Coming up: a newly discovered planet is as big as its star, Canada's first space tourist a little bit of a clown, NASA's cleared Endeavour for a June 13th launch, and we have a live interview with Fernando de la Pena of Mexico's newly formed space agency. Oh, of course, we've got a little bit of an ISDC wrap up and a whole lot more on this June 5th edition of Spacevidcast live. ♫♫ Spacevidcast Theme Music ♫♫ Welcome to Spacevidcast live. My name is Benjamin Higginbotham With me, as always, is the beautiful, wonderful, lovely, talented and very orange Cariann Higginbotham. Well, you've got orange on today. It's like VERY orange. It's awesome. I like it. We are the Spacevidcasters and this is the first episode back after ISDC and I want to actually apologize on the air to MaxQ because I asked him to build the STS-125 video before, I was like we need to have it by last Thursday, we've got to have it at ISDC, we've got to roll it in the show and when we do the show and then I just promptly ignored the video. I didn't roll it at all. So Caf, there's one called STS-125 Let's go ahead and take a look at that right now. ♪ Space Music ♪ (Off camera) ♪Awesome.♪ That is the STS-125 recap video and that was the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Which is hardcore cool. And, you know, I'm actually going to do these news items completely out of order because we were going to do that last. But it makes sense to do STS-127 is going to be launching shortly with space shuttle Endeavour. And they're going back up to the International Space Station. They're finishing up the Japanese module up there, if I remember correctly on 127. Cariann: You mean, it's not a toilet thing or a urine water thing ... Ben: It usually is. It's usually we're going to replace the toilet, we're going to fix the toilet, we're going to add a toilet. [Both laughing.] One way or another, it always seems like they're doing something with the toilet up there. But, no, the 127 will be going up -- not this Saturday (well, theoretically), not this Saturday, but the following Saturday and that stands to be pretty darn cool. You can watch high definition coverage of that right here on Spacevidcast.com. I could be mistaken, but I believe we are the only web site that has high definition coverage on the internet of our shuttle launches. And I think that's hardcore awesome. Cariann: Very. Ben: Let's start off the regular old space news, shall we? Cariann: Yeah. Ben: Here we go. [Ben sees messy space-news graphics] Ben: Ooooo, I did not test that before the show. You like that? Cariann: It's pretty. Ben: Yeah. Cariann: [explodes into laughter.] Ben: Wait, hang on. Let me -- Cariann: [still laughing.] Ben. We may end up going back to this. That's what happens when you try to mix and max match resolutions. Cariann: Mix and max? Ben: Oops! That's why we're on internet television, ladies and gentlemen. There's a newly discovered planet that is as big as the star that it rotates around. I didn't read up on any of the Space News items that you have. Cariann: Oh. Okay. So, it's Cariann's Space News. Ben: Yes, Cariann's Space News today. Cariann: Not a problem, then. Yeah. What's going on is that there is a star named VB-10, capital V as in Victor, capital B as in Ben dash 10. And they happened to have found a planet that orbits this star, but it is almost as big as the star. Ben: That's impressive. Cariann: Because the the planet itself is like the size of, like say, Jupiter or so, And the star is like a red giant. Ben: Is it a gas giant star or is it actually like made of rock like earth? Cariann: The star or the planet? Ben: The planet. Cariann: The planet is more of a gas giant. However, because they are so big and they're kind of circling each other sorta kinda, the thought process is there might be smaller, more rocky planets in between the two. Ben: Oooo, earthlike planets. Cariann: Yes. And because the planet itself is so close to the star that it's circling or its particular sun, it's possible, possible that there would be a rocky planet big enough and with enough water and all of that other stuff that's not too hot, that not like a Mercury or Venus or Mars, well, I guess Mars is cold, but you know what I'm saying, that there could be an earth-like planet out there. It's pretty much what it comes down to. Ben: WOW. Cariann: So that's a very big deal. The funniest part to me is that because the star, you know, the stars are really easy to find. Both called VB-10. Well, they didn't know what to call the planet, so they called VB-10B. Ben: [Laughing.] Why didn't they called it like VB-10S for star. Why B? Cariann: VB-10-P? VB-10J? Ben: Why not just call it the star of VB-10? Cariann: VB-10J? VB-10, as well. I don't know. Ben: Astronomers pffft. Cariann: I'm sure there's a perfectly logical reason for all of it, but yeah, no I have ... Ben: Actually, if I may for a moment ... imagine living on VB-10. No, you wouldn't live on VB-10, you'd live on one of the rocky planets, because VB-10 would probably crush you. But, Cariann: Exactly. You would not want to live on Jupiter. Ben: By trying to live on Saturn you'd just get sucked in and crushed in the middle Cariann: Right. Ben: (whispering) A giant. But imagine living on one of the rocky planets surrounded by an earth-like planets and you look up and you've got your sun in one direction, you look up in the other direction there's this HUUGE freaking planet ... Cariann: And you're looking at this tiny thing right in the middle. Ben: It like KA BOOM! Can you imagine having moon there, it'd be like having BOOM BOOM BOOM. And (squeaky voice) ooooooo we're so tiny. Cariann: I think it would be like of cool looking, though. Don't you? Ben: Yeah. Cariann: Alright. Ben: No, I'm saying ... Cariann: Shot down for that one. Ben: No, no. Cariann: No, yeah. Ben: No, no. I was following there was a mouse that went across the screen, so I was paying attention to the mouse. Next we've got the Canadian ... Cariann: Shine. Ben: space station OOOoo. Canadian space (pfflat) Cariann: (gobbledegook) Ben: You know, I've been doing this all day long. Cariann: I know. Ben: And, by the way, Pluto is not a planet Cariann: And this headline was specifically written for GISuck and bmac, Ben: Okay. Cariann: Brady. Ben: Yep. Cariann: Canada's first space tourist is a clown. Ben: [laughing] Quite literally. Cariann: What else do you need to know, really. All on the same Pluto's a planet. Pluto was a planet when we were growing up, but it no longer is. Anyhow, the point is that the guy who started Cirque du Soleil and if you're not familiar with Cirque du Soleil, ... Ben: Awesome. Cariann: get familiar with Cirque du Soleil because it's totally worth it. One of the best acts out there, I think, in general. But, you know, this guy's got lots of money, just like Richard Garriott, and he said, "Boom. I'm going to space." Ben: I'm going to space. Cariann: That's what's up. Ben: Upside down. While balancing on this ball. Cariann: Right. The other part, isn't that great? We watch Cirque in spaaace. Ben: Oooh. That would be cool. Cariann: But, I think that means we'll get a really awesome show out of this. 'Cause once he comes down he'll have all these ideas. Ben: Or it will be completely lame, one of the two. He'll be, like, let's try this and it just doesn't work with gravity. Cariann: Damn gravity! yeah, but you could do it in water. He's already got a water one going. Ben: That's true. He's got a couple of water ones. Cariann: Maybe he could do one in, like, jello. Okay, never mind. I'm sorry. We're totally going off on a tangent. But, in any case, it's kind of exciting. First of all, Canada finally, finally, gets a space tourist of sorts and he happens to be a clown, which makes for good headlines, I think. [Both laughing.] Ben: You're so easily amused. Cariann: I know. I'm so evil. I'm so sorry. Ben: Aah, you are. Alright, when we come back we're going to be talking with Fernando de la Pena, I hope I got that right, you can nod yes or no. Or be like, "I don't know" of Mexico's brand new space agency. He is, I believe the lead engineer. We'll have to clarify that. Cariann: He's a guy. Ben: He's one of the lead guys over there. And we'll be talking about their brand new space agency and where they're going from there. And GISuck, thank you "Full Speed for Full Clowns." That's a fantastic reference to STS-119, I believe it was. Full power for Full Science. Cariann: Yeah. There you go. Ben: And in this break I notice a couple things, check out the STS-127 promo video, it's hot and awesome. We'll be right back. Hello and welcome to the Crow River Coffee Company in Watertown, Minnesota. Situated on the bank of the beautiful Crow River, we offer espresso drinks, delicious food, live music, bulk beans, and artisan items. You can see us at crowrivercoffee.com. Thanks! ♪♫ Calendar of Events ♫♪ Cariann: Stop it. They were trying to read. Ben: No, they were listening to me going bewp, bewp Cariann: I know they were listening to you-- they shouldn't have been. Ben: We put in new music 'cause everyone was like "(gibberish) I don't like that old music, it's so annoying." Then I gave you the new music and it's like bewp, bewp, blap. Alright. You know we do these shows live every week from the Crow River Coffee Company and the Crow River Coffee Company is not only nice enough to host us here for free, by the way, but also to allow us to put a giant 8-foot satellite dish in, pretty much, their back yard so that we can give you NASA high definition coverage. And so we give big props to the Crow River Coffee Company. In addition to all those really cool things, you know, some of these launches get delayed ... Cariann: As if that cool enough ... Ben: Not cool enough. Some of these launches get delayed until like 2-3 in the morning and you just need something to keep you going and OH MY GOODNESS we're at a Coffee Company, and so we have a coffee of the month. Being that it's a new month, we've got a new blend. And this month's coffee of the month... Cariann: You'll never believe it. BLASTOFF BLEND. You like that? A special blend just for Spacevidcast called Blastoff Blend. Cariann: People are already calling to have some of it in their... Ben: Or they're asking where the beer of the month is. No, no alcohol yet. And you can go to CrowRiverCoffee.com and get your Blastoff Blend. And not only will you get an awesome bag of Blastoff Blend, that's the logo for the coffee, you'll also get a Spacevidcast sticker which is signed by you and me. Cariann: Him and I. Ben: ♪awesome♪ So check that out and go to CrowRiverCoffee and by helping them, you help yourself 'cause you can stay up late and that helps us because Cariann: We get 2 cents out out of every bag. Ben: Somehow you help us out. I don't know. You help us. Cariann: Help us help you help us. Ben: Absolutely. We've got with us Fernando de la Pena from the Mexican space agency. Fernando, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining us. Fernando: Thank you very much for inviting me. Ben: So tell us a little bit, you know, the Mexican space agency is, as I understand it, brand new. Can you tell us a little bit about what the Mexican space agency--what you guys are all about. 'Cause you're not going to be sitting there launching rockets next month. I mean, where did you get started, what is ... Cariann: Maybe they are. You don't know. Ben: No they're not. Fernando: The Mexican space agency is not created yet. We are in the process of creating a Mexican space agency. Let me give you a history about that. In 2005, with the help of the lower chamber, we created a bill of law to create the Mexican space agency. That bill of law was approved in 2006 and sent to the Mexican Senate. The upper chamber of the Mexican Senate approved it unanimously in 2008. But they made some changes in the text of the bill of law so it was sent back to the lower chamber. So now we are waiting for the final approval of the Mexican space agency but we expect that would be sometime between September and November of this year when the new Congress will be in that chamber because we will have a new Congress in September. Yeah, we have several ideas of what we want to do, but we do not want to launch rockets in the first stage of the agency. Ben: Now that would be a massively huge undertaking. It is a little bit confusing 'cause you have been approved but because changes in the way the document were made, you have to be approved again? Is that kinda what I'm understanding? Like the changes have to be approved, now? Is that correct? Fernando: Yeah, those things that you create in a bill of law in, for example, the lower chamber and you send it to the Mexican Senate you will have an approval. But the Mexican Senate's upper chamber makes any change to the text, that needs to send it back to the lower chamber just to approve that change. Because, actually, I expect that the Mexican space agency was approved by the lower chamber and the upper chamber, but now we're just waiting for the final approval of the changes and that will happen probably between September and November. Ben: Now being that it was a unanimous decision before, so a fairly safe bet, I would assume, that it's going to be approved again and that you're going to be ready to go. Now, assuming that's the case, where are you guys going to start? What are you guys going to start doing right out the gates? Fernando: Well, after we have approval -- let me give you some history, you will know about that. There are about 45 space agencies in the world and we already have meeting with people of NASA, people of the Russian space agency Bastille, Argentina and several space agencies, so what we want to do after we have approval is to enter international collaboration program with several space agencies. We already find some products we make in Mexico. We have experience on making satellites, small satellites, like micro satellites, or nano satellites, so we can build lunar position. We're making as much satellites in Mexico. We also have experience on the mechanical engineering. We have a lot of engineers here, so we can build some of the components of the new lunar rover. And the other reason is that we already have a lot of experience in textiles, so we can tend to create some of the material for the lunar helipad, so that's one of the things that we want to do. And also, we want to explore the space tourist because we can create a launch platform with a foreign company on Yucatan because are very near the equator. So that will be a very good spot if you want to send some orbital planes for tourists, Yucatan is a good place. So, that's what the first step for the Mexican space agency and we will need to. about 20 years working from this program with the help of another space agency. One that we would ensure that the space agency after one year, five years and 20 years. Ben: So, the question was brought up in the chat room which is, there are a bunch of companies that are already building satellites and helping with rovers, you know, the big names in the industry--the Boeing, the Lockheed, the orbitals--what is the Mexican space agency going to bring to the table that these other companies aren't doing today. Are you going to be doing something different, are you going to compete on price? Is there going to be an addition to the product that these other companies aren't doing? What does your value add to say, because you're talking about building satellites, one of your first stages. Fernando: Well, we going to make something different actually. Our actual satellite providers they make the huge satellites. We are trying to make small satellites about one kilogram of size of small satellites that will be enough to create GPS on the moon, and Lunar Positioning System. We're going to find some niches just like Canada-the Canadian robotic arm. They found a niche with the Canadian space arm. So if you see the space shuttle, you see the international space station, the robotic arm is from Canada. So what we want to do is to create something different when we can pioneer. Because if we are going to take that first step with the Mexican space agency, we cannot compete with another company. Or with another country. So what we want to do for this reason is to enter in a collaboration product with another country, international collaboration programs so we can find a niche and create a Mexican Space Agency, because at this time we don't have a Mexican space industry. Ben: One of the things that was brought up in the chat room is that is sounds like you're trying to focus on a little bit of the commercial side. It sounds like, as you were mentioning, you want to kind of carve out a niche for yourself, much like Canada did with the robotics-Dexter, Canada Arm, Canada Arm 2, so forth and so on. But you also mentioned you are, you guys are very close to the equator. You are an ideal launch site at that point for getting into orbit. Down the road, is that something you are going to be targeting, as well? Building out, maybe not building your own rockets, but building your launch facilities? Where other countries can come in to launch their rockets from? Fernando: I could not hear you fine. I'm having some problems hearing you. What was the question, sorry. Basically, are you going to use your location near the equator as a way to lure other countries in to launch at your launch sites in the future. Would you build launch sites so that other space faring agencies-ESA, JAXA, Virgin Galactic, U.S. Would you have launch facilities that we'd launch from? Maybe not build your own rockets, but your own launch facilities. Fernando: Exactly. One of the things that we're going to do is to use the location of Yucatan so other countries, other space agencies can work with us to launch not just rockets, also can send tourist ships to send to the space for the first tourist into space like Virgin Galactic or another country. So Yucatan will be a good place to do that. And we can use that location and in the future, probably in five years, we can build our own launch platform. A Mexican platform. But in the meantime, the first step is to offer to another company from another country the location of Yucatan. Ben: That sounds cool. I mean, they're mentioning in the chat room that it's possibly another port for Sea Launch, you mentioned Virgin Galactic, there's X-Corp. There seems like there's a phenomenal amount of opportunity and, just frankly, your position on the planet makes you an ideal location for being able to launch this stuff. So that's going to be cool, you know, Developing the satellites, carving out your niche, carving out a launch area. You know, these are all great things and part of the reason we wanted to bring you on was because one of the soap boxes we have is getting more people engaged and interested about space travel. And the more launch sites we can get and the more locations around the world, the more exciting it gets. Imagine having a Virgin Galactic Space Ship 2 landing in multiple locations in Mexico. It just makes it really easy for space tourism to start to take off and driving that cost further and further down. So we're really excited to see what you guys have coming up. I certainly hope that the next part of your -- I certainly hope you guys do go through the final formation of building the agency. It sounds like it's, pretty much, for the most part is done. I mean, you have to wait for the official sign off in what was it, October-ish or so, but if, we've got a couple of viewers in Mexico and if some of them want to start getting involved in helping out in any way, shape or form, where can they go and who can they contact? Fernando: Yeah. And also let me tell you something. Here in Mexico we've got a lot of good engineers, good scientists, just for the statistics, every year we have double engineers graduated here in Mexico. I mean, in the United States. The problem here in Mexico, we don't have the opportunities, like we don't have the facilities for these people. So they need to go to another country. What we want to do also is create also Mexican space programs with the people that we have. So we're trying to find three different branches. The first one will be international space programs in cooperation with another country. The second one is to try to bring people, Mexican people, that have already left the country, that already went to study at another country to give us that space that they already have. And the third one is to make a commercial branch of the space agency. All the things we are creating, we want to protect our companies and make these commercial so they can create a profit and the space industry will be more profitable for Mexico because we are not going to begin with that huge budget, so we need to tell the investors, the private investors, for the first year, for the first or second year of the space agency, so we want to create a commercial branch, a local branch with national programs, a national space program and then an international space program branch and then a space agency. That will help our economy because if we bring some tourists, especially with the space tourists, that will be brand new with Virgin Galactic and other companies that will a main point to bring more tourists to Mexico. And that's a really really new market. Ben: And speaking of new markets, you know, it was brought up in the chat room, Austin mentioned are you guys gonna make it a little less rigid for restrictions in space flight than say space flight in the United States. 'Cause trying to launch something in the U.S. can be painfully difficult. Are you gonna make it a little easier for companies to set up and launch in Mexico. Fernando: Yeah. We need to give them a little facilities to make that. If we want to provide space tourism here in Mexico, we need to give to the companies, make it as smooth as possible to bring them back to Mexico because they need to create an infrastructure here in Mexico, so we are working from that. If a company wants to base in Mexico, probably Yucatan, to make some launches, we need to get them the facilities. Also, we are already helping to obtain free land, to fuel the structure and everything, so we can bring a lot of companies here in Mexico. Ben: It sounds interesting. We 're going to be watching you quite a bit in the near future, specifically come around October or so. And, hopefully, you'll be fully funded and ready to go. And we're excited to see what you guys are going to do in the privatized space sector. Specifically, I think you guys are going to have, hopefully, a really big year in 2010 and get that year off to a really great start and do some really innovative things in the space tourism and in the niche space markets. Thank you very much for coming on the program. And, please, don't be a stranger. We'd love to hear any developments that are happening in the Mexican space program. Fernando: I just wanted to tell you something. We are very excited. Probably we expected probably three months ago to have approval by April but because of Swine flu that is why we delayed until September or October. But one of the good things is that the Mexican space agency really needed to work on that decent scenario, the Mexican Independence that will be in in 2010. And also, if we are in some movies, remember in 2010 that movie so that would be a good year for that. Ben: Oh yeah. You know, that's something haven't had actually mentioned on this show. The movie "2010." Is it still called "The Space Odyssey"? Cariann: I think so. Ben: And space tourism. It's all coming together. It's all gelling. Next year is going to be a really cool year. And, like I said, we're really excited to see where you guys go and I'm really glad you guys are getting into the game because it was mentioned earlier in the chat room, can there be too many players in this marketplace and, at this stage, I don't think so. I don't see, I mean, eventually there could be. But right now, we're so far from that mark it's not even funny. And it's great to see Mexico stepping up and contributing to the space game. Fernando: Yeah, I would say it like that, but it's a very very good year for us. We are going to begin our space program because, just for the record, we used to have the Mexican space agency from 1962 to 1977, the name was Comision Nacional del Space Estorio, but this was closed. So after several years we're going to gain a space agency. But there is a huge difference. In the 70's, there was a time of Cold War, there was no collaboration about technology. Now, there are different times. We can have trading programs, trade of technology with countries and it will be very good for the economy of the country because sooner or later we are going to lose the oil here in Mexico. The oil that is what brought 30-40% of the company lost income, so if we don't find new markets, the space market would be a very good one. We are not a bitter country, so it's a good deal we're taking the first steps, but it worth taking the first steps with another country. And if you'll allow me, I wish to send you we have a web page so people are interested in the Mexican space agency can check us on line. I will send it to you. Ben: Sure. Just say it out loud for everyone in the chat room. What's the web site? Fernando: It's tricky. It's www.aexa.tv. Ben: dot tv is what you said. Correct? Fernando: Yep. Ben: Awesome. So if anyone wants additional information on the Mexican space agency, check out that web site. Fernando, thank you very much for joining us and we'll chat with you a little bit later on. Probably, early next year to see how things are going. It's great to see someone else kind of pushing this technology forward and adding to the industry. So, Fernando, thank you very very much. Fernando: Thank you very much for this opportunity and for me to give you great news sometime this Fall... after the final approval of the Mexican space agency. Thank you very much for this opportunity and thanks a lot to everybody. Thank you. Ben: It's going to be great. I'm really excited to see what Mexico does. You know, it's one of those things that I never really thought about, but it makes a whole lot of sense due to their location near the equator. They are an optimal launch site. And I think they're going to be able to do a lot of things that the U.S. isn't doing. I don't think there's going to be as much red tape there. I think it's going be a lot easier for privatized travel to go there. Cariann: Right. Ben: And I think they're going to be able to push getting people like you and me, mere mortals, into space a lot faster than possibly the United States. And I worry about things like ITAR and other restrictions, but hopefully, all of that will be worked out. Sometime in 2010. Before we go, I did want to touch on the International Space Development Conference. And now that the Conference is over, I finally started calling it Development instead of Developer. I'm glad of that. Cariann: How weird. Ben: You know, we did spend four days I think it was at ISDC... Cariann: It seemed like 10. Ben: And I just wanted to get your quick feedback and opinion on what you thought of the show. Cariann: Oh, you know, like I was kinda talking to Caf earlier. There were some highs and there some lows. I came within about 4 feet of Buzz Aldrin! Ben: That's cool. One of 12 men to ever step on the face of the moon. Cariann: I was so completely star struck I, I, I couldn't even do anything. I was just like (mouth agape, finger raised, wanting to speak, nothing happening). Ben: [Laughter.] Cariann: And that was it. That was the end of me. Ben: I of only 15 to ever see the dark side of the moon. Cariann: Yes, but at the same time I think a lot of the presentations and you can see on line 'cause we've got them all archived, some of the presentations were kind of stuff we already knew. Ben: Yep. Cariann: And so that was a little frustrating. And even some of the presenters said "Well, if you've seen me at ISDC before, you've heard me say blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." And I was like, "Why are you here? Why are you saying it again? If you don't know something new and interesting to say, why repeat it?" If that makes any sense. Ben: Obviously we're huge Virgin Galactic fans here and we'd love to see Virgin Galactic, but their particular presentation was just--with the exception of about 60 seconds, and that 60 second sound bite was they're going to be going--they're going to be doing Space Ship 2 launches--not rocket launches, but attached to White Knight Two in 2009. Cariann: Yes. Ben: Which puts them right on track, you know it's a little bit better than the industry was saying, but pretty much on track what we've been kinda saying before, which is they're going to be doing human launches and human tests I think in 2010. And this gets us one step closer to that. And I'm excited to see what they're going to do. But really, it was an hour-long presentation and 60 seconds of it was really what everyone was waiting for. Cariann: 60 seconds, I think it was more like 10 seconds. I mean (in her announcer voice) "We are going to be launching in 2009." There you go. That's all we wanted to hear. You could have said that, clap, and get off the stage. Ben: In all fairness, a lot of conferences are that way, and not all the presentations were like that. Buzz Aldrin's keynote presentation which is available on Spacevidcast now, was awesome. Richard Garriott's keynote presentation--awesome. I actually did enjoy the Ares and Constellation panels. Now I know that a lot of Spacevidcasters are huge advocates of the Direct program. I actually would argue it's a little bit irrelevant whether you like Direct or not because we're going with Constellation. And, I mean, you argue your point 'til you're blue in the face, it's Constellation. Cariann: Yes. Ben: So, great! I'm glad that Direct has a good vehicle, but it's Constellation. It was really neat to see Ares and--the Constellation and Ares panels and where they're going and what they're planning on doing and how their vehicles are working and where they're at in those stages. Cariann: The one thing I will say very quickly and, you know, I personally don't often speak badly of Space-X specifically, but I will give them one little warm fuzzy-- in that one of the presenters for Space-X, I forget her name, but she very specifically beforehand said, "I will take all questions and I really want some spicy ones." Ben: And she took them. Cariann: And she took them. Now, we didn't get necessarily the answer we were looking for (laughing), we weren't getting the yeah, yeah, I know, I know. But she took them. She took the questions, she read them to everyone and then proceeded to answer--to give her answer. And, I have to give her credit for that, because she very well could have been like "Aaand, No." [Laughter.] You know what I mean? 'Cause I think a lot of people-- I kinda felt especially in the beginning, a lot of people were like "and not this one, not this one, not this one. Oh, probably this one. Oh, I'm out of questions. Sorry." Ben: I want to give the organizer of ISDC quick props because they did allow us to stream the conferences live on the internet so we were able to watch ISDC live. If you weren't able to attend, you could watch some of the main conferences, not all of them or main tracks not all of them, right here at Spacevidcast.com and you could ask your questions and we would then run them up and you could actually have your questions answered and, actually, there were some Spacevidcaster questions that were answered. Cariann: Most of the time we had a BZWingZero who's in the room right now. Ben: Run 'em up. Cariann: Brian, go do it. You know, throw him up there and 'em in for us, which was awesome. Ben: If you missed any of ISDC, even though a lot of it is recap, as Uncle BS said, "You know, it's a recap for some of us, but at the same time, for a lot of people, maybe it's not recap. Especially if you're a space newbie and we certainly try to cater to... Cariann: Yes. Ben: people who are passionate about space and thinks that rockets are cool, but maybe have never really gotten into it before. You really haven't found your voice yet. Certainly check out--go to Spacevidcast.com/ I think it's tag/ISDC. Cariann: There's a lot of information. You can also just search for ISDC and they will all pop up. Actually I think it's slash category slash ISDC. You can find it right there--big ol' tags on the SpaceVidCast site. Search for ISDC and look at just the plethora of videos that we've got available there. And there's a lot of really awesome and interesting stuff. And actually there was one chart in particular that I keep coming back to and I apologize. I don't remember. I think it was on the COTS panel, but I don't remember for sure. And it talked about how the U.S. has always been split approximately 50-50 of Americans who think that we should go to the moon. And what was interesting, is that during the Apollo era, that graph started to slide drastically out of 50-50 to most people saying we shouldn't go to the moon. Cariann: Right. Ben: It started near the 70 percentile mark of people saying we should not go to the moon. And then on the cusp of us going to the moon, in 1968 I think it was, the year where it started going BAM, right back down to the middle where it's 50-50 straight up. And it's been kinda 50-50 ever since, but what that tells me is that 50%, approximately 50% of Americans. I can't really extrapolate this worldwide. I don't have data. But I can say 50% of Americans think that space travel is interesting and cool and worthwhile. Cariann: Uh huh. Ben: But you don't hear these Americans saying anything. You don't hear them saying we need to invest in Constellation or Direct or whatever you want-- I realize Direct--you mentioned earlier Direct competes more Ares than anything else, but blah, blah, blah. It doesn't matter. We need to invest in these programs. NASA makes sense. I would buy a ticket on Virgin Galactic. I am interested to see where X-Corp is going. I want to see space-based solar power. I want to see what we can do. You don't hear these voices. Cariann: Right. Ben: And I don't think people realize how important their voice is and that a single voice can mean the difference between NASA getting 2 billion dollars in funding and not getting 2 billion dollars in funding. It can mean the difference between Virgin Galactic getting that extra seat that they needed to become a formed company versus not getting that extra seat. Cariann: Right. Ben: That's just one voice. Cariann: The thing that you have to take into account, which is what the bureaucracies do take into account, is that for every one voice, whether it be good, bad or otherwise, there's at least 10 other people who have not had their voice heard, but that one person essentially represents--if that makes any sense. So every one person that says something, they're just going to assume that there's another 10 people behind you that are agreeing with you. So the more of us that we can get to say this is what we're looking for, this is what we're interested in, this is what we believe in, they're just gonna think "We've got bazillions and bazillions of them." Ben: In the private market when they see that there's a market for people spending time in a space hotel, a big ol' whatever, a big ol' hotel or whatever you're going to call it, when they see everyone raise their hand and say I'll spend $10,000 for a week there, as they see people committing their money to it, that's when the investors will start to throw their money behind it. That's when the innovation is going to start to occur and that's when we'll see a new renaissance, a new era on the planet. It was the Industrial Revolution, then the computer revolution, with the internet (I'm kind of wrapping it all together), the information revolution and now it's going to be the space revolution. I realize we've been in space for 40 years, but you know what, we've had the internet, for instance, since 1962 and it took us until the 90's for it to really kick off. Cariann: Exactly. Ben: So, it's the same deal it's just--this is the next big revolution. I firmly believe it. I'll get off my soapbox in a minute, but what ISDC brought to me is it-I mean, obviously we're passionate about space, but it really got me laser focused on that 50% of Americans. It made me realize I need to help them find their voice. I need to rekindle that fire, that passion inside of them, when they were kids and they were watching shuttle launches or rocket launches, depending upon their age. I need to find a way to get that fire, that inspiration, that love of space travel. Every human loves to explore whether they admit it or not it is built into our DNA. This is something we all want to do. Maybe people don't want NASA to do it. Maybe they don't want to pay out of pocket, but one way or another, I DO firmly believe that everyone wants to explore and we need to find a way to make that happen. So that is my commitment to you guys. After ISDC 2009, I am going to find a way to reinvigorate the human race and get everyone excited about this stuff. I'll get off my soapbox now. That was a pretty big soapbox, wasn't it? I'd like to thank everyone for joining us. This show was a little bit longer than normal, but it was awesome so was worth it. I'm really excited about the Mexican space agency--that's going to be really cool. Cariann: That's very exciting. Ben: Seriously, guys, watch for that. That's just going to be great. You can join us and watch these shows live and see the chat room at the bottom of the screen. Please come in, participate live, we love to interact with you guys. You can do that every Friday at 2:00 a.m coordinated universal time. For those of you in the United States, because I know you can't do time zone conversions, that's at 7:00 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, 9:00 Central Daylight Time, or 10:00 Eastern Daylight Time. And I'd like to thank everyone for watching. Next week's show is gonna be just freaking scary awesome and then we've got space shuttle Endeavour launching shortly after that. As a quick side note, and this is the note before we go, we have lifted the ban on no-shows during shuttle launches. So, we will continue to do shows even when a shuttle is in the air. So make sure that you continue to watch Spacevidcast, I know, everyone is like WOOHOO! Yep, we're going to continue doing shows and we're trying to find a way to crank out a heck of a lot more content, so make sure to tune in to SpaceVidCast.com every week. Thank you so much for watching. We'll see you next week. ♫♫♫Spacevidcast Theme Music♫♫♫