The Space Show: Commercial Aviation: A Paradigm for Commerical Space? With Dr. David Livingston, January 31, 2012, 29 Mb mp3 download file (02:07:21): [Click Here]. Topics: 1st hour – opens with a discussion of the early history of rocketry, including the 54th anniversary of Explorer 1, with comments about Wernher von Braun and Ernst Stuhlinger. It proceeds with an explanation of the development of commercial aviation and the mass markets which drove its expansion. An interesting historic discussion takes place with two callers: Richard Easton, whose father, Roger Easton, played a key role in the design of Vanguard and invented the Global Positioning System; and Craig Horton, an engineer with the Space Shuttle program for 30+ years. 2nd hour – Bill compares the problems that the ill-fated Boeing SST and the Concorde, suffered in a highly limited market that had to be heavily subsidized by taxpayers. He points out that real commercial space would develop more readily as an adjunct to servicing a permanent lunar outpost. Bill also talks about the reorganization of NASA into an agency strictly charged with human flight in deep space exploration as proposed by the Apollo 17 scientist-astronaut, Harrison H. Schmitt (see the Preface from Space Policy and the Constitution, or Essay No. 46).
The Apollo 17 Launch: An Eyewitness Account by William F. (Bill) Mellberg. A memorable recounting of the father and son adventure of a lifetime, one which many of us would have liked to experience with our own dads. Bill takes us back to his student days to relive a front-row view of the spectacular night launch of America’s last Apollo mission. His story includes an unplanned encounter with the space-suited crew on their way to the Moon. [Click Here] for a 1.5 Mb PDF file of the story.
Surveyor I: America’s First Moon Landing by William F. (Bill) Mellberg. Before the Apollo astronauts could explore the Moon, a series of unmanned lunar landers preceded them. Prior to 1966, the nature of the lunar surface remained a mystery. Was it hard or soft? Smooth or jagged? Five Surveyor spacecraft answered these questions and many more. AUS Co-Editor Bill Mellberg’s father, Frank W. Mellberg, was responsible for the design and development of the lenses that gave the Surveyor landers their “eyes” on the Moon. In this article, Bill recounts his father’s role in the Surveyor project and describes the results obtained by the pioneering robotic Moon missions. [Click Here] for a 3.4 Mb PDF file of the story.