Minutes of May Meeting
Oklahoma Space Alliance met May 12, 2012 at the I-Hop on North Classen Boulevard in Oklahoma City. Attending were Steve and Karen Swift, Dennis Wigley, Claire McMurray, Syd Henderson and Russ Davoren.
Steve reported on an article naming the top 10 commercial spaceships headed for reality. These include SpaceShipTwo/White Knight, Lynx, Silver Dart, Excalibur Almaz (based in the Isle of Man), Armadillo Aerospace Vertical Tourships, Dream Chaser (Space Dev’s Vehicle), New Shepard (Blue Origin), Sundancer (Bigelow; SpaceX will launch a load for Bigelow in 2014), Cygnus/Taurus 2 and, of course, SpaceX’s Dragon Capsule.
Russ got to interview Burt Rutan in 2005.
What’s Happening in Space?
Asteroid mining proposed by Planetary Resources, Inc. Of the 9000 known near-Earth asteroids, more than 1600 are energetically as easy as the Moon. A single 500-meter platinum rich asteroid contains the equivalent of all the platinum group metals mined in the history of the Earth. [These metals are rare in Earth’s crust because they were incorporated into Earth’s core during the planet’s formation.]
The May issue of Popular Science was devoted to aviation and space.
We watched a video of the Earth at night, and a video of a Falcon 9 engine test.
Claire suggested making signs announcing that we are having an open meeting and visitors are welcome.
Mail: Parts of the annual report are not in. Claire turned in the contact list.
Brochures are almost complete, but we need to add the chapter number to them.
Moon Day weekend is July 20-22. We’ll go to NSS North Texas’s event, which is 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. on July 21. Bring brochures, something about chapters and Lego Moon base. Dry run will be at fan table at Soonercon.
Soonercon: Steve Galpin would like to talk about military space.
Essays and art contests: “Awards” sounds better for small amounts than “scholarships.”
Promotions: Signs for meetings, Oklahoma Gazette. Put meeting announcement on web well in advance. Claire might be able to get Kip to write an article once a month.
Syd needs to correct directions next time we meet at I-Hop since you can’t get directly to I-Hop by going down 50th Street from I-235.
Syd checked the Moore Public Library as a possible meeting place, but they were continuously booked on Saturdays for the next two months.
However our next meeting will be at the Denny’s off I-240.
--Minutes by OSA Secretary Syd Henderson
Notes on OSIDA Meetings
Neither Steve or I were able to make the April OSIDA meeting or the special meeting in late March that was held in Burns Flat. The May meeting has been cancelled.
Contact person for Oklahoma Space Alliance is Claire McMurray.
PO Box 1003
Norman, OK 73070
Webmaster is Syd Henderson.
Copyright �2012 Oklahoma Space Alliance.