Photo, left: An artist's conception of a human Mars base, with a cutaway revealing an interior horticultural area
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Gordon Chang, Forbes.com. Dr. David M. Livingston, The Space Show.
 
Hour One
Wednesday   21 October 2015  / Hour 1, Block A: Cleo Paskal, Visiting Trudeau Fellow, University of Montreal's Center for International Studies and Associate Fellow, Chatham House, in re: the "Chinese economic miracle" was fraudulent, as the world now sees. Can Canada see it? Can the UK?  Xi Jinping is currently dining with the queen in London; half a year from now, England will wake up, strike its forehead, and ask, "Why did we give full honors to Xi?"  No one understands how the Cameron govt could fawnlike this – and Cameron clearly doesn't see how his deeds appear to central allies such as India and Japan.   In the mother of Parliaments, the Speaker made pointed comments that will resonate; Cameron has alienated the intelligence and defense communities in the UK. / Canada very concerned by Chinese intellectual property theft – destroyed a major corp, Nortel.
U.K.’s China approach has its critics, but some say Canada should take note
Wednesday   21 October 2015  / Hour 1, Block B: Sarah Cook, senior research analyst for East Asia at Freedom House. Andrew Collier, Orient Capital Research (HK); in re:   Chinese authorities refused to issue a passport to the son of a prominent human rights lawyer on Thursday, underscoring the ruling Communist Party’s tendency to punish the relatives of those it deems harmful to the state. The denial came days after police detained another human rights lawyer’s 16-year-old son as he attempted to flee the country through Myanmar. Liu Xiaoyuan, a partner at the Beijing-based Fengrui law firm, said that his son Liu Yuyang, a 21-year-old university student in the southeastern Chinese city of Nanchang, was denied a passport on Thursday afternoon, dashing his plans to attend graduate school in the U.S. Local authorities told Yuyang that higher-level authorities in Beijing had rejected his application, and asked whether he was a member of any “subversive foreign organizations.”
“My son had nothing to do with Fengrui,” said Liu, who has defended prominent government critics such as artist Ai Weiwei and the ethnic Uighur academic Ilham Tohti. “I can’t understand why this would happen to my family. This is a Cultural Revolution-style way of doing things.”
In July, China’s President Xi Jinping oversaw the country’s most severe crackdown on human rights lawyers in recent history; authorities detained or interrogated more than 220 people nationwide, according to Amnesty International. (Liu was detained for three days during the crackdown, then released without charge).  . . .
Wednesday   21 October 2015  / Hour 1, Block C: Jeff Foust thespacereview.com; in re:  Hotel Mars, episode n. SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation) says its costs will be so low that it'll attract many customers. However, it's reshuffling payloads for Falcn9.  An "update" of its Falcon9 launch vehicle, after June accident and now to increase capability. European co: SES; instead, a number of smaller, comms satellites, in lower-Earth orbits for a different company, Orbcomm – and so don't need to fire engine again as wd be needed for upper-Earth orbit. Want to give an oppty when possible to test. Customers: both NASA and commercial.  Current launch prices don't assume re-usability However, if they can recover the first stage, refurbish and fly again, that'll further lower costs, and thus prices.   SpaceX investor Richard Garriott.  Elon Musk is clear that his long-term goal is "multiplanetary," to establish human settlements on Mars; he wants to retire on Mars.  Send thousands of people to Mars – which  will require lower launch costs. SpaceX Dragonfly: a crew version of the Dragon space vehicle; now testing in Texas to take astronauts to the Space Station.  Falcon Heavy: first launch scheduled for spring 2016; have some customers signed up. Will fly out of Kennedy Space Center.  Russia: Angara, when and if it flies.   Europe: Arian: coming up, cheaper. United Launch Alliance also changing – next-gen vehicle at least partially re-usable. Where profits go, so go the explorers.
SpaceX writes:  “As we prepare for return to flight, SpaceX together with its customers SES and Orbcomm have evaluated opportunities to optimize the readiness of the upcoming Falcon 9 return-to-flight mission.  All parties have mutually agreed that SpaceX will now fly the Orbcomm-2 mission on the return-to-flight Falcon 9 vehicle. 
“The Orbcomm-2 mission does not require a relight of the second stage engine following orbital insertion. Flying the Orbcomm-2 mission first will therefore allow SpaceX to conduct an on-orbit test of the second stage relight system after the Orbcomm-2 satellites have been safely deployed. This on-orbit test, combined with the current qualification program to be completed prior to launch, will further validate the second stage relight system and allow for optimization of the upcoming SES-9 mission and following missions to geosynchronous transfer orbit.
“This change does not affect the timeline for SpaceX’s return-to-flight mission, which is still targeted to take place in the next 6-8 weeks. The SES-9 launch is currently targeted for late December 2015.”
Wednesday   21 October 2015  / Hour 1, Block D:  Stephen Moore, Heritage Foundation chief economist, in re:  International Monetary Fund cuts global growth  forecast over ...  Overnight, gold futures rose considerably on Tuesday amid a weaker dollar, as the worldwide Monetary Fund cut its forecast for global . . .  The Fed should heed IMF's global economic growth warnings ; Emerging markets to suffer third wave of the global financial crisis
 
Hour Two
Wednesday   21 October 2015  / Hour 2, Block A: Chris Harmer, senior military analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, in re: Are we headed to conflict? Either one side backs down, or we're headed for conflict. I'm sad that we didn't pre-empt conflict with a more [muscular] policy, when we could.
 Japan shows off naval power as US signals wider engagement in western Pacific  An armada of carriers, cruiser, destroyers and submarines gathered off Japan's coast on Sunday in a display of naval power that showcased Tokyo's latest warships and signalled wider engagement by the U.S. Navy in the western Pacific. The Fleet Review in seas near Tokyo was the first major display of Japanese military hardware since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won lawmaker approval for legislation that for the first time since World War Two will allow Japanese soldiers to defend their foreign allies. Abe is pursuing a doctrine of collective self defense with allies meant to give his nation a bigger role in regional security in order to counterbalance the military power of an increasingly assertive China.
Neighbouring China, which has strained ties with several Southeast Asian countries over territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea, has said it is wary of Japan's changing defense posture. Abe in an address after the maritime show told sailors to gird themselves for future missions and "to continue to guard the nation's peace." Joining the Japanese navy were vessels from India, South Korea, Australia, France and the United States, including the Japan-based aircraft carrier, the 333 meter (1092.52 ft) long USS Ronald Reagan. Altogether 50 vessels and 61 aircraft participated in the display, which is held every three years.
The centerpiece of Japan's naval line up was the Izumo helicopter carrier, Japan's biggest warship since World War Two. The 248 meter long (813 feet) flat top, which was commissioned in May, is a highly visible example of how Japan is expanding its military capability to operate overseas.
The Maritime Self Defense Force designates it as a destroyer keeping it within the bounds of a pacifist constitution that forbids Japan from possessing the means to wage war such as force-projecting carriers. In a signal the Japanese navy's growing role in Asia will be accompanied by the U.S. fleet's wider engagement in the region, the U.S. Navy sent Vice Admiral Nora Tyson commander of the powerful Eastern Pacific Third Fleet to join Abe on his ship. Her presence comes after the U.S. scrapped an administrative boundary running along the international date line in the Pacific that demarcates the operating areas for the Seventh and Third Fleets.
The change gives Tyson a command role in the western Pacific and will allow the U.S. to deploy vessels quickly to trouble spots in the region, the Chief of the Naval Operations, John Richardson, said at a press briefing in Tokyo on Thursday.
"Admiral Tyson's presence here is just a recognition that we are trying to be as flexible as possible to keep as many options on the table as possible so that we can be as responsive as possible," the U.S. Navy's most senior uniformed officer said.  . . .  [more]
Wednesday   21 October 2015  / Hour 2, Block B: Andrew Collier, managing director, Orient Capital Research (based in Hong Kong), in re:  China's Q3 numbers.
Wednesday   21 October 2015  / Hour 2, Block C: Michael Auslin, AEI, in re:
This Is What Escalation Looks Like  . . .  These possibilities are no more far-fetched than the annexation of Crimea or blatant cyberattacks on the U.S. government. The Obama administration should be acting now to head off such escalations. That could mean increasing the U.S. military presence in Eastern Europe and bolstering the Baltics by forward-positioning the military equipment necessary to respond to a Russian-backed incursion. Or it could mean warning Beijing that the U.S. won’t allow China to prevent freedom of navigation or overflight for any nation, and forming a regional maritime patrol force.
In 1939, on the eve of World War II, the British historian Arnold Toynbee lamented that for years the Western powers had “held, between them, the destinies of the world in suspense.” Their inaction and miscalculations destroyed faith in the global order from which they benefited so much and correspondingly emboldened their enemies. America’s adversaries are counting on similar hesitation and indecision, and they show through their actions that they won’t stop until persuaded that the United States will rise to their challenge.
Mr. Auslin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and a columnist for WSJ.com, is the author of The Asia Bubble (in 2016 from Yale University Press).
Wednesday   21 October 2015  / Hour 2, Block D:  Ann Marlowe, Hudson, in re: Libya's political dysfunction enters uncharted territory  For months, United Nations negotiators have been racing to settle a feud between competing governments in Libya, a rivalry that has crippled . . . .    Hillary Clinton's other Libya problem  Hillary Clinton's Libya problem is more than Benghazi. The nation's lapse into chaos has . . .
 
Hour Three
Wednesday   21 October 2015  / Hour 3, Block A: Monica Crowley, Fox, & Washington Times Online opinion editor; in re:  Ryan Says He Would Run for Speaker if G.O.P. Unites  Representative Paul D. Ryan’s decision changes the dynamic in the race for House speaker, and could give Republicans clarity after weeks of internal turmoil.
BIDEN   Hallie Biden, the widow of Vice President Joe Biden’s son Beau, recently told the vice president that she would support a campaign “100 per cent” should he decide to run, the Wilmington News Journal reports.
TRUMP  http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/10/donald-trump-2016-poll-nu...
CLINTØN   State Department objects to email release by Benghazi panel   http://www.politico.com/#ixzz3pB9YtBwi
Wednesday   21 October 2015  / Hour 3, Block B: Monica Crowley, Fox, & Washington Times Online opinion editor; in re: the candidates (2 of 4)
Wednesday   21 October 2015  / Hour 3, Block C:  Monica Crowley, Fox, & Washington Times Online opinion editor; in re: the candidates (3 of 4)
Wednesday   21 October 2015  / Hour 3, Block D:  Monica Crowley, Fox, & Washington Times Online opinion editor; in re: the candidates (4 of 4)
 
Hour Four
Wednesday   21 October 2015  / Hour 4, Block A: Men of War: The American Soldier in Combat at Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, and Iwo Jima, by Alexander Rose Part I of II.  (1 of 4 segments)
Wednesday   21 October 2015  / Hour 4, Block B: Men of War: The American Soldier in Combat at Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, and Iwo Jima, by Alexander Rose Part I of II.  (2 of 4 segments)
Wednesday   21 October 2015  / Hour 4, Block C: Men of War: The American Soldier in Combat at Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, and Iwo Jima, by Alexander Rose Part I of II.  (3 of 4 segments)
Wednesday   21 October 2015  / Hour 4, Block D: Men of War: The American Soldier in Combat at Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, and Iwo Jima, by Alexander Rose Part I of II.  (4 of 4 segments)