Minutes of January 21, 2017 Meeting
Oklahoma Space Alliance met January 21 at Earl’s Rib Palace in Moore, Oklahoma. This meeting was moved from our regular second Saturday time because of a winter storm in central Oklahoma the evening of January 13. In attendance were Steve, Karen and Brian Swift, Tim Scott, Dave Sheely, Rachelle Thibodeau, Dennis Wigley and Syd Henderson.
We now have two hundred people on our Meetup site.
We watched a video of an Atlas V launch by the United Launch Alliance.
SpaceX launched a Falcon on January 14, 2017. This spacecraft launched ten Iridium telecommunications satellites, and marked a return of the Falcon to flight after a launch pad accident last fall. The first stage landed on a barge. The video of this launch and landing was one hour and forty minutes long so we only watched parts of it.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has detected a large reservoir of ice under the Utopia Planitia on Mars. The reservoir is three to thirty-three feet underground, and is estimated to be 200 – 500 feet thick.
We discussed a comparison between Musk and Bezos’s ambitions. The ULA expects to launch 1,000 astronauts over the next thirty years. We looked at the tech targets for various proposals. Bezos, for example, looks toward suborbital and orbital flights, transport and space lab habitats, while Musk concentrates on orbital spaceflight, space habitats, transport, and eventually a Mars colony, as well as energy generation.
We now have $1095.24 in our bank account and $267 in cash.
Yuri’s Night is April 12, which is a Wednesday. Our regular meeting that month is on April 8.
Notes: The January meeting of the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority was in Tulsa, and the February meeting was cancelled, so no notes this month.
Minutes by OSA Secretary Syd Henderson
Contact person for Oklahoma Space Alliance is Claire McMurray.
PO Box 1003
Norman, OK 73070
Webmaster is Syd Henderson.
Copyright ©2017 by Oklahoma Space Alliance.