Our topic this week on the GeekWire radio show and podcast is space, and our possible future in it.

Joining us is Adam Bruckner — a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the University of Washington. He shares his insights and perspectives on the emerging era of commercial spaceflight, asteroid mining, the potential impact on the Seattle economy, and the implications for humanity.

Professor Adam Bruckner. (Erynn Rose Photo)

We had fun talking with him, and it was encouraging to hear his optimism about the prospect for space travel becoming routine in our lifetimes.

The discussion begins at 13:30, after our weekly news roundup, in which we discuss Microsoft’s investment in Barnes & Noble’s Nook subsidiary; the Redmond company’s growing rivalry with Amazon.com; a new service from Judy’s Book that ranks restaurants for kid-friendliness; and highlights from the Seattle 2.0 Startup Awards, our big GeekWire event Thursday night at the EMP in Seattle.

Our App of the Week is the newly updated WhitePages app for iPhone.

This week’s Name that Tech Tune challenge revisits the space theme. Also listen for the answer to last week’s challenge.

Listen to the show above or directly via this MP3 file. GeekWire airs at 7 a.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday on 97.3 KIRO-FM in Seattle, and runs every weekend on GeekWire.com.

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