OKLAHOMA SPACE ALLIANCE

A Chapter of the National Space Society

Oklahoma Space Alliance Home 


Minutes for November 2020 Oklahoma Space Alliance Meeting

            Oklahoma Space Alliance chapter of National Space Society met via Zoom on November 14, 2020. Attending were Cliff and Claire McMurray, Seth Potter, Robin Scott, Tim Scott, Dave Sheely and Syd Henderson. OSA president Clifford McMurray presided over the meeting. He did an Update discussing links to material covered in the meeting and this is online at http://osa.nss.org/Update2011.pdf, so I’ll cover the highlights that aren’t covered there.
            I was late to this meeting because my computer decided to update fifteen minutes before the meeting started and didn’t complete it for more than forty minutes. However, Robin Scott covered the meeting for NSS Downlink, so I’m quoting her for that part:
“On November 14, 2020, OSA’s members gathered online via Zoom to informatively share recent space news. On its way to Mars and in deep space, China’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft ejected a small camera, which took images, “space selfies,” every second and then transmitted these images to the parent spacecraft that transmitted them to Earth. NASA has announced its first human-tended suborbital payload — a Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo will carry Alan Stern, a planetary scientist and Associate Vice President at Southwest Research Institute to test a camera, which was designed to work at low light levels for astronomical imaging. NASA purchased its last seat on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft for astronaut Kate Rubins, which arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on October 14, 2020. General John “Jay” Raymond is looking to swear NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins, a U.S. Air Force colonel and commander of the SpaceX Crew Dragon mission, into the space force while he is on the ISS. CEO of United Launch Alliance Tory Bruno has pitched the idea of a two-year propellant reserve for transportation to Mars to the Users’ Advisory Group of the National Space Council. NASA’s Tipping Point program gave 15 awards worth 372.2 million to 14 companies…. Tea leaves were used to find the small crack on the ISS, which was patched with Kapton tape until a more permanent patch is applied.”

            Kip hasn’t met Mike Kelly, the former astronaut who was elected Senator from Arizona, but his twin brother Scott’s autobiography is one of the best Kip has read.
            We saw a photograph the launch of a Soyuz manned spacecraft as taken form the ISS. This was the last Soyuz to take an American astronaut to the ISS under the current agreement.
            New Shepard is a suborbital craft, but will launch high enough to simulate lunar gravity.
            Ice has been found on as much as 15,000 square miles of the lunar surface. This is more than twice as much as thought before.
            Vector had a trial of a new engine using liquid oxygen and propylene but didn’t get the performance they wanted. The revived company will use the more conventional liquid oxygen and kerosene.
            SpaceX was going to launch astronauts to the ISS a few hours after our meeting, but the launch got postponed to the next day because of weather.

            We held officer nominations for 2021. Clifford McMurray is stepping down to run for vice-president and Dave Sheely is running for president. Syd Henderson is running for another term as Secretary and Tim Scott for another turn as Treasurer, Claire will attend Chapters Assembly. It’s possible that if Dave hosts Zoom meetings, he may have to create a new URL starting in January since the link we're current using is to Kip’s free account.
            We now have $627.26 in the checking account and $267 in cash for a total of $894.26.
            Claire brought up a motion to sponsor an NSS chapter in Colombia with a recommended amount of $50 for the first year, and several members agreed to send donations to the treasury to pay for the cause.
            Since Covid-19 is having a resurgence with Oklahoma and many other states setting new records, it was decided to cancel the Christmas party year and have a virtual meeting (which can double as a Christmas Party).

--Minutes by Oklahoma Space Alliance Secretary Syd Henderson

                                             Contact person for Oklahoma Space Alliance is Claire McMurray.
                                                                                          PO Box 1003
                                                                                          Norman, OK 73070
Webmaster is Syd Henderson.

Copyright ©2020 by Oklahoma Space Alliance.