[speaker001:] okay so what do you think about space flying
[speaker002:] uh well uh I was just reading something on it as a matter of fact uh just got uh latest copy of uh Analog magazine and it had an article in it on uh uh a new
[speaker001:] oh yeah
[speaker002:] a new version of propulsion that they're looking at um are you familiar with uh the solar sail idea
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah I I I have read a couple articles on it yeah
[speaker002:] uh well this is apparently what they call a magnetic sail
[speaker001:] oh okay
[speaker002:] um basically they just uh set up a large uh magnetic field and uh it's works a lot like sailing on the ocean uh and is a lot more flexible than using solar sails
[speaker001:] right hm so basically would they uh would they essentially in terms of magnetism magnetism would they go like reverse polarity there so you'd actually get pushed along or would it be actually a draw
[speaker002:] um that's the thing about it is you can switch it depending on the circumstance
[speaker001:] oh interesting
[speaker002:] um and it also works uh you can use it to uh pull yourself out of like a low earth orbit uh by using the earth's magnetic field and moving from there and it also acts like um
[speaker001:] um-hum right
[speaker002:] like a uh uh uh I don't know it's called it's a it's a shield against uh radiation and and flare and that sort of thing because it builds up um
[speaker001:] static charger
[speaker002:] it builds out a a magnetic barrier around it uh kind of like the earth's magnetoshpere and uh protects the people that way yeah
[speaker001:] right oh that's pretty interesting yeah yeah personally I think that uh we don't spend enough on space exploration and I think we probably should spend more just because it you know it it not only benefits uh
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] space per se but it also benefits technology you know you start to develop things specifically for space use and you know the offspring technologies can benefit a whole lot of different aspects of society so that's
[speaker002:] it's that and you also have the benefit of the things that you just don't know about yet I mean the biggest the biggest uh thing that comes from
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] space exploration I think is not uh those developments we make in order to accomplish it but those things that we discover that we have no idea we're going to discover it's it's all the surprises the problem with that is you can't
[speaker001:] sure yeah it's it
[speaker002:] preach that as as a political statement you know in front of congress saying we should fund it because we don't know what we're going to discover
[speaker001:] yeah that's kind of that's kind of hard to defend in some ways but you know also you got to consider that
[speaker002:] it's
[speaker001:] this space exploration could give us a lot of different view points on on current problems um primary of which in my mind right now is uh the whole thing with uh the depleting ozone ozone layer you know I was reading an article about that the other day and it's amazing really amazing how much we're losing uh how much of the ozone layer's really disappearing there's an article in Time magazine about it but you know things like that can be very well uh studied from space you know and using satellites and space technology and things like that
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] uh I think that's real important and if we if we don't look at that closely we could be really screwing ourselves uh I don't know it's it's it's an it's an interesting thing because it's like you said some of the positions seem untenable at least when you're trying to defend them in in congress and things like that people tend not to have a very long term view like to look at more uh more short term problems which you know they're logical and they're and they're very prevalent you know things like world hunger yeah that's a big uh that's a big problem um but you've got to have a long term view as well
[speaker002:] yeah the problems with things like world hunger are that throwing money at it doesn't make it go away it just it just it stop gap um
[speaker001:] yeah yes exactly most people will will try to to solve the symptoms without really looking at the uh the problem itself
[speaker002:] yeah with space exploration it's a lot like um like trying to jump into a new industry you've got huge start up costs uh lot bigger in this case than in most others but once you're established there
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] I think it would you know I think it's obvious to everyone that it would be highly profitable uh once you've reached a certain level it just takes
[speaker001:] right you start
[speaker002:] that rather substantial long term commitment you know for a for a number of years or or even several decades in order to to get it up to the standard where you need it uh in order to go from there um
[speaker001:] sure where where do you work
[speaker002:] where do I work um I used to be uh an auditor uh for one of the big six accounting firms I'm currently uh
[speaker001:] uh-huh oh okay
[speaker002:] uh running uh a game or one of the three principal partners in a game company
[speaker001:] oh okay great yeah I was just I was asking because it's interesting to see where we're both coming from I personally am kind of biased because right now I'm working for Honeywell
[speaker002:] um um-hum