowed for the direct/ Jupiter plan instead of complete cancellation.