Minutes of May Meeting
National Space Society’s Oklahoma Space Alliance chapter held its regular monthly meeting on May 12, 2018 at Earl’s Rib Palace in Moore, Oklahoma. Attending were OSA President David Sheely, Mike Hopkins, Claire and Clifford McMurray, John Northcutt, Steve and Karen Swift, Brian Swift, and Stephanie Thibodeau, a Kent, and Syd Henderson. David did an Update last month that is online at http://osa.nss.org/index.html and contains links to his presentations, so I’ll go over the highlights and videos.
We watched a video from This Week at NASA of new NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.
We watched a video of a virtual trip through the Lagoon Nebula [in Sagittarius] from images from the Hubble Space Telescope.
We watched a video of the cancellation of the Lunar Rover Mission.
We watched a video about the air Force Space Fence (radar) at Kwajalein.
We watched a Space News interview with Heather Wilson, the Secretary of the Air Force, which included information on the reorganization of the Space and Missile Systems Center.
We watched video on nuclear reactors for space missions. The kilopower reactors would supply power to bases on the Moon and Mars, and perhaps other missions.
We watched videos on the Mars InSight mission and its companion Cube Sats MarCO A & B.
We watched a video on the launch of TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Star Survey. It was launched by SpaceX, and the first stage of the launcher was returned.
SpaceX will fuel manned missions. Kip McMurray: they will have to fuel with astronauts on the pad.
We have $1033.75 in our checking account and $267 in the cash box.
Claire went over some of the questions for the Space Concept quiz.
National Space Society now has a chapter in India.
December is the 50th anniversary of Apollo 8, the first manned space mission to orbit a celestial body other than the Earth.
Oklahoma Space Alliance will travel to the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas on July 14 instead of our regular meeting. Some people will be going up the night before, and some us will be carpooling. Dave will be carpooling so contact him. We should not leave after 8:00 a.m. Cost is $26 for adults, $23 for Seniors and $17 for Children.
We watched a Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin) Keynote address at SATELLITE about reusability, as in aircraft. The marginal cost of propellant is vanishingly small compared to that of the craft itself. New Shepard will fly so frequently that it will be a driver for new technology.
Minutes by OSA Secretary Syd Henderson
--Minutes by OSA Secretary Syd Henderson
Contact person for Oklahoma Space Alliance is Claire McMurray.
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Norman, OK 73070
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