back here with our deal here is a look at the top stories a moment of truth for syria the last deadline passes for the regime and rebels to lay down their arms as moscow accuse of some form states of tampering the u.n. peace deal. predatory payday loans cowfold british banks back into the spotlight with critics up in arms over crippling interest rates and allegedly deceptive marketing tricks. at aiming high russian scientists plan of the cold on the moon by stablish ing a permanent lunar base within the next decade before turning their gaze to mars.

that's the headline thought is next and on the international day of manned spaceflight alderney off talks to science fiction author chap i get it and research cosmos their usual cough. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you don't know i'm trying hard welcome to the big picture.

hello hello welcome to spotlight the entries in show on our t.v. now we're not going today will be talking about plates april twelfth will always be one of the greatest day in the history of mankind on this day i'm seeing folks feel one russian pilot you are the good guy became the first man to fly into outer space it wasn't only a scientific breakthrough but a great cultural shift. but now pop a century later it looks like space exploration has lost or losing its credibility is at least is becoming a ruthie is it known for the or a logical result of progress we'll discuss it now with two people from two different castes and american science fiction author jack mcdevitt who's joining us from jacksonville just the united states and the russians to search cosmonauts and scientists since he took. during the first decades of the

space race the u.s. is still a nation was clear technological breakthrough apparently changed the soviet people's minds making every single kid dream of becoming a spaceman the journey of yuri gagarin's triumph when he told it to dear. has become a public holiday but as time goes by people's fascination with space has waned to rekindle that close to fiction and you global event has been organized and that's you raise nights it's an opportunity for infuse the s. from around the world to celebrate and even on the international space station but as for the general public not many know about its. hello chad thank you very much for joining us on the show and i like to start with the question i had out about science fiction f. course as we're talking space and since we're talking about that high rises that

science fiction literature is opening for us well. essentially a go science fiction was all about traveling to outer space it was a dream it was a dream of scientists it was a dream of writers it is becoming routine so it is still sort of a dream today a dream that you are dreaming soon again there jack is dreaming some crazy dream that may become a routine in it another hundred years what would you say what is it i think the big problem to start with is that there are two things one is very expensive and another is that we didn't find anything that has a trigger to the public consciousness. when the year you're talking about the twenty's thirty's forty's kind of you look at the science fiction of that period they were talking about finding canals on mars for example they were talking about . some kind of creature somewhere in the solar system like they were if i remember

the science fiction of the forty's and they were everywhere there was always that you could go anywhere without running into wally and then it turns out the place is empty there's not only empty of of alien to the normal sense of other beings but it's empty even apparently of cell. your life we have been able find us a blade of grass out there yet and that tends to take a lot of the energy out of the out of the program. well what the judges mention morris but people start talking about trying to populate mars or maybe the moon at least this become an idea that that will become as intriguing as space travel used to be. i think someday years when we start well we will begin to realize these ideas it should be very interesting. this morning i was in institute of biomedical problems. rushing to get a bit of sciences and people showed me and told me

a lot of the great interest of public when morris. distin. five hundred experiment. was go and the people on the earth. entered to the. sample of the. surface on spacesuits and even this experiment was extremely interesting for people i'm sure that when we will begin to explore the moon service it would be very interested while we did interview the guys from far from these more mars five hundred mission it was a very interesting show we did with the mit actually before embarking on a mission to mars the russian space agency is planning to put our the moon spotlights you know the media has more on this project. the russian space agency's

planning to put its first crew on the moon by twenty twenty the mission is going to be a lot more complicated than the one undertaken by neil armstrong steam in one thousand six denying it will not be just about leaving the mark on the moon it's planned to be just the beginning of regular flights to the moon and the eventual creation of a food functioning scientific base by twenty thirty the russian space agency a win for volunteers among the requirements for those who want to apply are a same t.v. or medical degree knowledge of english and the shoe size bigger than the u.k. size all up on finding that special person for the moon program might provide challenges public interest in space research has waned significantly the golden age for space exploration was between the nineteen fifties and nineteen seventy's when the two superpowers the usa and leave your society were infused competition for

space superiority we kindly in the public's interest in space exploration might well need another space race and this time they'll be more participants as india china and japan but also set their sights on the happens. listen revelant there you said that we haven't found anything in the phrase i mean the life rafts or something but it doesn't mean it's not worth the extra if they don't mean the thought worth exploring so what would your answer to this question our reporter just put if we continue space exploration if we really fly to other planets should be a joint project by russia and america china or whoever were a lot of the race would be healthy around which you say. i couldn't help thinking listening to the probably just rent how much better things would have gone had we

all of it able to collaborate in trying to do something in space i didn't i didn't mean by the way earlier to say that it's not worthwhile because we didn't discover anything living what i meant was that when you don't have something alive out there the voters lose interest the other people the population of the country which needs to be on board i think. one way basically and the body looks like there are there are certainly some strong reasons for us to go in the space of the serious for example. we can we can we have the technology now if we had the will to put some hundreds of them put some solar collectors in space and we'd be able to beam power back to earth and get away from all the need that we have for fossil fuels. but it's not that difficult to do but nobody ever talks about it because there's all of us probably extremely like well mr sugar people are talking about about really using outer space russia is talking

a lot about using outer space for for the economy for for production well first of all mineral resources like hell you three thousand on the moon can it really be extracted and can it ever be ever be feasible to really to really take those minerals from other planets and use them on earth is russia working hard enough i'm no sure as regards to hello three. general opinion of the majority of the members of britain capable of sciences for example and it is not in this century much more practical is you know reaching the energy saw aleck and solar energy and sending the beam to the earth for example or establishing the nuclear power in these installations in space and then using the moon for space exploration not for minerals. on the moon we look for love

for him there are a lot of a lot of water on the polar eras first of all it's a good for even people there then the only minimum of human behavior the moon is. not you know it's a good for preclear in. the constructions for the for the space exploration but not for the return to the earth and there if we talk about that really flying is russia is russia going to make a new launch vehicle more powerful than russia is using today two to two cents patients here. and the april fifth. phone bishan in waco. mr popof came to talk about the. project of the head of the russian. cross most years to talk about the project of the strategy of the russian federation in space twenty thirty and he mentioned the new launcher

with the president of one hundred twenty towards. my personal opinion sixty two of his is enough because the sixty ton is the minimum wage for the whole nuclear installation for example we need coag. enter planetary space ship after victim launches why not so but anyway russia is on the way to we've been you have you launcher sort of thing as you can very russian cosmonaut and the scientists to my studio and in jacksonville united states jack mcdevitt an american science fiction writer we will continue to sin city in less than a minute after we take a short break we will ask jack why time travel is never die so stay with us don't go.

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welcome back to the spotlight i'm al gore norman just a reminder that we have jack mcdevitt the famous sunfish right here in jacksonville united states joining us by satellite and. russian research cosmonaut and scientist here in the studio spotlight we're talking about traveling to outer space about about what scientists fiction has to propose to to mankind jackie you are published a book a couple of years ago in two thousand and nine it's called time travelers never done well i can understand why they never die i think i i would die if i was a time travel to now so i don't think it's much fun but. was this science fiction

or was it fantasy i would you call it your of this book time travel i would say it's a fair to say yes. it has to be and we know we can be pretty sure it doesn't happen otherwise we would see for example lots of time for our viewers hanging around the famous historical events to watch but they don't show up so i think we can assume that it doesn't happen. the reason they don't die of course is that if it were possible then that means that the climb that we're in for example right now always exists as if that's all it is somebody could go by a time traveler go by could join in this conversation that would mean that there's always a place where this conversation is happening you and i and surrogate would never go away. listen to you around the world you're a science fiction writer but you wrote a fantasy book so you yourself are living proof that science fiction

is dying and giving way to fantasy is the new park illusion or for the young people less size smaller financing i would hope not but i want to be accused of. alexander i know it's. science. time travel is considered science fiction because theoretically travel through time does happen while some particles of move the i understand i've got a physicist but apparently some particles moved by were tied so if you know it could happen but i don't think you and i are going to be able to make the trip but there's a fact that it's probably impossible basic fantasy than you know another question for example space of the light travels at a fancy probably but we don't know for certain since the start of the list we were going to be really really travelled about twenty minutes into the future so you know trying to travel those up and but that's a one way one way street unfortunately. please tell me when when i was a kid when you recount old kids dreamt of becoming cosmic soul the i was absolute

majority of the russian people and all the silly kids wanted to be cars minutes. is this still the case what i mean obvious to all young people that really i dare him to go to work to fix it to come to work. do what you're doing or not really you know i have two sons one of them fifteen years older and another five years old both of them do not dream to go to space but i hope that my grandsons will dream so it's like a way of. right now we are losing interest or the new generation that was in interest to their special oration probably in an exaggeration will also receive will keep this interest way because of new technologies more knowledge of. the universe more ability to fly the space. private space ships

and much more. to explore solar system and it should be the next with probably. hope it will not. not be in the reality but. we. knew police work. in the middle of the century after the space war will be the first group of the space technology interest of the space exploration. game made this happen and the loss of interest in cons menards may be happening because. that the fact that people lie like jack when they're growing older we're not having this great deal of science fiction published and they're so there are no books that

would inspire teenagers to do something to keep to. their rises. well. it should be in you books of the science fiction fantasy we actually don't know. what is the reality of what will be know the reality that you do you should be human and you should need to do some of the writer meet bridgette some you know new we. are making technologists so we do need the new science fiction books to inspire our. jack jack what would you say do you think that do you think that science fiction is mostly and sparring the scientists or it's the other way around or are the achievements in science inspiring the writers to become science fiction writers what's that what is the chicken and egg question alexander i used to be a teacher and one of the first things that always ever happened was what

a student would get in touch five ten fifteen years later and say you know it was thanks to you that this happened or that happened. as as a writer enormously fortunate i get regularly i get e-mail from scientists technicians engineers telling me that their national interest was sparked by reading a science fiction book that's what turns me i know it's what turned me on but i certainly think it worth the what we have to do is make sure that we don't. we don't get so negative that i would prefer whatever reason science fiction is now producing a lot of this tolkien novels everything's dial hill everything's torque and it's kind of it's kind of irritating in a world where things are actually going pretty well. on the whole you know we are looking for now i think to a war more peaceful resolutions of problems for the most part it looks as if the various nations are beginning to cooperate

a lot better than they did fifty years ago. so you know i'm i'm hopeful i think that. i think is a very good chance that people are going to get rational and figure out that we can't just sit here what a planet is becoming increasingly crowded we're going to have to do something with the base of major changes what we maybe need is you know it's something something to have it would really ignite a fire the kind of thing that well you know it's a good car you know making that trip you know that that got people looking at the sky how about if we were going to visit a we had some sort of evidence of now that there's been someone actually here where we get a close call from an asteroid you wrote how long we've had bouts psychological problems with contacts with accidents will civilizations when you wrote about that one of these books meant to help people when they will actually start contacting with e.t.s. what was it about trying to actually communicate with each other when you wrote it

envision out of science fiction well you know it's a hard question always or alexander i'll not exactly sure why but i said it by that i'm not sure why people generally are so fascinated about an opportunity to meet aliens sit down with a balance and have pizza and beer and talk about the day through the universe but we do we love that i cannot go to a meeting as a speaker without always going to confront the first question i always hear is do i believe in u.f.o.'s do i believe there are aliens out there are we going to meet somebody if people really fascinated by that and if i say no i won't believe in u.f.o.'s you bring it around the house of park in my driveway let me kick the tires . they get really angry with it like you know we look at it i say i don't think there's anybody else out there well but sure. people are fascinated at the prospect of meeting someone else i was

a great fan and i love the brothers of billion i have a sense that some of the authors are great great great when you hear yourself read maybe you still read science fiction books do you consider them like books about future about really space travel or is it a way of trying to understand yourself which is well you know some of those predictions were realized. some very nice but this psychological. you know predictions still interesting for me. i just wrote the book of regrets and what i mean. i beat all the evidence you know it's a good still very nice. world the relationships between people and psychological problems and the responsibility of a human by a. planet so i also know i. strongly believe

for example above the guide the evolution biological evolution of the human kind. help us to explore the solar system. this idea i brought this idea of promise to god skis so. it's about the future i consider the writer of science fiction writers did a great job after their exploration is nice. you know. and my last question to our satisfaction friend across the water. jack the furious take picture one of many sorry if i books is rather gloomy so do you yourself believe in a new dr world or you see the future rather pessimistically. i wish the stars weren't so far. but i'm optimistic you know i think the fact that we've gotten

through some of the huge issues that we have in the last hundred years and we come out on the other side that we were all actually talking to one another and listening and we've begun worldwide cooperation and we don't have yet we're nowhere close to where we would like to be but we're getting there were moving the right direction i think you're going to do fine in the long run i think human beings are going to be around for a long time and i absolutely convinced we're going to have to get off the planet ultimately to survive and i agree thank you thank you general for being with us thanks jack thank you thank you sir again just a reminder that my guests on the show today were jack mcdevitt an american sartaj authors and so gives you a russian research cosmonaut and scientists and that's it for now from almost if you're in traffic your sales process might just drop you know spotlight will be back with more first time comments on what's going on and then outside russia until then stay on r.t. and taking to the post.

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