{"podcast":{"title":"The Space Show by Dr. David Livingston","slug":"the-space-show-by-dr-david-livingston-1065418","podcast_index_feed_id":1065418,"rss_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/4998091.rss","website_url":"https://doctorspace.substack.com/podcast","image_url":"https://substackcdn.com/feed/podcast/4998091/cc9d58892415ee41ba1e3c837c9347d6.jpg","author":"Dr. David M. Livingston","episode_count":196,"summary":"The Space Show® focuses on timely and important issues influencing the development of outer-space commerce and space tourism, as well as other related subjects of interest to us all.","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-space-show-by-dr-david-livingston-1065418"},"episode":{"title":"Dr. Joel Sercel of TransAstra Is Our Space Show Guest For This program","slug":"dr-joel-sercel-of-transastra-is-our-space-show-guest-for-this-program","published_at":"2026-04-03T21:19:07+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-space-show-by-dr-david-livingston-1065418/dr-joel-sercel-of-transastra-is-our-space-show-guest-for-this-program","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-space-show-by-dr-david-livingston-1065418","url":"https://doctorspace.substack.com/p/dr-joel-sercel-of-transastra-is-our","audio_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/193113764/1b4cd56947706de6570b9241eb2c5504.mp3","summary":"The Space Show Presents Dr. Joel Sercel of TransAstra, Sunday, 3-29-26 Quick Summary: The Space Show featured an interview with Dr. Joel Sercel, CEO of TransAstra, who discussed his company’s mission to harvest asteroid resources for space industrialization. Dr. Sercel explained TransAstra’s four key technical challenges: detect, capture, move, and process asteroid materials, and described their progress including winning NASA contracts, developing capture bag technology, and operating a global telescope network. The discussion covered business models, revenue generation through government contracts, and plans for the “New Moon” project to establish facilities at the Earth-Moon Lagrange point (RIM). The conversation also touched on orbital debris removal using capture bag technology and the potential for space-based data centers built from harvested asteroid materials. Summary Dr. Joel Sercel joined the Sunday Space Show to discuss TransAstra, where he serves as CEO. Due to internet connectivity issues, David asked Joel to introduce TransAstra’s business model and revenue strategy to the audience. Joel founded TransAstra over 10 years ago to develop space resource harvesting technologies after becoming disillusioned with NASA’s approach to space exploration. He identified four key technical challenges: detection, capture, movement, and processing of asteroid materials, and successfully secured funding through NASA’s NIAC program, becoming their first 7-time fellow with nearly $4 million in grants. The company has since grown through Y Combinator’s incubator program, raising approximately $16 million in total funding and winning about $15-16 million in government contracts over the past 5 years, while developing a network of telescopes for detecting faint moving objects…","meta_description":"The Space Show Presents Dr. Joel Sercel of TransAstra, Sunday, 3-29-26 Quick Summary: The Space Show featured an interview with Dr. Joel Sercel, CEO of Tr…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4360,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-space-show-by-dr-david-livingston-1065418/episodes/dr-joel-sercel-of-transastra-is-our-space-show-guest-for-this-program/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-space-show-by-dr-david-livingston-1065418/dr-joel-sercel-of-transastra-is-our-space-show-guest-for-this-program.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}