Science Times special on Space Age

The New York Times today has a giant section devoted to discussing the "Space Age", including how much of a space age this period (post-Sputnik to now) has really been. It's pretty interesting, discussing a lot of the motivations behind the work done in 1960s, as well as what the future of space exploration might be and what countries could potentially lead it. What do you think the next steps should be? What role should Astronomical concerns/desires have in setting space policy, US or otherwise? This second issue was not discussed much in the Times today, so I'd be curious what you thought of it.

Time Change

Sorry to do this to you, but the time of this program has changed to Wednesday 7-8 AM. I know it's early, but what better way to start your day than learning the latest news about the night?

I hope to post summaries, and links to the interviews, after each show if you are interested.

Laser Ranging Information / Links

If you want to hear the full interview with James Battat (Harvard University) on the Apollo Lunar Laser Ranging Project, please click here. Also, for more information, please check out these websites:

• APOLLO Lunar Laser Ranging project: http://physics.ucsd.edu/~tmurphy/apollo/apollo.html
• International Laser Ranging Service: http://ilrs.gsfc.nasa.gov/

If you have any questions about this project, please post them below or email me and I'll do my best to answer them (or get James to since he is, by far, the expert on this subject).

Should we send humans to the Moon and Mars?

The recent documentary on the Apollo project "In the Shadow of the Moon" ends on somewhat of a sad note because the capability of human travel to the Moon has been lost since the end of the Apollo program - though China has plans to sent "taikonauts" to the Moon sometime in the next 10-20 years. NASA has recently started developing ways to not only return astronauts to the Moon, but also eventually send humans to Mars (and bring them back safely). This project will require much effort (aka money), and many scientists have worried that such an endeavor will prevent NASA from pursuing other projects, e.g. the Beyond Einstein program. Supporters say that this isn't necessarily the case, and even if it was, that sending people to other planets is such an important goal that it is worth the cost.

What do you think? Please vote in the poll to the left, and leave comments below.

First show!

The first show will be on Monday, September 17th between 4-5 PM! The basic outline of this program is:

• Discuss recently publish and announced Astronomical results
• Calendar of upcoming events in the greater New York
  
• On-air guest to discuss their research, outreach events, etc.
• Answering listener questions (please email me) and other features such as TV and movie reviews, trivia, etc.
  

I'll post more information on the first program as I figure it out. Please bear with me, and thanks a lot. Your humble host -- Yosi Gelfand