Minutes of September Meeting
Oklahoma Space Alliance met on September, 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, Tim Scott, Dave Sheely and Syd Henderson.
We have $972.82 total in our accounts.
Quote of the month: “The important achievement of Apollo was demonstrating that humanity is not forever chained to this planet and our visions go rather further than that and our opportunities are unlimited.”—Neil Armstrong.
What’s Happening in Space:
A Trojan-type asteroid has been found in Uranus’s orbit. Our article was from the Sacramento Bee, but the announcement also made national news. 2011 QF99 is fifty kilometers across and is located at Uranus’s L4 (leading) Lagrangian point. [Note: Trojan asteroids have been found for Jupiter, Earth, Mars and Neptune, but permanent Trojans were expected to be impossible for Saturn and Uranus, and 2011 QF99 is expected to remain around Uranus’s L4 point for about 70,000 years.]
Steve presented a review of Rocket Girl: The Story of Mary Sherman Morgan. She developed stable rocket fuel Hydyne that made possible the Jupiter-C rocket that launched Explorer 1, America’s first successful satellite launch. Explorer 1 discovered the Van Allen belt.
Busek Co. Wins NASA Contracts for Small Spacecraft Propulsion. Article is at http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=41383.
We watched a video of an August 7 United Launch Alliance launch of a Delta 4 rocket from Cape Canaveral, shown from any different perspectives. See http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/08/ula-delta-iv-launch-wgs-6/ for article.
Luca Parmitano on the space station drove a rover on the Earth’s surface. See http://www.space.com/22160-space-station-astronaut-drives-rover.html for details.
Satellites built by Colorado students are set for launch from Vandenberg. The satellites are to explore Earth’s thermosphere, which lies from 50 to 360 miles above the Earth’s surface. [Temperatures in the thermosphere can reach 4500 degrees Fahrenheit, but the air at that altitude is so rarified that it doesn’t contain much heat.—SFH]
Orbital Sciences launched the LADEE Moon probe, and we watched video of the launch,
A frog was thrown from the rocket during the launch of LADEE and we saw video of that too,
Ariane VA215 was Ariane V’s 57th consecutive successful launch in a row, carrying a EUTELSAT.
Virgin Galactic has released video from the first supersonic flight of SpaceShipTwo. We watched video from the tail camera.
Business Meeting:
Yuri’s Night and the Art contest will be discussed next month,
We discussed possible alternative meeting places. We’ve met at IHOP, which has adequate space that is not next to the kitchen. Karen suggested Moore. We could try something along the I-35 corridor. Probably not Midwest city.
We could meet at a library.
It’s time to start thinking about the Christmas Party. Possibly at a hotel?
-Minutes by OSA Secretary Syd Henderson
Notes on September 11 OSIDA Meeting
The OSIDA Board meeting was on September 11. Steve Swift and Syd Henderson attended for OSA. Subjects discussed included the following.
Notes provided by Steve Swift
Contact person for Oklahoma Space Alliance is Claire McMurray.
PO Box 1003
Norman, OK 73070
Webmaster is Syd Henderson.
Copyright �2013 Oklahoma Space Alliance.