Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

Apparently, people in government don't watch popular movies; someone should explain to them that we've got generations of kids raised on spaceships, aliens & blasters. When people think about space, it's space ships that carry astronauts, not satellites, and it's Star Wars, not earth bores. Given that man landed on the moon 50 years ago, Buck Rogers prospects seemed like a sure bet, but it hasn't quite worked out that way. NASA canceled the Return To The Moon initiative and replaced it with “Earth” missions, ostensibly to study the earth from space “to provide societal benefits and strengthen our nation.” Supposedly, they're still thinking about a Mars missions in the 2030s, but until then, there's some satellites and another telescope... Ho-hum.

Since government has abdicated its role, many private ventures have rushed to fill in the void: billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic offers a $250,000 space flight; billionaire Jeff Bezo's Blue Origin's is using a traditional capsule on a rocket approach; Soyuz-using Space Adventures & Roscosmos have accommodated the only 7 space tourists so far, who paid $20-50 million each, the last in 2009; there's also KosmoKurs, who got the contract to replace the Soyuz rockets, partnering with space hotel builder Aiom Space, offer a trip at $10 million per per occupant; and billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX has been getting the lion's share of news coverage with their reusable, self-landing boosters, and plan to go back to the moon because somebody has to...