{"id":19518,"date":"2015-12-24T23:17:58","date_gmt":"2015-12-24T15:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/geekwire-radio-alan-boyles-guide-to-the-year-in-space-and-whats-next-for-the-universe-in-2016\/"},"modified":"2015-12-24T23:17:58","modified_gmt":"2015-12-24T15:17:58","slug":"geekwire-radio-alan-boyles-guide-to-the-year-in-space-and-whats-next-for-the-universe-in-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/geekwire-radio-alan-boyles-guide-to-the-year-in-space-and-whats-next-for-the-universe-in-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"GeekWire Radio: Alan Boyle\u2019s guide to the year in space, and what\u2019s next for the universe in 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_219323\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-219323\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-219323 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151222-x-630x420-1-630x420.jpg\" alt=\"151222-x-630x420\" width=\"630\" height=\"420\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-219323\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A time-lapse photo showing SpaceX\u2019s historic Falcon 9 rocket launch and landing. (Credit: SpaceX)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It&nbsp;was a big year in space: Historic rocket launches; revelations&nbsp;from distant planets; an unprecedented glimpse of the surface of Pluto;&nbsp;evidence of water trails&nbsp;on Mars; SpaceX vs. Blue Origin; the rise of commercial space; and also&nbsp;some big setbacks.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_210251\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-210251\" style=\"width: 223px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-210251\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/alan-297x300.jpg\" alt=\"alan\" width=\"223\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/alan-297x300.jpg 297w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/alan-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/alan-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/alan-620x627.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/alan-200x202.jpg 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/alan-99x100.jpg 99w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/alan.jpg 724w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 223px) 100vw, 223px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-210251\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alan Boyle, GeekWire\u2019s aerospace and science editor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This week on the GeekWire radio show and podcast, we\u2019re joined by Alan Boyle, GeekWire\u2019s aerospace and science editor, who catches us up&nbsp;on&nbsp;the biggest news&nbsp;from space this year,&nbsp;literally putting the universe in perspective. We also look ahead to 2016 and bring things closer to Earth with an explanation of the FAA\u2019s new registration requirements for that recreational&nbsp;drone under your tree for the holidays.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Listen to an extended version of the show below<\/strong>, and continue reading for an edited transcript. Download the MP3 here. And if you love space and science news, be sure to sign up for GeekWire\u2019s&nbsp;weekly Space &amp; Science newsletter, featuring Alan\u2019s coverage.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/238662077&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong style=\"line-height: 1.625;\">Todd Bishop:<\/strong><span style=\"line-height: 1.625;\"> If you were to characterize the overall amount of news from space this year, as compared to years past, was it a busy news year in space?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>PODCAST SPONSORS<\/strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-131070 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Ftr_bsnss_edge_2c_lrg-e1418057970158.jpg\" alt=\"Frontier Business Edge\" width=\"300\" height=\"93\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-202952 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/alarmgrid_logo-03.png\" alt=\"alarmgrid_logo-03\" width=\"181\" height=\"181\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/alarmgrid_logo-03.png 181w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/alarmgrid_logo-03-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/alarmgrid_logo-03-100x100.png 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 181px) 100vw, 181px\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>Alan Boyle:<\/strong> It seems like it\u2019s a little busier. I mean, every year is busy. You\u2019ve got Mars missions, you\u2019ve got all sorts of rocket test flights but it seems as if there are a lot of things just starting to come together in 2015 and they will spill over into 2016 and beyond so we\u2019re really getting to a turning point where we\u2019re starting to look ahead to all sorts of cool stuff coming up in the years ahead and we\u2019ll be talking about that as well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong> How much of that has to do with commercial space and this whole idea that space exploration is shifting beyond just government control into private enterprise?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong> Oh, quite a bit. Here in Seattle, we\u2019ve got Spaceflight Industries, which is really capitalizing on that trend of commercialization and you\u2019ve got all sorts of competition going on. One of the things that we\u2019re seeing is these companies are vying with each other for employees and for contracts and you\u2019re really getting a competitive space, kind of like the space that you see in the tech world now where you\u2019ve got Apple versus Google, now you\u2019ve got SpaceX versus Blue Origin.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong> Pluto was a major story this year and a major story for you as well. You\u2019re the author of The Case for Pluto. For people who are just catching up on this, what was the big news from Pluto this year?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:&nbsp;<\/strong>Well, it looks like a real planet. It has the diversity that you would associate with other worlds, in some ways, as diverse as Mars. You\u2019ve got mountains of ice, you\u2019ve got plains of nitrogen that\u2019s frozen in place but not fully in place, that\u2019s moving around. There are tectonics that are going on there. There might be ice volcanoes, there\u2019s a thin atmosphere, and the pictures have just been great. This is arguably the last frontier. You\u2019re starting to open up an area known as the Kuiper belt which is where all these icy worlds hang out beyond the orbit of Neptune and so it\u2019s just great to see a first up-close glimpse at this new frontier.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-188079 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1.png\" alt=\"pluto\" width=\"250\" height=\"189\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1.png 250w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1-200x151.png 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1-132x100.png 132w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\"><br \/>\n<strong>Science journalist Alan Boyle<\/strong>&nbsp;is the author of &#8220;The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made A Big Difference.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong> When you look at Pluto and the findings from the&nbsp;New Horizons probe, does this change how we should think about Pluto because this is the big debate and you\u2019ve been in the center of this debate as the author of the book. Can we now go back and say, \u201cOK, in fact, Pluto is the ninth planet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong> No, you can\u2019t really say that it\u2019s the ninth planet because there are lots of cool worlds out there that have to be added to the list. In my book, dwarf planets are planets, too. You\u2019ve got Pluto, you\u2019ve got Ceres, you\u2019ve got Eris, you\u2019ve got all these cool worlds and we took a first look at Ceres up close as well, the other dwarf planet that\u2019s had a starring role in 2015. We\u2019re really seeing these worlds as worlds. You can call them planets \u2014 I do \u2014 you can call them dwarf planets, you can just call them cool stuff in the solar system. That\u2019s fine.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong> You mentioned Ceres. Where is Ceres in relation to Earth and Pluto? How far out is it?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong> Oh, it\u2019s between Mars and Jupiter. It\u2019s in that broad asteroid belt if you remember your high school diagram of how the solar system is structured and it\u2019s the biggest asteroid but it\u2019s the smallest dwarf planet that we know of.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong> Got it. So what did you learn about Ceres that you didn\u2019t before, or that we didn\u2019t know before?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong> The big thing about Ceres was the bright spots \u2014 that there were some mysterious bright spots almost like alien headlights and I think people are finally getting a handle on what those are, that they\u2019re deposits of bright salt that were left behind from water ice that is underneath the surface and so underneath Ceres, you\u2019ve got this big reservoir of water ice and that has implications as well for future asteroid mining. This is the sort of thing that people are going to be looking for as we push our way out deeper into the solar system.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong> Why is the presence of water ice so significant? What does that mean? Is that fuel for rockets that might mine asteroids?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong> When you\u2019re talking about asteroids, that\u2019s what you\u2019re talking about is you\u2019ve got a resource out there that would cost $10,000 per kilogram or pound, whatever your favorite rough approximation is to send into space and you\u2019ve got that resource just waiting out there that you can turn not only into rocket fuel but also into water, into breathable air, and there are resources out there that you can use to build stuff in space as well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong> Got it. Speaking of water, another giant story this past year, it was more confirmation of what was already suspected, but water on Mars. What do we know about that at the end of 2015 that we did not know at the beginning?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong> It looks like there is some seasonal change in that these little rivulets of water trickle out when things get warm on Mars and then disappear when things get cold again. There\u2019s still some controversy about those findings. Some people are saying some of the gullies that are being spotted on Mars are actually caused by dry ice, by carbon dioxide rather than water ice but some of them are surely the vestiges of water that existed more fully on Mars billions of years ago and the thinking is that if you go beneath the surface, you\u2019re going to find some pretty interesting stuff including maybe some alien microbes that are still surviving down there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong> Actual life.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong> Actual life. That\u2019s the speculation. Too early to say whether that\u2019s for sure but that\u2019s where you\u2019d have to look. You can\u2019t look on the surface, it\u2019s too forbidding of an environment now. But if you look underneath the surface, that\u2019s where you might find alien life, however you want to define it.<\/p>\n<h3>Missions to Mars<\/h3>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong> One of the things that Elon Musk and others have been talking about is actually traveling to Mars, and I know the movie The Martian brought that into the popular consciousness more than it has been in the past. What does the discovery of water on Mars mean for the potential for expeditions to Mars?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong> Right, again, that\u2019s another resource that you can draw upon. In fact, Elon Musk is getting ready to unveil his strategy for colonizing Mars and in order to do that, you need to take advantage of the resources that are there and water is #1 on that list.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_150496\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-150496\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-150496\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/muskelon1211-620x420.jpg\" alt=\"Elon Musk in Seattle in January. (GeekWire File Photo)\" width=\"620\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/muskelon1211-620x420.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/muskelon1211-1024x694.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/muskelon1211.jpg 1702w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-150496\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Elon Musk in Seattle in January. (GeekWire File Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong>&nbsp;Who do you think has the better chance of getting to Mars first, Elon Musk or somebody else?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong> I think Elon is very focused on that. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anybody in the world as focused with the wherewithal that Elon Musk has and so I wouldn\u2019t bet against him at this point.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong>&nbsp;The commercial space industry has been driving a lot of the progress in space in general and one of the people who is behind that big push is none other than Jeff Bezos \u2014 who we\u2019re used to covering as the founder of Amazon but he\u2019s also the founder of a company based here in the Seattle area called Blue Origin. They had a milestone just recently. What was that and what was the significance of the launch that they did?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong> Right. It was the occasion of Jeff Bezos\u2019s first tweet ever. For years, for more than a decade, Jeff Bezos has been trying to get toward space with his space venture Blue Origin where he\u2019s able to put a spaceship up to suborbital space, 100 miles up, send the rocket ship up and then down, eventually take people in that spaceship and have tourists or researchers get into it. Now this last month, they finally not only sent a spaceship across the internationally accepted boundary to outer space, 100 kilometers, but they brought it back down safely and landed it on the West Texas launch site. So that was a first for Jeff Bezos and really a milestone for commercial space.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong> This is considered the Holy Grail of space flight in part because if you can recapture the booster rockets rather than having them get destroyed or somehow fall into the ocean. That makes the economics of space flight much more feasible.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"icon-quotes-left\"><\/span>&nbsp;People have been trying to do this for decades \u2014 to make rockets reusable \u2014 and if they can be made reusable in that way, you could bring the cost of space flight down to maybe 1% of what it is right now.<span class=\"icon-quotes-right\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong> Right, right. A&nbsp;lot of people have been pursuing this, you go back to a rocket called the Delta Clipper. People have been trying to do this for decades \u2014 to make rockets reusable \u2014 and if they can be made reusable in that way, you could bring the cost of space flight down to maybe 1% of what it is right now.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong> You actually had an exclusive interview with Jeff Bezos after this successful mission. Obviously he was not on it, it was an unmanned flight, but what was his temperament and overall approach? Did you get a feel for how into this he is?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong>&nbsp;Oh, he was into it. Yeah, he is. This is something that\u2019s been a childhood dream of his and some biographers have said he started up Amazon to further his space dreams. He loves to share that excitement. When you\u2019re in charge of the world\u2019s largest online retailer, you have to be a little circumspect about how you present yourself and how you present your business but I think with the space venture, he\u2019s a little more open now which wasn\u2019t always the case. Blue Origin was a stealth company for years and years but they\u2019re starting to come out now that they have some great things to talk about.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong> My one disappointment with the way they presented that launch publicly was they shifted from actual footage of the flight to more of an animation of the eventual people in space and I thought it cheapened what they actually accomplished in some ways. I realized that they were trying to show a vision of what it will be like but to me, it lessened what they had just done.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Historic Rocket Landing\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9pillaOxGCo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong> Right, right. It\u2019s a little confusing to see that but that\u2019s just a quibble. I think that they\u2019re going to be plenty of videos like that to come. The idea is that this craft will be flown hundreds of times and so in terms of how it\u2019s presented in a media way, there will be lots of chances for fine tuning, we hope.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong> Got it, and as you said, it was the occasion of Jeff Bezos\u2019s first ever tweet which was as we joked, a historic moment in and of itself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong> Right, right. It provoked a little bit of a back and forth with Elon Musk because Elon Musk is trying to do the same thing with SpaceX, so there was a little discussion about how significant is this really. I think that it\u2019s significant just seeing that image of a rocketship landing the way that we saw those Bugs Bunny cartoons back in the 60s, that is the way that things are going to have to be in the future if we\u2019re going to get to the final frontier.<\/p>\n<h3>SpaceX vs. Blue Origin<\/h3>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong> How much of a rivalry is there between Blue Origin and SpaceX, between Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong> Earlier in the show, we mentioned how there\u2019s a struggle for employees, there\u2019s a struggle for mind share, there\u2019s a struggle for contracts and so it reflects that. It used to be I think that Jeff and Elon were a little bit closer, they shared that vision of going to space but now I think it\u2019s getting a little more competitive and so you\u2019re seeing a lot of competition and that\u2019s good for the industry.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong> In fact, this past week, SpaceX successfully landed their Falcon 9 rocket. What does that milestone mean for them?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong> That\u2019s big. In fact, SpaceX would argue that it\u2019s much bigger than what Blue Origin did because this was a rocket that was powerful enough and big enough to send a payload into orbit. That\u2019s what you\u2019re really talking about is that you really want to have the access to orbit be cheaper. That\u2019s where SpaceX has a case for saying that this success is more significant and was more difficult than what Blue Origin did.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_219017\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-219017\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-219017\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151222-space-descent-630x470.jpg\" alt=\"Image: SpaceX Falcon descent\" width=\"630\" height=\"470\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151222-space-descent-630x470.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151222-space-descent-768x573.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151222-space-descent-1240x925.jpg 1240w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/151222-space-descent.jpg 1473w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-219017\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket descends to a touchdown at Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (Credit: SpaceX)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong> The SpaceX angle is very interesting here in the Seattle region in part because SpaceX just this past year opened a new satellite engineering office in Redmond, Washington, just down the street from Microsoft. Gwynne Shotwell and Elon Musk both seem to scale back their ambitions for that satellite Internet network that that office would be building. What did you take away from that?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong> I think it was a realistic assessment of what their priorities for SpaceX was going to be, should be because in January, things were moving ahead very quickly with Falcon development and Falcon having development. They had the setback in June when rocket disintegrated after launch to the International Space Station. I think SpaceX had to really take a step back and say, \u201cWhat\u2019s realistic?\u201d Let\u2019s look at the market too. Can we really compete in this market for Internet services and so they want to take a good hard look at that before they really jump in there. That\u2019s really typical for Elon Musk is that when he plans to do something, it may not happen as quickly as he intends it to but it eventually happens.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong> If it does happen, when it eventually happens, the whole idea, it\u2019s all tied together. He\u2019s going to launch this satellite network for Internet access and then use the funds from that and the technology and everything he learns from it to essentially lay the groundwork for going to Mars. It\u2019s all interconnected with him and I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll be using Solar City panels and probably drive a Tesla across the landscape up there, right?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong> Sure, yeah. That\u2019s a larger point is that the ventures that Elon Musk is involved with are all interrelated. You\u2019ve got space exploration, you\u2019ve got solar power, you\u2019ve got electric cars, it\u2019s all of a piece and so the global Internet satellite network is another big piece in that puzzle.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong> This upcoming year could potentially be a big one. I know one thing that a lot of these commercial space ventures are headed toward is space tourism, the idea that you\u2019ll fly up into the atmosphere, into the stratosphere, somewhere far above and essentially be weightless. How close are we to that with any of these ventures?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:&nbsp;<\/strong>We\u2019re not going to see that in 2016 but we might see the start of it in 2017 or 2018 and in 2016, we\u2019ll be laying the groundwork for that. For example, Virgin Galactic, which suffered that disastrous accident in 2014, is planning to roll out its new space ship that addresses the concerns that were raised by that fatal accident during the next year and start flight testing as well. Blue Origin is going to continue its flight testing. Hopefully we\u2019ll see scores of flights over the next year of that New Shepard suborbital spaceship. That will be unmanned, so the risk is lower but it\u2019s going to be a great try-out for those eventual tourist flights to come. Boeing and SpaceX are involved in developing spacecraft that NASA can use to send to astronauts to the International Space Station. We\u2019ll see more testing and that\u2019s going to get real in 2016 even though the flights with people on them aren\u2019t likely to start until 2017.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong>&nbsp;SpaceX has been doing re-supply missions to the International Space Station. Actually, one of those was the one that disintegrated on its way up this past year, but the whole idea with this new program is to actually shuttle astronauts. It\u2019s essentially a commercial replacement for the former Space Shuttle program in a lot of ways.<\/p>\n<h3>NASA Commercial Crew Program<\/h3>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong> Right, right. These are what you call space taxis. They\u2019re not as capable of bringing up huge payloads as the Space Shuttle was but they will be able to bring up to seven people to the Space Station and then bring them back down again, which will be a great capability for the U.S. to have and they haven\u2019t had that since the Shuttle program was retired in 2011.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:&nbsp;<\/strong>Why didn\u2019t they create and have in place a commercial alternative before retiring the Shuttle program?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong>&nbsp;They made several attempts to do that. There were several concepts that NASA just cycled through, VentureStar, the Aerospace Plane, all sorts of things but it really took a rethinking of how you do space flight to go to this idea of enlisting commercial companies to do spacecraft that are very suited just to send people back and forth. Let\u2019s not worry about sending the cargo, let\u2019s use other types of spacecraft to do that.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong>&nbsp;How does the Boeing and SpaceX joint contract work? In other words, are they both co-developing the same rockets or are they doing it in parallel?<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_219333\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-219333\" style=\"width: 350px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-219333\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/CST-100_crop-630x630.jpg\" alt=\"CST-100 Starliner. (Credit: Boeing)\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/CST-100_crop-630x630.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/CST-100_crop-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/CST-100_crop-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/CST-100_crop-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/CST-100_crop-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/CST-100_crop-200x200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/CST-100_crop.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-219333\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">CST-100 Starliner. (Credit: Boeing)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong>&nbsp;They\u2019re doing it in parallel. SpaceX has an upgraded version of their Dragon capsule, Dragon 2.0, that will have extra safety features to protect the crew so that if something like what happened in June happens, the crew would be able to survive that. They launch on a Falcon 9 rocket. Boeing is working on what they call the CST-100 Starliner. That is another type of capsule, it looks like Apollo on steroids and that would be launched by an Atlas 5 rocket so they\u2019re two independent systems, that way you have a backup. For example, when the Cygnus and Antares rocket failed in October of 2014, you could rely on SpaceX and its system to re-supply the Space Station and vice versa.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong>&nbsp;Got it. Interesting, I love that. Starliner. It\u2019s like the space alternative to the Dreamliner. Is that the idea?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong>&nbsp;Exactly. You\u2019ve got to keep these image people busy and they came up with a pretty good one with that one.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:&nbsp;<\/strong>If you were to lay a bet on which company will be first to get tourists into orbit, and I realize that\u2019s a difficult question to ask a journalist, you deal in facts here Alan, but would there be one company that seems to have the lead at this point?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:&nbsp;<\/strong>When we\u2019re talking about tourists, that\u2019s different from astronauts and so with SpaceX and Boeing, their first priority is to send NASA astronauts up there and I think it\u2019s really a tossup at this point. If I had to bet, I would bet on SpaceX because they\u2019re already sending cargo craft that are robotically controlled to the Space Station, but when we\u2019re talking about tourists, it could be that Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic are the first to send tourists into space, not into orbit, but on suborbital rides.<\/p>\n<h3>Paul Allen\u2019s space ambitions<\/h3>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong>&nbsp;Got it. How much of that Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo plane traces its origins to SpaceShipOne, which was the Paul Allen venture? What are the common lineages \u2026<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_21090\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21090\" style=\"width: 339px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-21090\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/paulallenstratolaunch.jpg\" alt=\"Paul Allen at the Stratolaunch announcement in 2011. (GeekWire File Photo.)\" width=\"339\" height=\"190\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/paulallenstratolaunch.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/paulallenstratolaunch-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/paulallenstratolaunch-200x112.jpg 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/paulallenstratolaunch-150x84.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 339px) 100vw, 339px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-21090\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Paul Allen at the Stratolaunch announcement in 2011. (GeekWire File Photo.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong> It\u2019s a scaled-up version of SpaceShipOne. That they\u2019ve done some tweaking in terms of the propulsion system, you have to have a much stronger propulsion system and that\u2019s been a challenge and then they also have to deal with the aerodynamics but the principles are the same. You have what they call a carefree re-entry where even if things go wrong, if you do it right, the spacecraft can right itself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong> On this topic, what about (Microsoft co-founder) Paul Allen, because he had his very ambitious Stratolaunch Systems initiative, the whole idea is to send the world\u2019s largest aircraft \u2014 basically two 747s melded together \u2014 into the stratosphere, launch rockets from there. Where does that stand?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong> Well, they are trying to adjust to the changing market. I had an occasion to talk with Paul a couple of weeks ago and he said that they\u2019re working on who they will be partnering with and hope to have an announcement out on that so we\u2019ll probably be talking about that for the year in space 2016.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong>&nbsp;Two last items on our list here that we wanted to talk about, Mars and Jupiter. They obviously go together to some extent. What are the key developments that will be happening there in 2016?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong>&nbsp;Well we\u2019ve got a launch and an arrival. In March of 2016. we\u2019ve got the launch of the ExoMars orbiter, on a mission that\u2019s managed by the European Space Agency. It will be looking for traces of methane in Mars\u2019 atmosphere, and whether you can trace that to microbes perhaps living under the surface of Mars. [NASA had planned to launch its InSight lander to Mars as well, but on Dec. 22, mission managers said that mission would have to be delayed until at least 2018 due to a hardware problem.]<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:&nbsp;<\/strong>Very interesting. Curiosity is still on Mars, what will it be doing in 2016?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong>&nbsp;Curiosity is at Mount Sharp. Right now it\u2019s studying a huge freaking sand dune on Mount Sharp but this is going to be the year when the rubber really hits the road. In this case, it\u2019s metal, they have metal wheels on Curiosity but they\u2019re really going to be studying the layers of geological stuff at Mount Sharp and hopefully that will tell scientists what the climate history of Mars has been and what the geological history is.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong>&nbsp;Huge freaking sand dune. I think that\u2019s the technical term?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB<\/strong>:&nbsp;Right. There\u2019s also&nbsp;a NASA mission that\u2019s been heading to Jupiter for years called Juno. On July 4th of next year, it\u2019s scheduled to arrive into Jovian orbit and to start studying Jupiter from orbit. That\u2019s going to be some great pictures and some great information about our solar system\u2019s biggest planet.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:&nbsp;<\/strong>That\u2019s right, it\u2019s sort of the opposite of Pluto, at least in terms of its magnitude.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong> Exactly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:&nbsp;<\/strong>What are the big&nbsp;things to learn about Jupiter?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong> Sure, the magnetosphere, the composition of the big thick atmosphere, you know the Great Red Spot, it\u2019s been not so great lately and you might be able to pick up some things about the moons of Jupiter as well as you\u2019re flying by. Find out more about Europa, this mysterious ice-covered moon that may harbor life. People are pretty sure it has a water ocean underneath that ice and it may have life as well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TB:&nbsp;<\/strong>Wow.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong> This year, NASA is due to get more money for putting together a mission to Europa. There\u2019s lots of coming attractions.<\/p>\n<h3>New Drone Registration Rules<\/h3>\n<p><strong>TB:<\/strong> Let\u2019s get a little bit closer to Earth. This is a bit of a u-turn here but I want to talk about drones. This is where a lot of people are going to be getting gifts under the tree this holiday season and there are some new rules for people who get drones. What do they need to know?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AB:<\/strong>&nbsp;In order to fly the top-end drones, you\u2019re going to have to register them. You go to a website, you go to faa.gov, follow the links for UAS\u2019s unmanned aircraft systems and you click on a button and it\u2019s like you\u2019re buying something but you\u2019re actually registering your drone. Now not all drones have to be registered, if it\u2019s less than a half pound, less than a big stick of butter, then you don\u2019t need to worry about it. That\u2019s just a toy. If you\u2019re talking about the d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A time-lapse photo showing SpaceX\u2019s historic Falcon 9 rocket launch and landing. (Credit: SpaceX) It&nbsp;was a big year in space: Historic rocket launches; revelations&nbsp;from distant planets; an unprecedented glimpse of the surface of Pluto;&nbsp;evidence of water trails&nbsp;on Mars; SpaceX vs. Blue Origin; the rise of commercial space; and also&nbsp;some big setbacks. Alan Boyle, GeekWire\u2019s aerospace [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[509,1045,1046,21,316],"class_list":["post-19518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-elon-musk","tag-jeff-bezos","tag-space","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19518"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}