Show Date: January 18, 2006 
Pam Eastlick for THE DEEP on line

OUR FUTURE IN SPACE
AND
STARDUST MEMORIES

Greetings and welcome to The Deep column and the deepest radio show on Earth. The Deep is the science talk radio program that takes you from the depths of the ocean to the farthest reaches of the universe. This week on The Deep, aired at 6:00 this evening on K-57, we’ll talk about NASA’s space program and its future. Then we’ll have some expedition calls. Maybe we’ll hear from Bob Silver. We’ll also have some science news updates and we’ll be taking your phone calls. Tune in tonight and join host Jim Sullivan, Pam Eastlick and our expedition coordinator Peter Melyan for the latest in scientific news! Then log on to www.thedeepradioshow.com for more information on all the latest and deepest news!

OUR FUTURE IN SPACE
There are many of us who feel that the United States sort of dropped the ball when the Cold War ended in the 1980’s. Of course, we went to the Moon because we were at war with Russia and once that war was over, it seems to have ended the massive drive for space. It’s now been almost 35 years since humans last walked on another world and even with the current plans it will be at least another 10 years until we return. Did you really think it would take 45 years? For those of us who remember Apollo, didn’t you think you’d be taking vacations on the Moon by now? What went wrong?

Well, for one thing, space travel is incredibly expensive, and after the Cold War ended, no one wanted to spend that kind of money again. Of course, the real cost is in achieving low Earth orbit (also called LEO). Once you make that milestone, you can go virtually anywhere, with very little additional cost except for supplies for the humans on board. But it cost $10,000 per pound to boost anything into low Earth orbit in the 1960’s and despite advances in miniaturization and many other breakthroughs, inflation has maintained that incredible cost to the present day. Just add five zeros to your current weight, and you’ll figure out how much it would cost to put you into LEO. And since you’ll need to eat and drink up there, you begin to realize why the Russians put the tourist cost at $20 million.

The real supply problem has always been water. Every human on the planet consumes roughly 5 gallons a day. You certainly don’t drink that much, but you do flush the toilet and use water to prepare food, wash your cloths and your body.

But there are other water ‘costs’. The meat you eat is produced by animals that also drink water and that’s figured into that 5-gallon figure. There are no water stores in space; you must take every drop with you and water weighs 8 pounds per gallon. So you get to add another 40 pounds to your weight just for your water and that doesn’t even begin to address the weight of the food you eat, the oxygen you breath and all the other things that make life in a vacuum possible. No wonder going into space is expensive.

But there are big pluses too. If you fill up a large underground cavern on the Moon with Earth-normal air pressure, you can strap on a pair of wings and fly. Want to hit a golf ball 6 times farther than you can on Earth? Jump 12 feet straight up? Just go to the Moon and it’s all possible. So, when are we going? Once people realize that tourism will be the ultimate lure for space, the price will begin to drop. Any businessman will tell you that as volume increases, price decreases. Although it may be too late for space tourism for the baby boomers, their children and grandchildren may play on the Moon at last.

Our guest on The Deep is Bob Ryan, a former mission control specialist for NASA. We’ll be talking about Richard Branson, Dick Rutan and a host of other pioneers who are working hard right now to make space travel possible not just for a few specially chosen astronauts, but for you and me.

Space travel, at last? Tune in to The Deep and find out!

HOW ABOUT THAT STARDUST?
Although it didn’t make huge headlines, a very important mission plummeted to Earth over the weekend, and it was supposed to! The Stardust mission capsule landed safely in the Utah desert. This capsule flew though the tail of Comet Wild (the name comes from the person who discovered it and is not a comment on its character) in 2004 and gathered some of the comet dust.

	The samples were collected in Areogel, an astounding compound pioneered by the scientists at JPL. Although it looks like smoke and is over 98% air, it has excellent insulation properties and is sturdy enough to hold up this brick. Scientists plan to learn a lot from the tiny particles captured by the Stardust mission. Not only did Stardust collect samples from a comet, it also collected samples of interplanetary dust and just may have gathered the dust that drifts between the stars. Whether we’re learning about space travel or space science, The Deep, hosted by Jim Sullivan with Pam Eastlick and Peter Melyan is the place to be on K-57 tonight at 6:00 p.m. Don’t miss it!
Comet Wild