Hosted by Dr. Seth Shostak

June 28, 2006 (available for download June 29) "No Free Launch"

The lesson that you first learned in Economics 101 is alive and kicking at NASA; there’s no such thing as a free launch. The hefty price tag on repeated Shuttle flights to finish the International Space Station, combined with treks to the moon and Mars, means something had to go. We’ll find out what science programs fell victim to NASA budget cuts.

Also, one of the first astronauts on the Space Shuttle program confesses to an overdose of machismo when women first came on board (he recovered). Plus, why NASA plans to slam a rocket into the moon to find… H-TWO-OH.

And, interested in building a space elevator? We know just the brainiacs that can help (as soon as they graduate from college).

Guests:

• Fiona Harrison is an astrophysicist at the California Institute of Technology.
• Francisco Valero is from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.
• Retired Air Force Colonel Mike Mullane is the author of Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut
• Steve Jones and George Kamps are students at the University of British Columbia.
• Tony Colaprete is a planetary scientist at NASA Ames and the principal investigator of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite

Are We Alone? is broadcast on Discovery Channel Radio Sirius 119 Wednesdays at 2:00 and 9:00 a.m., and 9:00 p.m. EDT, with a third repeat airing Sundays at 11:00 p.m. EDT.

The show is also available as a download on this site and is podcast as SETI:Science & Skepticism. Podcast information

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