This Week On The Space Show

The Space Show, hosted by David Livingston under www.TheSpaceShow.com, will have the following guests this week:

1. Monday, June 6, 2011, 2-3:30 PM PDT (21-22:30 GMT)
Robert Zimmerman returns to the program for space news and policy updates from his perspective. Visit his blog at http://behindtheblack.com.
Robert Zimmerman is a well known and respected space historian and author. He posts regularly at his new website, http://behindtheblack.com, on space, science, and other matters relating to cultural and political issues. Mr. Zimmerman is also an award winning author. His most recent book, THE UNIVERSE IN A MIRROR: THE SAGA OF THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE AND THE VISIONARIES WHO BUILT IT (Princeton University Press) was just released in paperback. The book tells the poignant tale of the men and women behind the telescope, and how many had to sacrifice careers and family to get it built.

www.TheSpaceShow.com

It also describes in detail the importance of Hubble both scientifically and culturally. More than any other instrument sent into space, the Hubble Space Telescope reshaped the human perception of our place in the universe. Robert’s previous book, LEAVING EARTH: SPACE STATIONS, RIVAL SUPERPOWERS, AND THE QUEST FOR INTERPLANETARY TRAVEL, is a must read! It describes in detail the history of manned space flight, post Apollo. Thus, it includes a lot of information about the Soviet/Russian space program that is unknown to most Americans. In 2003 American Astronautical Society awarded LEAVING EARTH the Eugene Emme Award as that year’s the best space history for the general public. Mr. Zimmerman has also authored GENESIS, THE STORY OF APOLLO 8 (published by Four Walls Eight Windows in 1998), telling the family and political tale behind the first human journey to another world, and THE CHRONOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF DISCOVERIES IN SPACE (published by Oryx Press, now ABC-CLIO, 2000), a detailed reference book describing what was accomplished on every space mission beginning in October 1957 with Sputnik and continuing through December 1999. His work is published regularly in such magazines as SCIENCE, ASTRONOMY, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, INVENTION & TECHNOLOGY, FORTUNE, AD ASTRA, AMERICAN HISTORY, STARDATE, and many other major magazines. In 2000 he was co-winner of the David N. Schramm Award, given by the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society for Science Journalism. He can be reached at zimmerman at nasw dot org.

2. Tuesday, June 7, 2011, 7-8:30 PM PDT (June 8, 2-3:30 GMT)
Major Darren Rhyne USAF comes to talk with us about his experiences in Afghanistan and his interest in space as he was an avid Space Show listener during his deployment.
Darren Rhyne is an active duty Major in the U.S. Air Force.  He is currently Professor of Systems Engineering Management at the Defense Acquisition University (DAU), Fort Belvoir, VA.  He is certified Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) Level 2 in Program Management and Level 3 in two of the three Systems Planning, Research, Development, and Engineering (SPRDE) areas–Systems Engineering and Science & Technology (S&T) Management.  His 19-year Air Force career has included space assignments in the Space Based Infrared System Program Office at Space and Missile Systems Center (1992-96); Space Technology Planning Directorate at Headquarters Air Force Research Laboratory (1999-2002); Space S&T Program Element Monitor at the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Science, Technology, and Engineering (2002-05); and Space S&T Lead at the National Security Space Office (2005-08).  Major Rhyne also served as an Intelligence Support Officer at the 352d Special Operations Group, RAF Mildenhall, United Kingdom, from late 1996-99.  He was deployed from DAU to Kabul, Afghanistan, February 2010 to February 2011, as the Chief of Local Acquisitions in the Security Assistance Office – Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.  His first of four articles about his experiences in Kabul was recently published in the May/June 2011 edition of Defense AT&L Magazine (http://www.dau.mil/pubscats/ATL%20Docs/May-June11/Rhyne.pdf).  Major Rhyne holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering with a Minor in History from North Carolina State University (1991) and an MS in International Relations with concentration in National Security from Troy University (2005). The entire 64-page issue of Defense AT&L Magazine in which my article appears can be accessed at http://www.dau.mil/pubscats/Pages/DefenseAtl.aspx.  There’s also a good article in there about contracting practices to support the counterinsurgency effort in Afghanistan.

3. Friday, June 10, 2011, 9:30-11 AM PDT (16:30-18 GMT)
Pharis Williams returns to discuss his new book “The Dynamic Theory: A New View of Space-Time-Matter.”
Pharis Williams is a retired naval officer having served 24 years and also is retired from New Mexico Tech after 16 years of research and teaching. Most of the naval duty stations involved conventional and nuclear weapon safety, handling and employment. However, Williams also taught theoretical thermodynamics at the US Naval Academy. Williams also spent 5 years at the Los Alamos National laboratory conducting experimental shock physics and theoretical nuclear physics and hydrodynamics. Most of Williams’ experimental research has involved shock physics, interior and/or exterior ballistics, high explosives and novel weapons. Williams began his theoretical research during postgraduate studies at the Naval Postgraduate School. This research started with thermodynamics and has ranged from sub-nuclear physics through nuclear physics and gravitational phenomena to cosmology. One important result of this research is the proof that ALL aspects of the currently accepted Standard Model of Physics are but subsets of Williams’ five dimensional Dynamic Theory. In the theory physical phenomena are explained in a fundamental manifold of space, time and mass. Williams proved that Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity was a subset of the Dynamic Theory when he showed that within the five dimensional manifold of space, time and mass the conservation of mass embeds a four dimensional hyper surface with a curvature given by Einstein’s field equations. Williams’ research and publications include investigations of lasers, communications, fusion, weapons systems, stellar redshifts, supernova luminosity, dark matter, dark energy and cosmology.

4. Sunday, June 12, 2011, 12-1:30 PM PDT (19-20:30 GMT)
Dr. Dwayne Day returns to discuss reconnaissance, national security, and classified satellite programs from a historical perspective
Dr. Dwayne Day is a program officer for the National Research Council’s Space Studies Board. He is currently directing several congressionally mandated studies, including the planetary exploration decadal survey and a study of the survey and detection, and possible mitigation techniques, for the hazards posed by near-Earth objects. He is also assisting on a study of suborbital science opportunities and recently worked on a study of radioisotope power systems for space that resulted in a Department of Energy decision to restart production of Plutonium 238 for deep space missions. He has previously served as an investigator for the Columbia Accident Investigation Board and was the first historian for the Congressional Budget Office. He frequently writes about space history and policy and has authored a history of the Air Force Chief Scientist’s Office and served as primary or secondary editor of several books, including Eye in the Sky, a history of the early American satellite reconnaissance program known as Corona. His articles have been published in The Washington Post, Space News, Forbes.com, Air & Space, Spaceflight, Novosti Kosmonavtiki, and Raumfahrt Concret, and he is a frequent contributor to The Space Review. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from The George Washington University. He also likes dogs.

You can listen to the shows under www.TheSpaceShow.com
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