Episode 344: 100 ’Miles’ Above the Earth

On our 100th episode of Talking Space, we invite on a very special guest, and the only guest to date to appear on the show 3 times, the one and only Miles O'Brien. We begin with the recent Mars 500 mission, in which astronauts spent over 500 days simulating a trip to Mars. We ask him if this is a valuable tool and discuss actually getting to Mars in the future. After the successful launch of the Soyuz on November 6th, 2011 at 11:14pm EST carrying 3 astronauts to the International Space Station, we talk about the era of Soyuz and what this means for the United States and talk about where we'll go in the future. We move on to the failed Phobos-Grunt mission launched by Russia and discuss that as well as its future as space debris and if Earthlings need to break out their crash helmets. We then talk about Miles' trip to earthquake-ravaged Japan and takes a look at how it is now for PBS.

For more on Miles, feel free to check out his website: http://milesobrien.com

You can also check out some of his clips on his YouTube channel, http://youtube.com/milesobrien

You can also take a look at other clips for PBS by visiting http://pbs.org and clicking on PBS NewsHour or Frontline.

Host this week: Sawyer Rosenstein. Panel Members: Gina Herlihy, Gene Mikulka and Mark Ratterman with broadcast journalist and PBS correspondent Miles O'Brien

Show Recorded - 11/14/2011