Broadcast 157 (Special Edition)

Ned Dodds, a retired high school teacher and outstanding space researcher, discusses his work aimed at providing school children and others with resources and educational tools supporting solar system exploration and development. Mr. Dodds took us through his website, www.beyondearthorbit.org, pointing out the highlights as well as taking notes on new features and services to add to his site to make it the premiere source of solar system information. In addition, we discussed the general state of space and science education in the United States and how best to teach these subjects to kids, teachers, and parents. We were joined by listener from the United Kingdom who asked a series of very interesting questions regarding recent discoveries in physics about the teleportation of photons and how this might facilitate space development by cutting down on the lag time in communicating with a vehicle or even humans on Mars or elsewhere in space. Mr. Dodds and I took the opportunity to explore with our caller the state of space and science education in the UK. Mr. Dodds also discussed space policy and politics, and we noted that 46 years ago, the former Soviet Union started the space race with the successful launch of Sputnik.