Tom Olson, CEO of the Colony Fund returned for his end of the year update on The Space Show. We began the interview with getting an update from Tom on changes being made in the planning and development of the Colony Fund. As Tom likes to say, a wall was hit this year with alt.space which forced new strategic thinking on the Colony Fund management team. Current thinking has the Colony Fund expanding beyond only space investments to include technology, specifically nanotechnology opportunities along side commercial space opportunities. Marketing Colony Fund is also important and Mr.

Dr. Geoffrey Crouch was the guest for this special Space Show program originally aired on Dec. 21 and replayed for Christmas, Dec. 25, 2005. Dr. Crouch has undertaken innovative and state of the art market research for suborbital and orbital tourism using Discrete Choice Modeling. During the first part of the interview, we talked about market research in general, how its done, its importance, how to properly use it, how to draw the right conclusion from the data, and best uses for focus groups, individual interviews, and even the newer online interviews and surveys.

Sir Charles Shults returned to The Space Show to discuss Mars findings in some depth. However, before getting underway with the Mars information, given the fusion background of Sir Charles, the program kicked off with an update of where we are with fusion reaction, reactors, research, and what is ahead for the near-term regarding fusion. You will want to hear this fusion update if you are at all interested in the subject. After the fusion update, we turned our attention to Mars.

Jim McDade returned to The Space Show to provide us with space news updates and interesting perspective on the top space news stories of the day. We began the discussion with an extensive review of the Space Shuttle and how Jim sees the future for the return to flight program. He believes that Shuttle will need to fly for several more years as he thinks it will have to remain in service until a CEV is available or at least within 18 months of being ready for flight.

Dr. David Schrunk returned to The Space Show for this program. We began the discussion talking about the lunar south pole region known as Malapert Mountain. According to Dr. Schrunk, it is the ideal site for the first permanent lunar base for a variety of reasons, including its height. You will want to learn more about this south pole region of the Moon. We then turned our attention to his new book, "The End of Chaos: Quality Laws and the Ascendancy of Democracy." For more information about the book, visit www.qlpress.com.

Dr. Dave Klumpar with his two doctoral students, Brian Larsen and Mike Obland, from Montana State University were the guests for this Space Show program. We began the interview discussing the Space Science and Engineering Laboratory at Montana State University and then we went into the student program with Brian and Mike leading the discussion. Their program is student led and driven and it was interesting finding out about student satellite programs, their building and launching of them, and student rocket/propulsion efforts.

Dr. Robert Zubrin returned to The Space Show for this program. Dr. Zubrin began the discussion with a critique of the way NASA is running the Moon-Mars program. He is very concerned that this program as it is currently structured will not survive into the next administration and and he has a plan to alter the way NASA is doing the mission to assure success. Bob makes a very strong case for his plan to go to the Moon and on to Mars rather than the current NASA plan. His presentation is clear and articulate and you need to hear what he has to say and why he is saying it.

Kurt Klaus joined The Space Show guest family with this program. We began our discussing by capitalizing on Kurt's training and experience as an oil and gas geologist. I asked him about the path from oil and gas geology here on earth to being a planetary geologist and to having specialized interests in Mars. His answer was most interesting. I also asked Mr. Klaus a few questions about how oil and gas is extracted from inside the earth given questions that are always asked of me.

Jim Benson, CEO of SpaceDev, returned to the Space Show for this special program and update. We began our discussion with Jim providing us with the details of the SpaceDev merger that is in process with Starsys. This is an exciting development for SpaceDev and the space community. Also, we learned about SpaceDev plans to apply for representation on American Stock Exchange, another milestone for the company and the developing space industry. We also discussed the RTM and NASA architecture and alternatives that SpaceDev has proposed.

Joan Horvath returned to The Space Show to discuss the state of space and science education in the United States. Current trends in science literacy impact aerospace in general and New Space in particular. In Kansas and in Pennsylvania, fights are ongoing in the courts to define whether theories with a basis in faith can be taught in a science classroom; polls show that less than half of adults understand the issues of scientific method at the root of the controversy.