Minutes of September 2012 Meeting
Oklahoma Space Alliance met September 8, 2012 at the Denny’s on the I-240 access road on the north side just east of Pennsylvania Avenue in southern Oklahoma City. Members attending included Steve, Karen and Brian Swift, Claire McMurray, David Sheeley, Tim Scott, Syd Henderson, Donald Robinson and Linda Shannon. This was the first meeting for Donald and Linda.
Correction to minutes: Each kid participating in the space art contest is to get something, not each district.
The NSS website crashed the Wednesday before the meeting and was still down on Saturday, so Syd wasn’t able to post Outreach. [The site is now up and Outreach posted.]
The Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority meeting for September was cancelled.
The quote was from Gerard O’Neill and Steve did a mini-bio of him.
We saw a mosaic of Curiosity photos showing Mt. Sharp.
Neil Armstrong passed away a couple of weeks before this meeting. Clifford McMurray met Neil Armstrong on a cruise to Antarctica. Neil never thought of himself as an astronaut but as an explorer. We watched a video of the Apollo 11 launch and landing and the first steps on the Moon.
Our treasury has $484.36 divided about equally between cash and checking account.
We saw a high detail photograph of the night launch of the RBSP (Radiation Belt Storm Probes) by Mike Killian, sent to us with permission to use it. You can find a photograph of this launch at http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120902.html.
Other photographs we saw were the Catseye Nebula from the Hubble Space Telescope and Tropical Storm Isaac photographed at night from space.
Mars One wants to found the first settlement on Mars by 2023. See http://mars-one.com/en/ for details.
Note to self: Correct directions to Denny’s. You can get there directly from the Pennsylvania Avenue exit off I-240.
Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser looks like a baby space shuttle. Normal launch is vertical via rocket, but it can also be dropped off Stratolaunch. Landing is horizontal. Dream Chaser can make low-Earth orbit with up to seven passengers, and can land at airports. It uses liquid nitrous oxide as the oxidizer and hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB), which is a rubbery substance that requires 773 degrees Kelvin to ignite. Both substances are non-toxic. Using nitrous oxide reduces weight because the container doesn’t have to be as strong as for liquid oxygen.
Sierra Nevada was founded by husband and wife Fatih and Eren Ozmen in 1993. Fatih is CEO and Eren is Chairman and President. The Sierra Nevada Corporation website is http://www.sncorp.com/index.php.
We couldn’t present the ISDC video because the server was down. For the same reason, we couldn’t go over the NSS Roadmap to Space.
Ad Lib Astronomics is having a grand opening on September 29 at their new location and are giving out a new telescope.
--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.
Copyright �2012 Oklahoma Space Alliance.