May 10, 1996: Comets - Jerry Pournelle

Science fiction author Dr. Jerry Pournelle, co-author of the classic novel Lucifer's Hammer, joins Art Bell for a fascinating discussion on the real dangers of asteroid and comet impacts, the politics strangling America's space program, and the state of planetary defense. Pournelle, a former aerospace engineer who worked on the Apollo program, brings both scientific credibility and sharp political insight to the conversation.

Pournelle reveals that the statistical probability of being killed by a large space object is roughly equal to that of dying in a plane crash, yet the United States has zero missile defenses and virtually no infrastructure to detect or deflect incoming threats. He explains how the Apollo program's hidden agenda of re-industrializing the South through Lyndon Johnson's political bargain created a bloated bureaucracy that has hobbled NASA ever since. The DCX reusable rocket, which Pournelle helped conceive in his own living room, represents a radically cheaper approach to space access that could transform the economics of reaching orbit.

The conversation touches on extraterrestrial life through Fermi's paradox, the Roswell autopsy films, and Pournelle's claim that a permanent lunar colony could be established for just two billion dollars, a fraction of NASA's projected costs. Art Bell also announces the upcoming debate between Richard C. Hoagland and Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, while Chupacabra reports continue to pour in from Arizona and Los Angeles.