Section: Interviews
Be very afraid.
The first part of my Moon and Back interview at the ISDC conference is now up. I haven’t watched it yet, as I’m a little worried that I said something phenomenally stupid.
Enjoy!
Interview With Ken Murphy, part 1 - Outreach For Space Awareness
Update: Wow, not half bad. Shows you the power of good editing. Too many ums and uhs, though. I need to work on that.
And here is part II:
Interview With Ken Murphy part 2 - Cislunar Space And The Business Case
And lastly part III:
Interview With Ken Murphy part 3 - The Children of Earth
Welcome back to EVA Interviews: The Business of the new Space Age™ as we leave the Lunar Editions and return to Earth orbit. Our next guest is Hoyt Davidson, Founder and Managing Partner of Near Earth LLC. Near Earth specializes in providing Investment Banking and Advisory Services to companies and investors in the commercial Space, satellite, telecom and aerospace industries. Hoyt Davidson has extensive expertise in Space financing, and has many insights into the emerging commercial Space sector to share with us in this very informative discussion.
 EVA: Welcome Hoyt! I’m delighted to have you join us at EVA Interviews and Out of the Cradle. I am really looking forward to our conversation and hearing your unique perspective on Space commerce, the industry and Space investment activities! As these interviews are about Space, as well as the economic aspects of our exodus Out of the Cradle, I like to begin by asking about Space. You operate an investment bank specializing in, among other areas, satellites, and you write extensively about commercial Space activities in your newsletter. Which came first? Have you always had a interest in Space or was the creation of Near Earth LLC exclusively a business decision? How did you decide to open a firm with such a unique specialty?
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From Russia, we welcome Team Selenokhod to EVA Interviews: The Business of the new Space Age™ in the fourth of this series of Lunar Editions. As one of the most recent entrants in the Google Lunar X Prize competition, Team Selenokhod looks to build on Russia’s early lunar robotic successes of the 1970 Lunokhod-1 and 1973 Lunokhod-2 remote-controlled rovers in their efforts to win the prize. I’m excited to have Nikolay Dzis-Voynarovskiy, the CEO of Team Selenkhod, join us to discuss their team and activities to date.
EVA: Thank you so much, Nikolay, for participating in the Lunar Editions of EVA Interviews: The Business of the new Space Age™! Can you please tell us more about the formation of your team? How was your decision made to compete and what do you (and your team) hope to get out of your involvement? How is it going so far?
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Welcome to the third in this series of Lunar Editions of EVA Interviews: The Business of the new Space Age™. To start this series, EVA went directly to the source and interviewed the Moon about its expectations for future lunar commercial activities. Coming back down to Earth, the second interview focused on the organization whose actions and incentives are most helping to make business on the Moon a reality and talked to William Pomerantz Senior Director of Space Prizes for the X PRIZE Foundation about the exciting Google Lunar X Prize competition. Now we will talk to the teams themselves who are hard at work, taking the first steps necessary towards expanding commerce beyond Earth, and to the Moon.
The first team to reply is Next Giant Leap and its founder, Michael Joyce. I met Mike this summer at the Space Frontier Foundation NewSpace Conference and the NLSI (NASA Lunar Science Institute) 2nd Annual Lunar Science Forum, both at NASA Ames in July, and again at the Space Investment Summit 7 in Boston where Mike, along with other impressive members of his team, was one of the Business Plan presenters. I’m delighted to have Next Giant Leap and Michael Joyce as our first Team guest!
EVA: Thank you so much, Mike, for participating in the Lunar Editions of EVA Interviews: The Business of the new Space Age™! I am very interested to hear more about the formation of your team. How was your decision made to compete and what do you (and your team) hope to get out of your involvement? How is it going so far?
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Welcome to this next, unique edition of EVA Interviews: The Business of the New Space Age™. This conversation started on a cold winter day in January over 2 years ago. A friend of mine at NASA asked me to look over a matrix he was creating on commercial lunar opportunities. Could I think of any other potential businesses that might become economically viable within his planning time horizons, any other ideas that he might be missing? After giving my own feedback, I suggested to him that I talk to “the source” to see what more I could learn. This interview starts with those questions.
In the FAQs for EVA Interviews: The Business of the new Space Age™, remembering this conversation and thinking about a few other unusual ideas I had for interviewees, I included this disclaimer * While the main focus will be economic, we reserve the right to present the occasional fictitious, frivolous or marginally related interview. With that in mind (and with the risk of looking foolish), on a clear night recently, I went back to continue the conversation and expand it into an interview.
I hope you will enjoy this conversation with one of my favourite evening (and very occasionally, daytime) companions – our Moon.
***** January 2007 *****
EVA: So, my beautiful Moon, what will we be doing on you in @ 15-25 years from now?
The Moon: You’re coming to visit me?
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Welcome to the next edition of EVA Interviews: The Business of the New Space Age™ with our guest Paul Eckert Ph.D. - Coordinator of the Space Investment Summit Coalition, and International & Commercial Strategist for the Space Exploration division of The Boeing Company. Paul and his colleagues at the Space Investment Summit coalition have created an exceptional series of events focused exclusively on Space and business (my favourite subjects!). Starting in 2005 as Roundtables which explored the potential for Lunar Commerce, they now bring Space entrepreneurs together with investment capital of many sorts – seed, venture capital, Angel investors and corporate finance – and with those who are interested in developments within the emerging new commercial Space industry. Space Investment Summit 6 (SIS-6), the next event, is happening soon! It will be held on Wednesday May 27th, 2009, just prior to, and in conjunction with, the International Space Development Conference (ISDC2009) in Orlando, Florida.
EVA: Hi Paul! Thank you very much for joining us at EVA Interviews and Out of the Cradle. I’m delighted to have you here to talk about the Space Investment Summits. Since 2005, you have created a unique series of events, designed to promote Space commerce and bring together investors and Space entrepreneurs.
Before we discuss the next event, SIS-6, which is quickly approaching, can you tell us how the idea for the Roundtables and Summits came about and how they have evolved since the first Lunar Commerce Roundtable in 2005?
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Welcome to the third edition of EVA Interviews: The Business of the new Space Age! Our next guest is Rex Ridenoure, Space entrepreneur and CEO of Ecliptic Enterprises Corp. - a successful small Space startup famous for its RocketCam™ equipment and images.
EVA: Hi Rex! It’s great to have you join us at EVA Interviews and Out of the Cradle. Welcome! As a successful Space entrepreneur, you have had a lot of experience with the issues and challenges facing Space Startups today. We’ve discussed some of these in the previous editions of EVA Interviews. I’m very much looking forward to hearing your actual experience with these, how you have built Ecliptic from scratch and what insights you have to offer us!
Since these interviews are about Space as well as the business and entrepreneurial aspects of our exodus Out of the Cradle, I always like to start by asking about Space. I know you do have a personal interest in Space. Can you tell us how your interest started and how it has evolved?
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 Dr. Paul D. Spudis is a Senior Staff Scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland and Visiting Scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas. Dr. Spudis was formerly with the Branch of Astrogeology, U. S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Arizona and the Lunar and Planetary Institute.
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 Gary Lantz is the Lead Systems Engineer and Aerodynamic Engineer for Rocketplane Limited, Incorporated. Rocketplane plans to field a fighter-sized, four seat suborbital spaceplane by mid-2007. This is a fascinating interview with an engineer that’s right in the thick of building a spacecraft for the emerging space tourism industry. Read the interview and then be sure to check out the Forums Q&A thread, where Gary has kindly agreed to take your questions.
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This press release just in from NASA:
(This is quite timely, because we are in the finishing stages of putting togther an interview with Gary Lantz, Rocketplane’s Lead Systems engineer). Stay tuned for the full interview.
NASA LOANS ENGINE TO INDUSTRY PARTNER
NASA is loaning a rocket engine to Rocketplane Limited, Inc. of Oklahoma City as part of an innovative industry partnership program.
The program highlights NASA’s efforts to share advanced aeronautics, space and related technologies with the private sector to use ideas and investments that can lead to new capabilities.
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 Even though the risk of an accident is low, most of us aren’t prepared to drive our cars without insurance. The consequences of an uninsured fender bender are too great. So we prudently spend a small amount of money to hedge our bets against an unlikely but real risk.
Former Apollo astronaut Russell L Schweickart, chairman of the B612 Foundation, makes a compelling case that we should apply the same logic to the small but real and potentially catastrophic risk of an asteroid collision with the Earth.
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This is the second part of our interview with John Powell. The first part is here.
OotC: PongSats fly on the development missions for your other major program, Airship to Orbit (ATO). When I first heard of ATO, it struck me as a little counterintuitive - but the more I thought about it, the more I realized what a strikingly elegant concept it is. Reaching orbital velocity requires the release of a huge amount of energy, and normally it’s all released in one high-thrust eight minute roller coaster ride on the top of a rocket. But you’ve found a way that allows you to attain orbital velocity while releasing that energy gradually (and presumably at lower and safer power levels) over several days. Give us an overview of the Airship to Orbit concept.
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John Powell is the president and founder of JP Aerospace. All through his youth, he dreamed of building spacecraft - and that’s exactly what he’s been doing ever since. With advanced balloon, airship and rocket systems, and even his own free flight experiment payload program, John and his team have been quietly and steadily advancing the state of the art in access to near-space. And his plans don’t stop there - he’s following an incremental development path that reaches all the way to orbit.
John was kind enough to talk to us about his company and its current and future endeavours, in this very interesting two-part interview. Read on to learn about PongSat flight experiments, Airship to Orbit, and just how an aerospace company ended up with a house band.
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The logo above has become a very familiar feature in the lives of many space enthusiasts. With its twice weekly broadcasts that bring us conversations with many of the top names in space activities from authors, academics, scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and some times just plan folks like me who have a deep interest in space.
Dr. David Livingston is now the host of the nation’s only talk radio show focusing on developing a space-faring society and economy, expanding and broadening space commerce, and developing space tourism. The Space Show is broadcast live on the air and is also streamed over the internet. Every show is archived and you can find all the past programs, along with a list of the upcoming guests, at www.thespaceshow.com.
Livingston earned his BA from the University of Arizona, an MBA in International Business Management from Golden Gate University in San Francisco, and his Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) at Golden Gate.
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OotC: David, let’s get a bit more background first. Where were you were born, and where did you grow up?
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You can bet I plan to be intimately involved in the
emerging space tourism industry. . . –Dick Rutan
Read this not-to-be-missed interview with Dick Rutan, pilot extraordinaire. Dick circumnavigated the globe with Jeana Yeager in the Voyager around-the-world plane designed by his brother Burt, then did it again in homebuilt LongEZ, on a friendship tour with SpaceShipOne pilot and good mate Mike Melvill, test-piloted the XCOR EZ-Rocket, and judging from the quote above, he’s not anywhere near done yet!
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I’m trying to put together an interview with Dick Rutan, but if I can’t get it ready for posting in time I wanted to be sure to make folks aware of this up coming program on the History Channel.
25,000 Miles Non-Stop: Voyager Aircraft.
Airs on Saturday, November 12 at 4:00pm ET
In the pre-dawn darkness of December 14, 1986, a peculiar aircraft lumbers down an immense runway in the California high desert. With a wingspan larger than a 727, it weighs scarcely 2000 pounds when empty. Maverick aircraft designer Burt Rutan has designed this plane to fly nonstop around the globe. With his brother, decorated fighter pilot Dick Rutan at the controls, this is the moment of truth–the culmination of six years of work. The bizarre craft, Voyager, is like no flying machine ever built. When Voyager does get airborne, there are nine more days of perilous near-death experiences as it attempts to set the last great aviation record. TVPG — from The History Channel
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On the heels of Global Flyer’s successful solo efforts to fly around the world non-stop and without refueling, it would be good to review the accomplishments of the adventurous pair that did it nearly 19 years ago.
Stay tuned for the interview with Dick and his views on the Global Flyer event, what new record breaking attempts he has in store in a just a few weeks and a whole lot more.
“Masten Space Applauds NASA’s New Suborbital Challenges”
“Santa Clara, California - 10/19/05 Masten Space Systems announced today that it strongly supported the recent agreement between NASA and the X PRIZE Foundation to develop two suborbital Centennial Challenges and that, pending announcements on rules, it looked forward to participating.”
So reads the opening paragraph of a recent press release from Masten Space Systems (MSS). Originally announcing their interests at the recent X Prize Cup event in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the press release reaffirms that decision.
Jonathan A. Goff, an engineer with Masten Space Systems, Inc. agreed to do an interview with Out of the Cradle to discuss the challenge, Masten Space and the industry in general.
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OotC: The first vehicle in the fleet for Masten Space Systems is dubbed XA 1.0 (eXtreme Altitude). It is a vertical take-off/vertical landing (VTVL), sub-orbital, single stage craft, can you give us a peek at some of the specifications for the craft such as dimensions, payload size, fuel type, and into what we might expect “Extreme Altitude” to translate?
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Recently I turned the tables on SpaceShot CEO Sam Dinkin, a regular columnist at The Space Review. Normally, he’s the one who gets to ask the questions, but he very kindly agreed to answer a few instead, about his soon-to-be-launched online skill game where players will compete to win a suborbital trip to space.
OotC: Tell us a bit about SpaceShot. What are the basics of how it will work?
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| As promised, here is part one of my interview with Jeff Krukin. Jeff is the Executive Director of the Space Frontier Foundation, a longtime space advocate, and an international speaker.
In a first for Out of the Cradle, this interview is delivered as audio. This means (among other things) that you get to hear my weird Kiwi accent! But rest assured, I do shut up for most of the interview and let Jeff do the talking, and it’s well worth listening to what he has to say.
Have a listen to the interview, and don’t forget to check out his personal homepage, where there’s lots of good information about his Human-Space Connection concept.
Just push the play button to listen:
READ MORE... Sam Dinkin of FreeSpaceShot.com gives us the run-down on his new free skill game, where contestants can compete for flights to space, and even a shot around the Moon.
READ MORE...  Running the popular website, Lunar Photo Of the Day, (LPOD) and writing a regular column on the moon that appears monthly in Sky & Telescope magazine, are the things Charles A. Wood is probably known for most. But, the interest of a 9 year-old in the sky went from backyard observations on a small telescope, to the University of Arizona, a stint in the Peace Corp and included working at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory cataloging Lunar craters.
READ MORE... Dr. Paul D. Spudis is a Senior Staff Scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland and Visiting Scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas. Dr. Spudis was formerly with the Branch of Astrogeology, U. S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Arizona and the Lunar and Planetary Institute.
He is […]
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