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Shuttle & NASA Missions win real Solar Cycles win real Albrecht: Census Methods win real
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Date:	05-06-09
Host:	George Noory
Guests:	Robert Zimmerman, Katherine Albrecht

Appearing during the first three hours, historian and journalist Robert Zimmerman discussed space politics and history, including recent developments at NASA, space tourism, and the Hubble Space Telescope, "the telescope that will not die." The Obama administration may soon propose a study to decide whether to go forward on the Moon/Mars missions proposed by NASA, he reported. Meanwhile, Congress will be voting on whether to extend the life of the Shuttle, even though the technology is old and needs to replaced, he commented.

Zimmerman said the sun has been quiet for an unusually long cycle, with no sunspot activity. Should this continue on for a longer period, we could be faced with global cooling or even a "Little Ice Age."

After long delays, a Hubble service mission is scheduled for this month. The space telescope is not in good shape, and will benefit from camera and equipment replacements and adjustments, he said. Zimmerman noted that one of the legacies of Hubble is how it combined robotic operations with occasional human maintenance. Such combinations of humans and robots will be used to colonize space, he added.

He also gave an update on Virgin Galactic's plan for suborbital space tourism, and noted that such infrastructure may eventually be used for faster flights, flying across the American continent in just one hour, for instance.

US Census Concerns

In the last hour, consumer privacy advocate Katherine Albrecht shared an update on the current US census plan which incorporates tagging homes with GPS readings. Data collection is being done by some 140,000 workers for the 2010 census, and she expressed concern that some of the information they are gathering could be misused by the government.

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Bumper Music

Bumper music from Wednesday May 06, 2009

1.	Midnight Express (The Chase) Giorgio Moroder	2.	Caribbean Breeze The Rippingtons	3.	White Room Cream
4.	Why Can't I Touch It? Buzzcocks	5.	Some Velvet Morning Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood	6.	Fixed Income DJ Shadow
7.	Summer Wind Frank Sinatra	8.	Can't Even Be Bothered Charlatans UK	9.	California Dreamin' Mamas & Papas
10.	Bur Said Cusco	11.	Destination Unknown Missing Persons	12.	Everybody Wants to Rule the World Tears for Fears
13.	I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For U2	14.	Black Magic Woman Santana	15.	Can't Get It Out Of My Head Electric Light Orchestra
16.	Inca Dance Cusco