Minutes of August Meeting
Oklahoma Space Alliance met August 10, 2013 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 Brian Swift, Vicky, Claire and Clifford McMurray, John Northcutt, Tim Scott and Syd Henderson.
Quote of the month: “The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn’t have a space program,” Larry Niven, quoted by Arthur C. Clarke, space.com interview, 2001.
Steve is printing calling cards for Oklahoma Space Alliance and asked the rest of us whether we wanted our own personalized OSA cards. Syd said yes.
Steve would like each of us to choose a space-related area to keep track of and report on at meetings as part of “What’s Happening in Space.”
What’s Happening in Space?
SpaceX is continuing tests of the Grasshopper launch vehicle and in June achieved a milestone altitude of 1000 feet before coming to a controlled landing. We watched the video: http://www.space.com/21876-spacex-grasshopper-jumps-over-1000-feet-hexacopter-video.html.
The Grasshopper launch was filmed by their hexacopter, which has six rotors, each of which is at the end of a long strut. We watched a video of a model that went up to 2000 meters (6500 ft.).
A Hydrogen Rocket Injector was built using laser technology to melt and fuse metallic powders into a 3-D structure.
Jeff Bezos underwater expedition has recovered parts from the Saturn V engine thrust chamber that formed part of the first stage for the Apollo 11 mission. See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/20/apollo-11-rocket-engine-amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos_n_3628232.html for details.
The SpaceX F9-R (Falcon 9 Reusable) booster has completed a full mission duration test.
ISS Astronaut Luca Parmitano was forced to cut short a spacewalk when water began to pour into his helmet. It’s uncertain where the water came from. There is about a gallon of water in the suit’s coolant system, and another 32 ounces of water in a drink bag. Luca said the water tasted strange, which may indicate that it came from the coolant system. For details, see http://spaceflightnow.com/station/exp36/16eva/index2.html#.Uiti2eDfbfg.
The July 2 crash of a Proton-M rocket was caused by several angular rate sensors that were installed upside-down. Three Glosnass-M navigation satellites were destroyed in the crash. For details, see http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/asd_07_22_2013_p05-01-598920.xml.
“Virgin Galactic's Private Spaceship Offers Enticing Science Opportunities.” SpaceshipTwo has 500 cubic feet available for experiments that need only a few minutes in zero-gee. For more information, see http://www.space.com/22024-virgin-galactic-spaceshiptwo-suborbital-research.html.
“NASA Funds 12 Far-Out Space Tech Ideas.” These include a Pulsed Fission-Fusion Propulsion System, Human Stasis to Mars, Two-Dimensional Planet Surface Landers, and Printing of Advanced Biocomposites. See http://www.space.com/22042-nasa-advanced-concepts-selections-2013.html for the complete list.
NASA is funding a 3-D Food Printer at a preliminary grant price of $125,000. First thing to be printed will apparently be pizza.
Mattel has launched a Mars Explorer Barbie doll in honor of the first anniversary of the Curiosity Rover’s landing on Mars. Her spacesuit is white and pink.
An Oklahoma State University team has been selected as part of NASA’s X-Hab Innovative Challenge. See http://tinyurl.com/l5nd5e7 for details.
Japan has launched a talking humanoid robot to the ISS. Named Kirobo, it will be a companion to ISS Commander Koichi Wakata. Here are Kirobo’s first words in space: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL8ncrmeNa4.
Boeing has unveiled the CST-100 spacecraft interior. You can see it at http://www.space.com/22057-boeing-unveils-commercial-space-capsule.html. We also watched several NASA videos promoting Boeing’s commercial crew program.
Clifford McMurray said that Armadillo Aerospace is suspending operations until they can secure more funding. The CEO is worried about “creeping professionalism.”
We looked through a list of ISDC videos at nss.org. Mae Jemison did a presentation on the 100-Year Starship Project. Since astronauts going to another star system are obviously not coming back right away, there have to be enough astronauts to have the necessary skills required. Not just high-tech skills, but basic things like sewing. A copy of this video is at http://space.nss.org/resources/library/videos/ISDC13jemison.html.
Business meeting:
We now have $730.20 in the checking account and $267 in the cash box.
We went into some detail on the proposed children’s art contest. We would need a judge, and David Lee Anderson was proposed. Will we attempt to post all submissions?
Steve is willing to help on the project but is not willing to do all of it. We will need some serious volunteer help.
There would have to be 3 – 4 gradations by age. The biggest job will be contacting teachers. John thinks we can get more interest with cash prizes. But Kip thinks we don’t have sufficient financial resources to make prizes worthwhile.
We probably wouldn’t include 3-D art.
How many schools are there in the area? Syd pointed out that there are many more elementary schools locally than one might expect.
We will have to set up rules.
In October we will discuss what we are doing for Yuri’s night. April 12 will be on a Saturday.
[Minutes by OSA Secretary Syd Henderson.]
Notes on August 14 OSIDA Meeting
None of us were able to make it for this meeting. The next meeting is September 11, but the location hasn’t been announced yet.
[Notes 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 �2013 Oklahoma Space Alliance.