Oklahoma Space Alliance NSS Chapter UPDATE for April & June, 2010
June 2010 Meeting
Oklahoma Space Alliance will meet at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 19 at the Koszorus' house in Norman. Prospective members are also welcome. The house is at 514 Fenwick Court in Norman.
To get the meeting either: (1) Take the Robinson Street west exit off I-35. Proceed west to 36th Street where you will turn left, and go south until you turn left on Rambling Oaks (about half a mile north of Main Street). Fenwick Court is the third street on the left. Tom's house is the last on the left side, or (2) Take the Main Street west exit off I-35, proceed west past the Sooner Fashion Mall, and turn right at 36th Street, and go north until you turn right on Rambling Oaks (about half a mile north of Main Street). Fenwick Court is the third street on the left. Tom's house is the last on the left side.
Agenda:
Minutes of May Meeting
Oklahoma Space Alliance met at the McMurray’s house on May 15. Attending were Tom Koszoru, John Northcutt, Claire and Clifford McMurray and Syd Henderson.
This was our last meeting before the 2010 International Space Development Conference in Chicago, and much of the meeting involved preparing for that. The McMurrays are going up the week before the conference with some time out for site seeing. Tom and Syd are going up on Tuesday, May 25. The Four Point Sheraton, where Claire and Clifford are staying, is cheaper than the Intercontinental, so Tom and Syd will be checking it out. Parking at the Intercontinental is $14. Both cars are coming back on Monday, May 31.
The Fermi/Argonne Tour is on Friday, and you need to register right away because it will be sold out. [Note: there were actually two tours, and I believe they were sold out—SFH.]
Peter Diamandis of the X Prize Foundation is the Thursday night speaker. He is also the winner of this year’s Heinlein Award. [This is not to be confused with the Heinlein Prize, a $500,000 award Diamandis received in 2006. The Heinlein Award is voted on and awarded by the National Space Society.]
John Marmie, the Sunday lunch speaker, was in charge of the LCROSS mission.
SoonerCon is June 4 – 6. We’ve been asked to host the Con Suite on Saturday evening. We are allocating $50 – 75 for supplies, to be contributed by club members attending. [It actually came to more like $100.] The Con Suite does indeed have wireless Internet through Cox Cable.
Tom is still working on the Great Space Race. We need to locate 3-D artists who work with resin.
We got an e-mail from a Jennifer. We talked about a proposal to host Yuri’s Night 2011 at the Stafford Museum in Weatherford, Oklahoma. Tom wants a casino night. Can we get something from Burns Flat, or the Rocket Racing League?
Space Solar Power: Russia now has a launch site in French Guiana.
The next meeting is June 19 at 3:00 p.m., location to be decided. Contact Gordon Eskridge to see if he’s interested.
--Submitted by OSA Secretary Syd Henderson
Between-Meetings Activities: ISDC
Claire and Clifford McMurray, Tom Koszoru, Syd Henderson and Tom’s mentee Jason Stubbs all went to the 2010 International Space Development Conference (ISDC) May 27 – 31 in Chicago. This year’s ISDC was held in the Intercontinental in Rosemont, Illinois. Rosemont village is located by O’Hare International Airport and really blends into Chicago proper. There are a lot of hotels there, as well as the Rosemont Convention Center. The Chicago Transit Authority maintains an L station in Rosemont, and this was located about ten minutes walk from the hotel. This L line runs from O’Hare to the Chicago Loop, the central business district which lies between the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. Southeast of the Loop is Museum Campus, home of the famous Field Museum, Adler Planetarium and the Shedd Aquarium. We went up early with the intention of doing some sire seeing. As I (Syd) put it, I wanted to see famous cultural landmarks that were destroyed in the Harry Dresden novels.
Since we were staying in a different hotel, we found various methods of getting back and forth, including parking at the Rosemont station (much cheaper than the convention hotel), or taking our hotel shuttle to the airport and catching the one to the Intercontinental. I didn’t catch on till Sunday that the Hyatt Regency shuttle runs more dependably and the hotel is practically next door to Intercontinental.
There was a Space Investment Symposium on Wednesday which Tom and I missed while site seeing. Once the conference proper began on Thursday, I attended as much programming as I could, and all banquets except the Friday and Saturday night ones, which were beyond my budget. I’m going to save my detailed programming review for next month’s Outreach but I hope Claire will write hers up this month. I will give a brief overview.
Cliff was running the Business of Space track, which went over Thursday and Friday, and on one day was split between two adjoining rooms. He was also running the microphone around the main programming room during the question and answer sessions.
Also running Thursday and Friday, and overlapping a bit into Saturday and Sunday was the “1st NSS Space Solar Power Symposium” chaired by John C. Mankins of Artemis Innovation Management Solutions. I didn’t attend any of this, but Tom did and he also bought CD recordings of most of the talks.
Anita Gale of the Boeing Corporation handled the Space Colonization track, which also ran over Thursday and Friday.
On Friday afternoon, James Logan and Daniel Adamo presented “Space 2.0: Rebooting Our Space Vision,” analyzing the premises behind long term habitation of space and other planets, including potential showstoppers that might make it impossible, such as cosmic radiation and microgravity.
On Saturday morning, there was a Space Communications and Navigation Symposium organized by Jim Schier. I believe I missed this track almost entirely.
“Living in Space,” chaired by Sherry Bell ran all day Saturday.
The Education and Space track was hosted by Elizabeth F. Wallace of the Kepler Space University, and ran all day Sunday and apparently on Monday as well. This included programming of interest to teachers and students, including how to demonstrate microgravity in the classroom.
Breakthrough Science and Technology ran Sunday afternoon and Monday, and was hosted by William Gardiner. This, for example, is where you went if you wanted to learn about space tethers or beamed propulsion.
Finally, throughout the conference ran Many Roads to Space, which were a series of short (15 – 30 minute presentations) on a variety of topics.
Since this was the first ISDC since the Obama Administration presented its space plans for the near future, there was a lively debate on that running through the conference. Among the meal speakers were NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, as well as Jeff Greason of the Augustine Committee. In addition, Apollo Astronaut and NSS Governor Buzz Aldrin and NSS Governor Freeman Dyson spoke in favor of the plan and their own visions of the future of manned space flight. On Saturday, there were two hours of debate on the Obama space plan and the cancellation of Constellation, the first an impromptu one between Scott Pace and Lori Garver (who crashed the presentation after her lecture, but that may have been pre-arranged), the second between Apollo Astronaut Rusty Schweickart and Mars Society President Robert Zubrin. Shweickart was the pro, while Zubrin was more critical, especially of the cancellation of Ares 1 and Ares 5.
Among the usual corporations, the Exhibits Hall featured the results of the NASA Ames Space Settlement Design Contest 2010, which was won by Prateeksha Das of the Ispat English Medium School in Odisha, India. Ms. Das got to present her winning design before one of the main luncheons.
Perhaps because of this contest, there were an unusually large number of teenage attendees, including several dozen from India. This ensured full rooms for the Space Education track, and gave a pleasant international feel to the SEDS table.
I thought the presentations generally ran smoothly. From my experience working on earlier ISDCs, this meant that whatever problems popped up were kept well hidden while they were dealt with. There did seem to be quite a bit of confusion about banquet registration, which was partly due to the secondary registration announcements going out by e-mail a week and a half before the conference began. One problem I had was that I hadn’t received confirmation of my meal purchases, so I couldn’t remember which luncheons I’d signed up for. That was resolved by Friday noon.
Almost all programming seemed well-attended, so attendance must have been somewhere in the 800 – 1000 range.
Trips to and from Chicago both featured occasional monsoons, but fortunately there was none of that nonsense during the conference.
--Submitted by OSA Secretary Syd Henderson
Other Between-Meeting Activities [by Syd Henderson]
On Saturday June 5, Oklahoma Space Alliance hosted the Con Suite at the Soonercon Science Fiction in Oklahoma City. Our slot was 8:00 – 10:00 p.m. The art auction ran 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., during which time the con suite was closed, giving us plenty of time to set up.
Although we were planning to buy $50 – 75 in supplies, we actually spent more like $100, which turned out to be fortunate since the con suite was short on supplies. We had roughly thirty signatures, and at least that many people who didn’t sign our signup sheet.
Tom brought a bunch of CDs [DVDs], including “When We Left Earth” and CDs [DVDs] from the ISDC. We showed two episodes of the former, one of which was the last half of the Gemini program, the other the Apollo program including Apollo 11. I asked Tom to show Buzz Aldrin’s dinner speech at the ISDC since I had missed that.
We didn’t wind up with as many leftovers as usual, partly because we had some real food instead of snacks. What was left over we donated to the con suite.
NSS has started sending us 50 copies of Ad Astra to distribute at our events. Apparently this is an ongoing thing. The first shipment arrived the day before ISDC (although I didn’t know that at the time) and were distributed at Soonercon, partly during the room party and partly on the freebie table.
Notes on June 9 OSIDA Meeting [by Syd Henderson & Claire McMurray]
[The OSIDA meeting scheduled for May 19 was canceled due to the threat of severe weather.]
Claire McMurray and Syd Henderson attended the June 9 meeting of the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority. All seven board members were present this time, which was one more person than was in the audience.
The OSIDA budget for the year is $424,000, down from $456,000 last year. This is part of the general belt-tightening of the Oklahoma state government.
After several years, the security fence around the Oklahoma Spaceport is finally complete, although it still needs to pass inspection.
The PAPI (Precision Approach Path Indicators) lights are now operational. These lights were causing concern because they can blind pilots wearing night vision goggles, so a remote switch has been arranged to turn off the lights.
The FAA has a million dollar grant program to be divided among several spaceports. OSIDA is applying for some of that.
The Oklahoma Spaceport needs to buy an emergency generator for the sewer lift station, in case of catastrophic electrical failure.
This was the end of another OSIDA year, so they had to elect new officers. Former State Representative Jack Bonny is now Chairman, Cal Hobson is Vice-Chairman, Lou Sims stays on as Secretary, and Gilmer Capps stays on as Treasurer.
The Starbase Oklahoma educational program will operate again next year, but one school which has participated in the past can’t afford the transportation to Spaceport Oklahoma this year. OSIDA Executive Director Bill Khourie has offered to conduct a transportation fundraiser in that school district, if the teacher is comfortable with the attempt. Claire McMurray asked whether a small contribution from an outside organization such as Okahoma Space Alliance would be appropriate. [See information on the program below.]
Claire and Cliff went to Tulsa in April and tried to get into the Rocket Racing League event, but the road was too crowded. However, they were able to see the exciting rocket-powered flight from the highway. Apparently 8,000 people were anticipated and 50,000 showed up. The Rocket Racing League will be returning to the Oklahoma Spaceport for more flight resting.
Media coverage of the Rocket Racing League events at the Spaceport has been subdued because of decisions by the League itself. They requested a media embargo for the first flight test, and didn’t announce the second until the last moment. Miles O’Brian of CNN was about the only newsman to get there on time.
OSIDA & Starbase Oklahoma
From the OSIDA web site: “OSIDA partners with STARBASE OKLAHOMA and other nationally recognized programs of science and technology, reinforcing basic aviation and space exploration. …OSIDA is proud to host area 5th grade students to attend STARBASE classes in[their] facility here at the Oklahoma Spaceport! Students come one day a week for 5 weeks to discover the excitement of space and science. Our class includes Teambuilding, Oceans of Air, Physics, Mathematics, Hydroponics, Astronomy, Rocketry and the ABC's of NASA just to name a few.
“This class is totally free to all Oklahoma schools! For more information contact Joe Savage at 580-562-3500 “
However, the schools must pay the transportation, and for the 2010-11 school year one of those previously participating can’t afford to. Claire emailed Bill Khouri on June 17 to ask whether a fundraiser will happen and, if so, if others can participate. He hasn’t had time to reply yet. If we end up contributing, individually or from the club account, the funds aren’t needed until fall.
From the NSS web site, space.nss.org : (Washington, DC -- June 2010)
ISDC 2011 registration reduced through June 30, 2010. The link from the NSS website (see above) already has quite a bit of information, including links to the speakers and programs of many previous ISDCs (including 2004 in Oklahoma City). It will be in Huntsville, AL on Wednesday May 18 (Space Investment Summit only) and Thursday - Sunday May 19-22. This time (not clear whether only in advance) we have the option pay for registration only OR to also pay for 6 Thursday-Sunday speaker meals (not including the Friday gala). The special rates are:
Adult NSS member $130 or $320 with 6 meals
Adult non-member $180 or $370 with 6 meals
Student $40 or $230 with 6 meals (Valid student ID required)
NSS membership rates have gone up slightly; see membership info. at end of newsletter.
Lori Garver video: NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, who served as NSS Executive Director for almost a decade, shared her insights on numerous space matters in an exclusive video interview for NSS during the International Space Development Conference in Chicago last month. She credits NSS with a major role in the formation of her views on space policy and her vision of our future in space.
“In the 9-minute statement she describes the roles of business and NASA, the importance of the International Space Station, timelines for solar system exploration, and the critical importance of lowering launch costs. She also comments on the vital role space will play in future economic growth.” You can play the video from the space.nss.org web site.
“National Space Society in Second Life Machinima Contest Entries: “The National Space Society announces that the winning video in the 2010 NSS in Second Life Machinima Contest is "Dreamer's Journey" by Rocksea Renegade. Second Life is an online 3D virtual world where participants can interact as avatars. Machinima is an art form consisting of computer animation of such virtual worlds. Entries were required to have an outer space theme, with 50% of the video taking place in the National Space Society Second Life simulation. Musician Craig Lyons graciously permitted his music to be used in the videos.
“Anyone may view the winning video plus the 10 other videos entered into this contest on the NSS website. Participation in NSS in Second Life requires registration and installation of free viewing software.
“Winning Entry Title: Dreamer's Journey [NSSinSL Machinima Entry]
YouTube ID: RockseaTV
Avatar Name: Rocksea Renegade
Description: With "Doctor Who" and "2001: A Space Odyssey" in mind, I wanted to create an almost surreal film but at the same time exploring a person's desire to reach the unreachable. A young overworked woman, at an observatory, dreams of the day when a lonely spaceman will take her on as a companion to explore the stars together. Song excerpt: "Start in the Middle" by Craig Lyons.
Quality: 480p
Film Location Credit: National Space Society
Music Credit: Craig Lyons”
Other entries, several with greater detail, are at http://space.nss.org/contests/2ndlifevideos.html. (See web site for full credits & descriptions) They are:
Title: In Thrust We Trust (NSSinSL Machinima Entry) HD
YouTube ID: MachitopiaStudio; Avatar Name: Chenin Anabuki
Title: Explorers (NSS in SL Machinima Entry) versions A & B
YouTube ID: alorja1; Avatar Name: Al Peretz
Title: From the Surface of the Earth (NSS in SL Machinima Entry)
YouTube ID: parsectt7; Avatar Name: Earth Primbee
Title: OFF LIFT (NSSinSL Machinima Entry)
YouTube ID: ciskovan; Avatar Name: Cisko Vandeverre
Title: A Reflection (NSSinSL Machinima Entry)
YouTube ID: ianpahute; Avatar Name: Ian Pahute
Title (& music credit): Craig Lyons - Far Away (NSSinSL Machinima Entry)
YouTube ID: aidenwitrial; Avatar Name: Aiden Witrial
Title (& music credit): Craig Lyons - Spinning Slowly (NSSinSL Machinima Entry)
YouTube ID: aidenwitrial; Avatar Name: Aiden Witrial
Title: The Trip [NSSinSL Machinima Entry]
YouTube ID: RockseaTV; Avatar Name: Rocksea Renegade
Title: Blow Into (NSSinSL Machinima Entry)
YouTube ID: TheFlurryFargis; Avatar Name: Flurry Fargis
Spaceflight News
Space X’s Falcon 9 first launch reached orbit June 4, carrying a prototype Dragon cargo capsule. They are the first of NASA’s COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation Services) program participants to reach orbit. Originally scheduled for 2007, the 2-stage Falcon 9 debut has been delayed by Falcon 1 & 9 redesigns. Air Force concerns about the flight termination system caused the most recent design delay.
SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies) doesn’t believe in telling its competitors every little detail. However, we do know the successful launch came a mere one hour & 15 minutes after a last-second abort attributed to “an out-of-limit start-up parameter.” About 2 hours before the abort, the countdown was halted at T-15 minutes while evaluating low telemetry signal strength and waiting for stray boats to leave the keep-out zone. It’s extremely encouraging that the launch proceeded so quickly after the last-minute abort.
Apparently SpaceX has no intention on relying only on NASA to support it’s orbital activities. On June 16, they announced a firm $492 million contract with Iridium Communications to launch Iridium’s second-generation constellation of 72 satellites. The price is considerably under recent launch costs on Russian and Ukranian rockets. A recent SpaceX quote for a non-U.S. company was also less than Chinese and Indian quotes.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk offered several reasons for how SpaceX has been able to offer such low prices, many revolving around the company’s decision to make and assemble most Falcon parts on its own in the U.S. At some other U.S. rocket builders, he said, “you need to go to the third level down on the subcontracting chain before you see anybody actually cutting metal.” [info from www.spacenews.com] Also, SpaceX is said to us non-traditional suppliers.
The U.S. Congress has demanded “all records, charts, e-mails, voice messages and other supporting materials used in drafting the agency’s 2011 budget proposal” by June 25. Apparently NASA failed to deliver the detailed supporting materials which the House Science and Technology Committee requested by June 16th.
Many congressmen are unhappy with the COTS and human spaceflight proposals in Pres. Obama’s NASA budget: some because of the effects on employment in their districts, some because they don’t believe it will work, or work soon enough to deliver astronauts to the ISS.
Although the goals are ultimately exciting, the “how” looks more like vision than program. [McMurray opinion]
March 10: New Mexico Adopts Space Flight Informed Consent Act
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has signed the [NM] Senate Bill 9, the Space Flight Informed Consent Act, recognizing the emerging commercial space industry and the inherent risks of space flight in New Mexico. Astonishingly, the legislature passed it unanimously. Claire is trying to find out whether anything similar is underway in Oklahoma.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA's) Hayabusa probe burned up in Earth's atmosphere on Sunday, June 13 at about 14:00 UTC, successfully returning its sample capsule to Earth. We don’t know yet whether the capsule contains the desired few grams of asteroid dust.
Hayabusa launched on May 9, 2003, onboard an MV-5 rocket, from the Uchinoura Launch Center in Kagoshima, on Kyushu Island, Japan. In May, 2004 Hayabusa swung by Earth for a gravity assist which sent it on to near-Earth asteroid Itokawa. It made history as the first spacecraft to perform a flyby maneuver using an ion engine as the main thruster.
After surviving 2 major solar flares, Hayabusa made rendezvous with the asteroid in September 2005. An attempt to deploy the tiny Minerva “hopper” failed on November 12, and Hayabusa was damaged during a landing attempt. The spacecraft lost communication with Earth and later recovered it, but this delayed its return from 2007 to 2010.
The capsule landed in the Woomera Prohibited Area, Australia. Follow the latest Hayabusa events through The Planetary Society Blog: http://planetary.org/blog/.
Japan's space agency confirmed June 11 that its Ikaros mission successfully unfurled a solar sail nearly 5 million miles from Earth, but it could be much longer before officials confirm whether the craft is being accelerated by the power of sunlight.
Ikaros launched on an H-2A rocket last month along with Japan's Akatsuki probe bound for Venus. While Akatsuki will enter orbit around Venus, Ikaros will fly by the planet and continue circling through the inner solar system. The 46-ft square sail membrane is more than 13 times thinner than the width of a human hair. One side of the sail is coated with silver aluminum material to better reflect sunlight.
Cassini is expected to perform a record-low (880 km) flyby of Titan on June 21st. See http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cassiniinsider/insider20100617/.
Non-NSS Space Activism
The Mars Society Convention will be held at the Dayton Marriott in Dayton, Ohio August 5-8, 2010. Speakers include Master of Ceremonies Dr. Ian O’Neill (Space Science Producer for Discovery News, http://news.discovery.com/space/), Carolyn Porco and George Whitesides. The registration deadline is June 30 and there’s still time to submit papers. Register at http://www.marssociety.org/portal/purchaseList.
Item below is an ad, but it is also space activism. We thought you’d like to know:
Another exciting month for Rocket Racing League® fans as the first ever RRL-branded video game has launched worldwide! „Rocket Racing League‟ for iPhone® & iPod® Touch is available now in the iTunes App Store. This marks another historic event for Rocket Racing League as we work to create the first truly interactive sport. You can‟t race live against Rocket Racer Pilots just yet - but all expert pilots start somewhere!! In this premiere gaming title, players work to achieve the skills needed to fly an X-Racer® through the Raceway-In-The-Sky®. Navigate your way through Career mode, which is comprised of (20) individual races; or challenge your friends in a face-to-face multiplayer competition using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Once you have installed the game on your iPhone or iPod Touch, every score and race result can be posted to Facebook so you can show off a bit to your friends. Go to the App Store now and download your copy so you can take control of a Mark III or Mark V aircraft; post scores to the Leaderboard and encourage friends and family do the same. We love a great competitive spirit!!
Visit www.RRLgames.com to stay apprised of updates and news.
Oklahoma Space Alliance Officers, 2010 (Area Code 405)
Tom Koszoru, President 366-1797 (H) T_Koszoru at cox.net
John Northcutt, Vice President 390-3476 (H) john.d.northcutt1 at tds.net
Tim Scott, Treasurer 740-7549 (H)
ctscott at mac.com
Syd Henderson, Recording Secretary & Outreach Editor 321-4027 (H) sydh at ou.edu
Claire McMurray, Correspondence Secretary & Update Editor 329-4326 (H) 863-6173 claire.mcmurray atnss.org
Other members who wish to be listed:
[email protected] (Steve Galpin)
E-mail for OSA should be sent to [email protected]. Members who wish their e-mail addresses printed in Outreach, and people wishing space-related materials e-mailed to them should contact Syd. Oklahoma Space Alliance website is osa.nss.org/index.html. Webmaster is Syd Henderson. See last page for membership order form.
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National Space Society now has a special $30 introductory rate for new members ($18 for new student members). Membership renewal rates are $55, students $25. These rates are the first increase in five years. Part of the cost is for the quarterly magazine, Ad Astra.
Mail to: National Space Society, 1155 15th Street NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20005, or join at space.nss.org/membership)
Be sure to ask them to credit your membership to Oklahoma Space Alliance, chapter code 661.
NSS Tel: (202) 429-1600 -- FAX: (202) 530-0659 -- E-mail: [email protected]
Direct questions about membership matters to: [email protected]
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To join the Mars Society, visit www.marssociety.org. One-year memberships are $50.00; Student and Senior memberships are $25, and Family memberships are $100.00. Their address is Mars Society, Box 273, Indian Hills CO 80454.
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To join the Planetary Society, visit http://www.planetary.org/home/. One-year USA memberships are $30 (Basic) or $20 (Student/Ssenior). Their address is The Planetary Society, 65 North Catalina Avenue, Pasadena, California 91106-2301, USA
OSA MEMBERSHIP ORDER FORM
Please enroll me as a member of Oklahoma Space Alliance. Enclosed is:
______________ $10.00 for Individual Membership. (This allows full voting privileges, but covers only your own newsletter expense.)
______________ $15.00 for family membership
$_____________ TOTAL amount enclosed
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Address_______________________________________________ (for OUTREACH newsletter)
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_____________________________________________________________________________
Do you want to be on the Political Action Network?
_______Yes_________ No. [See NSS brochure or web site for information on this.]
OSA Memberships are for 1 year, usually January – December, and include a subscription to our monthly alternating newsletters, Outreach and Update.
Please make out membership check to “Oklahoma Space Alliance NSS” and send it with this membership form to: Oklahoma Space Alliance, 102 W. Linn, #1, Norman, OK 73071.
Contact person for Oklahoma Space Alliance is Claire McMurray
PO Box 1003
Norman, OK 73070
Webmaster is Syd Henderson.
Copyright ©2009 Oklahoma Space Alliance.