Minutes of June Meeting
Oklahoma Space Alliance met the McMurrays’ house in Norman, Oklahoma on June 15. In attendance were Clifford McMurray, Adam Hemphill, Mike Hopkins, John Northcutt, Tim Scott, Dave Sheely, Brian Swift, Steve and Karen Swift, and Syd Henderson. OSA President Clifford McMurray presided over the meeting. He also did an Update with links to the videos he presented. This can be found at http://osa.nss.org/Update1906.pdf, so I’ll cover the highlights.
Congress put $125 million in the budget at their own initiative (i.e. not requested by the President) for the development of nuclear thermal propulsion within NASA’s space technology program. For more information, see https://spacenews.com/momentum-grows-for-nuclear-thermal-propulsion/.
Is it better to use the water on Mars to generate fuel from water?
Astrobotic Development, one of the companies working on robotic technology for lunar missions, was one of contestants for the Lunar X-Prize but withdrew to have more time to develop a moon lander. We watched a video of Orbit Beyond interviewing their CEO.
We watched a video of Astrobotic Development. Their lander has very large egg-shaped propellant tanks with gold foil.
We watched a video by Intuitive Machines, another company working on moon landers for NASA.
We watched a video of Bridenstine. We will be sending men around the Moon again in 2022.
We watched a William Shatner narrated video advertising the Space Launch System. The title is “We Are Going”
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We watched several episodes of “This Week at NASA.”
Kip observed that we were only 18 years behind the Russians in using out space resources for commercial users.
We watched SpaceX’s launch of the RadarSAT constellation satellites for Canada.
There are 141 small launch companies competing for properties.
Business meeting: Our share for Meetup site is every six months. Voted to renew without comment. We currently have $841.12 in Checking and $267 in cash.
We watched a video of Eileen Collins talk at ISDC, where she got a Space Pioneer Award. She was the first the first female commander and first female pilot of a Space Shuttle. She noted that as you get older, it is easier going up to space and harder coming down.
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--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.
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