OKLAHOMA SPACE ALLIANCE
A Chapter of the National Space Society
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Dear Members and Friends,
The August 2012 Update follows:
Oklahoma Space Alliance NSS Chapter UPDATE for August 2012
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August 2012 Meeting :(NOTE TIME and LOCATION
Oklahoma Space Alliance will meet at 2:30 p.m. on August 11th at Denny’s on the I-240 access road on the north side just east of Pennsylvania Avenue in southern Oklahoma City. The street address is 1617 SW 74th Street and the phone number is 685-5414. This is in the middle of a long line of eating places so we can use the opportunity to scout out potential meeting places. Claire and I found out in November that it is easier coming from the east to get off at the previous exit (Western Avenue) and proceed down the north access road.
We only have the meeting place until 6:00 p.m.
August 2012 – OSA Meeting Agenda
2:30 PM
1. Review Minutes and Agenda
2. New Mail
3. Treasurers Report
4. OSIDA Meeting Report
5. Old Business
a. Moon Day Recap
b. Space Art Contest – Candidate Theme (Discussion)
1). How will people live in space?
2). What will a future habitat look like?
3). Working in Space!
4). Games in Space!
5). What would your home in space look like?
6.) Other
6. New Business
3:00 PM
7. Feature Presentation – Curiosity Landing
8. What's Happening With Space?
a. ISS Crew Launch Video
b. Ice cliffs on Mars
c. Don Pettit – Knitting Needles and Water Bubbles Video
d. Commercial Space News – Three Awards
- Sierra Nevada – Dream Chaser
- SpaceX - Dragon
- Boeing CST 100
e. Nathalie Cabrol – Urges Exploration
f. Sally Ride – Farewell and STS 7 Launch Video
g. Great Lakes from the ISS
h. 3 Cargo Spacecraft Arrive at the ISS
i. Fish in Space
j. Road to the Stars Pictures by Jack Fusco
k. Suborbital Market Forecast by Tauri Group
9. Jeff Greeson – 2012 ISDC Talk
10. Adjourn
Minutes of July Meeting
Oklahoma Space Alliance met July 14, 2012 at the Denny’s on the I-240 access road on the north side just east of Pennsylvania Avenue in southern Oklahoma City. Attending were Steve, Karen and Bryan (sp?) Swift, Tom Koszoru, Clare McMurray, David Sheely, Tim Scott and Syd Henderson.
OSIDA will meet at the Oklahoma Spaceport in Burns Flat on August 1.
There were 20 – 25 people at the Soonercon panel on Sunday.
Moon Day: Claire, Syd and maybe Steve and Karen are planning to go to the Moon Day celebration at Love Field in Dallas, Texas on July 21.
We need to start doing things about the Space Art Contest. What schools do we want to contact? Claire wants a work meeting for July 23.
The Planetary Societies’ Planetfest 2012 is August 4-5 in Pasadena, California. For more information, visit http://www.planetary.org/get-involved/events/planetfest-2012/. The Mars Society Convention is also in Pasadena, on August 3 – 5. (Since they’re in the same building, I guess they’ve joined forces.) Curiosity is scheduled to land on Mars around midnight on the night of August 5 – 6.
What’s happening in space:
Oklahoma State won a NASA habitat contest for “Horizontal Habitability Layout Structures.
We watched video of the Shenzhou 9 launch and landing, a landing video for the X37B Space plane, and the NuStar launch. We watched a test firing of the Superdraco engine, the new engine on the Dragon capsule. SpaceX’s Merlin 1D engine has a 50% increase in thrust over Merlin 1C, meaning it has a thrust of 147,000 pounds of force.
Buzz Aldrin developed the mathematics for spacecraft rendezvous.
A gravitational tractor uses the gravitational attraction between a spacecraft and an asteroid to move the asteroid. The spacecraft’s ion engine moves the spacecraft, while gravitational attraction makes the asteroid follow.
Our feature video was Jeff Greason at the ISDC Awards banquet. Greason is proposing building sites in space to create propellant, which will reduce cost of going to the next outpost. The point is that each time you build a colony it does something to support itself. We need a facility outside Earth’s magnetosphere to check out the radiation environment.
The 2013 ISDC rate is $100 until July 31.
Minutes by Oklahoma Space Alliance Secretary Syd Henderson
Notes on July 11 OSIDA Meeting
The Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority met at in the conference room at the Department of Transportation building in Oklahoma City. Steve Swift, David Sheely and Syd Henderson of Oklahoma Space Alliance were three-quarters of the audience. Board members present were Chairman Jack Bonny, and new board members Robert Conner, Robert Cox, James Cunningham, R. Allen Goldsbary, Donald Westekan. Last year, Governor Fallin asked several board members whose terms would otherwise have expired to serve another year. Thus she replaced all the board members except for the chairman. There was another board still to be filled. Also attending were Executive Director Bill Khourie, Secretary Kim Vowell, and Brinda White from the Attorney General’s office.
All the five new board members have extensive military experience. General Wetekan was once Vice Commander of Tinker Air Force Base and spent 34 years in the Air Force. Mr. Conner was also Air Force and retired from the Air Force four years ago. His specialty was logistics, and he is interested in unmanned flying vehicles. Mr. Goodbary served 31 years in the Army, then spent 12 years at Oklahoma State University. Mr. Cunningham served 27 years in the Army, in engineering and space command. He was at Raytheon Corporation for 10 years. Mr. Cox was an Air Force pilot.
OSIDA elected new officers Jack Bonny is still Chair. Mr. Goodbary is Vice Chair. Mr. Conner is Secretary-Treasurer.
Jack wants the August meeting to be at Burns Flat.
Since most of the board members were new, Bill Khourie gave them a brief timeline of the history of the Oklahoma Spaceport. The offices were established in Oklahoma City in 2000. Title to the Clinton-Sherman Industrial Airpark was transferred to OSIDA in 2005, as the Oklahoma Spaceport. License was granted in 2006.
The new Operational Control Center is 30% complete.
Mr. Goodbary (as well as Mr. Conner) are into Unmanned Vehicle Systems. Oklahoma has been selected by the Department of Homeland Security as a site to test drones and Governor Fallin has a council dedicated to unmanned systems.
The Facility Manager has resigned and a replacement is being sought.
Travel reimbursement has been restored. Last year’s board members waived their reimbursement to pay for production of the promotional video.
The August OSIDA meeting has been moved up to August 1 and will be at Burns Flat.
Notes by Oklahoma Space Alliance Secretary Syd Henderson
Notes on August 1 OSIDA Meeting
The Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority met at the Western Technology Center at Burns Flat. Steve Swift, David Sheely and Syd Henderson of Oklahoma Space Alliance were three-fifths of the audience. Board members present were Chairman Jack Bonny, Robert Conner, Robert Cox, James Cunningham, R. Allen Goldsbary, and Donald Westekan. The vacant seat has been filled by General Jay Edwards, who previously served on the board several years ago. Also attending were Executive Director Bill Khourie, Secretary Kim Vowell, and Brinda White from the Attorney General’s office.
There are six dilapidated unused Defense department warehouse on the property of the Oklahoma Space Authority. Bill has contacted Congressman Lucas and will contact Senator Inhofe. These buildings were received in an unusable condition. Bill has contacted the Army Corps of Engineers but at some point title holder was the City of Clinton. Bill said he’ll bulldoze them himself if nobody else will take responsibility. [See below for more.]
The new Operational Control Center is 40% complete. The old one was stuck by lightning four years ago and burned down [which is why we were meeting at the Western Technology Center].
OSIDA has received resumes for Facilities Manager.
Bill gave us an update on the OSIDA Marketing Website design. OSIDA will need an exemption from the State Financial Office. They may need to have two sites (presumably linked), one for OSIDA as a state agency, the other devoted to marketing. Cost is $2500 for each website.
Jack Bonny spoke about problems due to meeting date changes. By having the meeting on August 1, OSIDA couldn’t get all the financial information for July. There will be no more meeting changes through December.
Jack appointed an Air and Spaceport Operations Committee.
After the meeting, we went over to inspect the new Operations Control Center. [Quickly because the temperature was around 112 degrees.] Since this is mostly funded by FEMA, the new Center has to have exactly the same footprint (in square feet) as the old; however, since the old site was built in the 1950s for other purposes, the new site will be better configured for spaceport operations.
On the way out of the Spaceport, we OSA members went by the dilapidated warehouse, and found that the sorriness of their state wasn’t exaggerated. The windows were mostly out and one of them had a full-sized tree growing through its roof. They’re an eyesore and an obstacle to attracting business
Notes by Oklahoma Space Alliance Secretary Syd Henderson
Between Meetings Activities
Five of our Oklahoma Space Alliance NSS members drove down to Dallas to host a table at the North Texas chapter's Moon Day event at the Frontiers of Flight museum.
Our table featured "new-space" display boards, NSS & chapter flyers, a 1-page ad for the NASA art contest (ages 10-18), a 12-inch moon globe, and a plastic "black hole/gravity well" funnel with shiny pennies for children to "launch" and watch the "orbits" decay around and down.
The gravity well was quite popular with kids. (We made over a dollar, even though we provided pennies and one kid ran off with some of the coins)
With five of us, we could take turns attending the lectures and browsing the other exhibits.
After the museum closed we went to a steak house with some of the North Texas members, then drove home.
[NSS Chpt-Leaders, from Kenneth Murphy <[email protected]> ]
Here's the Moon Day update from NSS of North Texas:
Moon Day 2012 Debrief
Moon Day 2012 turned out to be the biggest and best Moon Day to date in its short, four year history at the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Love Field in Dallas. It's quickly turning into a favorite annual event amongst attendees, and a major STEM outreach and education venue for exhibitors.
This year saw a significant jump in exhibitors, from 12 to 20, in spite of several that couldn't be back this year. New exhibitors included the Boy and Girl Scouts, AMSAT, the Monnig Meteorite Gallery, Fort Worth Noble Planetarium, Citizens in Space, The Nerd Show Online, the Oklahoma Space Alliance, Sci-Tech Discovery Center, and the Dallas Personal Robotics Group, highlighting its increased acceptance as a STEM event. These joined returning exhibitors NSS of North Texas (co-sponsors of the event), The Moon Society, Dallas Mars Society, Dallas Area Rocket Society, Texas Astronomical Society, Fort Worth Astronomical Society, Museum of Nature & Science, the Civil Air Patrol, Solar System Ambassador Kelley Miller, and the UT Dallas Center for Space Sciences.
The main exhibit floor was a buzz of activity as some 1,200 attendees milled about exploring displays, lining up for an inflatable planetarium show (2 to choose from!), popping outside to hear a satellite pass overhead, or to look at sunspots through safe Solar telescopes. Between raffles and door prizes there were ample opportunities to win neat space swag, like a digital telescope at the NSS of North Texas Science Fair Scholarship fundraising raffle, and copies of Homer Hickam's new book "Crater", vials of Lunar and Martian regolith simulant from Orbitec, Great Moonbuggy Race t-shirts, Hugg-a-Moons, Lunar Search & Rescue patches from author Allen Steele, a SpaceX swag bag, and more as door prizes.
To address educational aspects of Moon Day, two programs were created: an adult-oriented Lunar University, and a family-friendly Moon Academy. Classes are scheduled throughout the day, especially in the Lunar University, which saw talks on Space Transportation post-Shuttle, Space Science at UTD, Cislunar Space, Excalibur Almaz, JSC-1a Regolith Simulant, Moon Rock Disks, Lunar Observing Certificates, and Mars Colonization 101. In the Moon Academy, talks were given on Toys in Space, Moon Craters, Comet Building, Moon Rock Disks, Model Rocket Building, Telescopes 101, Orbits 101, and Satellites 101.
Clearly there was ample opportunity for attendees of every age to improve their space smarts.
But wait, there's more. The very first year of Moon Day it became evident that folks were going to need some kind of carryall for all of the free handouts they were getting from the exhibitors. In our second year we introduced the Lunar Sample Bags, an over the shoulder messenger bag with a large flap emblazoned with "Moon Day Lunar Sample Bag". These are pre-filled with a variety of space materials, which can then be supplemented by handouts from the exhibitors. A recurring scene at Moon Day is of youngsters lifting up the flap of their Lunar Sample Bags and stuffing in another handful of materials. We get many stories of kids taking the bags home, dumping them out on their bed, and spending hours, if not days, looking everything over.In the auditorium we screened the independently produced space settlement film "Postcards from the Future", as well as premiered a new planetarium show from the Fiske Planetarium in Boulder, CO, "Max Goes to the Moon". Based on the NSTA award-winning picture book of the same name by Dr. Jeffrey Bennett, it tells the story of a Rottweiler who convinces the world that we need to go back to the Moon, and goes along for the ride.
In the gallery was a show of nearly 150 space-themed LP record covers. Entitled "Musicks of the Spheres", it illustrates humanity's fascination with space, from ancient megaliths through the modern space age and into the cosmos. The show will remain on display until September.In all, a well-rounded event offering a little something for everyone. The feedback has been uniformly positive, and everyone is looking forward to next year's event, which falls on July 20th, the anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing.
One of the key elements of the event is the exhibitors, which are not just showing off for the public and trying to sign up new members but also have an opportunity to meet each other. In this way, new partnerships and projects are formed, as with UTA Planetarium and Texas Astronomical Society partnering for an International Observe the Moon Night (InOMN) event, which Moon Day attendees know about from the InOMN materials in the Lunar Sample Bags and at the NSS of North Texas display. The Girl Scouts are thinking of new ideas for their STEM project. AMSAT is looking into bouncing a signal off the Moon next year if it is in the sky, and there are still more potential exhibitors to add to the line-up.
As in years past, NSS of North Texas was the co-sponsor of the event, and had the most prominent (and largest) display at the event. This allowed for a focus on our Science Fair Scholarship raffle that raised over $100 to give out at next year's Dallas Regional Science & Engineering Fair. There was also ample opportunity to cultivate new outreach opportunities, and there may be many new projects for members to work on over the next year. Thanks to everyone who came out and staffed the display.
This proud tradition continues next year, when NSS of North Texas will co-sponsor Moon Day 2013. We might even have a neighboring event up in Oklahoma City...
Claire McMurray
Dear Oklahoma Space Activist
Oklahoma has a Space Port. This Space Port could create jobs in Oklahoma if we developed a good marketing strategy. Horizontal launch and landing facilities will become the launch and landing of choice, especially with re-usable launch equipment that Virgin Galactic plans to use in the near future.
Space and Science on line Magazines:
Astronomy: http://www.astronomy.com/
Astronomy Now: http://www.astronomynow.com
Discover: http://discovermagazine.com/
Nature http://www.nature.com/
New Scientist: http://www.newscientist.com/
Science: http://www.sciencemag.org/
Science News: http://www.sciencenews.org/
Scientific American: http://www.scientificamerican.com/
Sky and Telescope: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/
Space.com http://www.space.com/ (This has some connection to Space News.)
Wikipedia: www.wikipedia.org
You can sign up for e-mail updates from Astronomy, Sky and Telescope, and Space.com. A lot of these sites have useful news feeds.
The advance viewing information in Outreach comes from hard copies of Sky and Telescope and Astronomy as well as the website
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-1765780
Heavens Above (Satellite predictions) http://www.heavens-above.com/
Organizations:
NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/
NASA: Jet Propulsion Laboratory: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
Oklahoma City Astronomy Club: http://www.okcastroclub.com/
SpaceX: www.spacex.com
and NSS http://space.nss.org/
OSIDA is http://www.state.ok.us/~okspaceport/, but the web site is being reconstructed.
For current sky viewing, you want Astronomy and Sky and Telescope. I have subscriptions to both which is how I can go to the end of next month. A lot of these links have news feeds
Officers of Oklahoma Space Alliance
Steve Swift, President 496-3616 (C)
Jim Trombly, Vice-President (resigned) 219-0283 (H)
Syd Henderson, Secretary & Outreach Editor 321-4027 (H) 365-8983 (C)
Tim Scott, Treasurer 740-7549 (H)
Claire McMurray, Correspondence Secretary 329-4326 (H) 863-6173 (C)
Tom Koszoru, Update Editor 366-1797
[Note: Jim Trombley has resigned as Vice-President as of March 2012.]
OSA E-mail Addresses and Web Site:
(Replace "at" with @ symbol.)
sswift42 at aol.com (Steve Swift)
jtvt at inbox.com (Jim Trombly)
sydh at ou.edu (Syd Henderson)
ctscott at mac.com (Tim Scott)
cliffclaire at hotmail.com (Claire McMurray)
T_Koszoru at cox.net (Heidi and Tom Koszoru)
john.d.northcutt1 at tds.net (John Northcutt)
lensman13 at aol.com (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 isosa.nss.org/index.html. Webmaster is Syd Henderson.
Other Information
The National Space Society's Headquarters phone is 202-429-1600. Executive Director is LtCol Paul E. Damphousse, <nsshq at nss.org>. The Chapters Coordinator is Bennett Rutledge 720-529-8024. The address is: National Space Society, 1155 15th Street NW, Suite 500, Washington DC 20005 Web page is space.nss.org. For details on the NSS chapters network, see http://space.nss.org/nss-chapters-directory/.
Oklahoma Space Industrial Development Authority (OSIDA), 401 Sooner Drive/PO Box 689, Burns Flat, OK 73624, 580-562-3500. Web site www.state.ok.us/~okspaceport.
Science Museum Oklahoma (former Omniplex) website is www.sciencemuseumok.org. Main number is 602-6664.
Tulsa Air and Space Museum, 7130 E. Apache, Tulsa, OK 74115.
Web Site is www.tulsaairandspacemuseum.com. Phone (918)834-9900.
The Mars Society address is Mars Society, Box 273, Indian Hills CO 80454. Their web address is www.marsociety.org.
The Planetary Society phone 626-793-5100. The address is 65 North Catalina, Avenue, Pasadena, California, 91106-2301 and the website is www.planetary.org. E-mail is [email protected].
NASA Spacelink BBS 205-895-0028. Or try www.nasa.gov. .
Congressional Switchboard, both Senate & House, is 202/224-3121.
Write to any U. S. Senator or Representative at [name]/ Washington DC, 20510 (Senate) or 20515 [House]. To find contact & other information your congressperson, see www.house.gov/. For senators, use www.congress.org/
OKLAHOMA SPACE ALLIANCE
A Chapter of the National Space Society
MEMBERSHIP ORDER FORM
Please enroll me as a member of Oklahoma Space Alliance. Enclosed is:
___________________ $10.00 for Mem¬bership. (This allows full voting privileges, but covers only your own newsletter expense.) ___________________ $15.00 for family membership
___________________ TOTAL amount enclosed
National Space Society has a special $20 introductory rate for new members ($35 for new international members). Regular membership rates are $45, international $60. Student memberships are $20. Part of the cost is for the magazine, Ad Astra. Mail to: National Space Society, 1620 I (Eye) Street NW, Washington DC 20006, or join at space.nss.org/membership. (Brochures are at the bottom with the special rate.) Be sure to ask them to credit your membership to Oklahoma Space Alliance.
To join the Mars Society, visitwww.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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OSA Memberships are for 1 year, and include a subscription to our monthly newsletters, Outreach and Update. Send check & form to Oklahoma Space Alliance, 102 W. Linn, #1, Norman, OK 73071.
Your Update Editor,
Tom Koszoru
Contact person for Oklahoma Space Alliance is Claire McMurray
PO Box 1003
Norman, OK 73070
Webmaster is Syd Henderson.
Copyright ©2012 Oklahoma Space Alliance.