In the first half, founder of the Mars Society, Robert Zubrin, reported on breakthroughs in the new entrepreneurial space race, including the latest from SpaceX and Blue Origin. He also discussed NASA's projects, and the exploration and possible colonization of Mars. SpaceX is developing their 'BFR' rocket, which will be a fully reusable two-staged orbit vehicle, equivalent to the Saturn V. "That will give us the capability to go to Mars," he enthused, and if SpaceX (Elon Musk's company) should falter, Jeff Bezo's Blue Origin is nipping at their heels. "I think one of these companies is going to get us to Mars," Zubrin predicted, as NASA's human spaceflight program seems "dysfunctional" at this point.
Musk has reduced the cost of space launches by a factor of five with his re-usable rockets, and he did this on a shoestring budget and much less time as compared to a similar NASA project, he noted. Besides SpaceX and Blue Origin, there are also three smaller launch companies including Firefly Aerospace, as well as funding going to fusion-power startups. The ground penetrating radar on the European Mars Express probe recently discovered an underground saltwater lake on Mars-- which may harbor microbial life. "I think," Zubrin remarked, "there's an underground water table on Mars," and we're going to find a lot more bodies of water on the Red Planet. Beyond that, NASA's Reconnaissance Orbiter has found evidence for glaciers on Mars at mid-latitudes. This suggests to him that water could be accessible on the surface of the planet.
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In the latter half, clinical therapist and parapsychologist Brandon Massullo shared his theoretical views that might explain apparitions, hauntings, and communications from the dead along with the latest research on the role of energy and electricity in hauntings. He has concluded that many ghostly encounters can best be understood from the perspective of PSI and telepathy, with sensitive individuals picking up things in the environment such as "telepathic distress signals." The catalyst for an incident, he cited, is usually a crisis of some kind such as a death, life-threatening event, or trauma.
These events, he suggested, induce a level emotional turmoil which leads to "bio-energetic" shifts within the body that could enable the sending out of a distress signal to a person or place, such as in the case of "crisis apparitions," when a loved one suddenly appears to friends or family members around the time of their death. A person's perceptions can be influenced by their belief system, Massullo noted. For instance, those with religious views might identify visitations as being from a demon, angel, or sign from God. "Energy, electricity, and electromagnetic fields," he added, are "very entangled with ghostly encounters," though the living are immersed in these fields all the time as well.
News segment guests: John M. Curtis, Steve Kates