Is space the place for you? With a hefty amount of moolah, a trip there and back can be all yours. But when the price comes down, traffic into space may make the L.A. freeway look like a back-country lane.

Space is more accessible than it once was, from the development of private commercial flights … to a radical new telescope that makes everyone an astronomer … to mining asteroids for their metals and water to keep humanity humming for a long time.

Plus, move over Russia and America: Why the next words you hear from space may be in Mandarin.

Guests:

• Leonard David – Space journalist, writer for SPACE.com
• Mario Juric – Astronomer working on data processing for the LSST – the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
• John Lewis – Chemist, professor emeritus of planetary sciences, University of Arizona, chief scientist, Deep Space Industries
• Philip Lubin – Professor of physics, University of California, Santa Barbara
• James Oberg – Retired NASA rocket scientist, space historian, and a self-described space nut

First released March 3, 2014.

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