Minutes of January Meeting:
Oklahoma Space Alliance met at Harry Bear’s All-American Grill in Moore on January 11, 2014. Attending were Steve and Brian Swift, Dennis Wigley, Tim Scott, Vicki Richartz, Clifford and Claire McMurray, and Syd Henderson.
Our bank balance, after reimbursing Syd for newsletter printing expenses, is $667.85, with an additional $267.00 in cash.
OSIDA has moved into its new control center.
Yuri’s Night: They can give a discount dependent on tax-exempt status at both the Stafford Museum in Weatherford and Science Museum Oklahoma in Oklahoma City.
Claire has talked to David Lee Anderson. Most artists who would be good judges would be happy to judge. We could use the same rules as the NSS Art Contest. Every contestant in grades seven through twelve who want to should submit to the NSS Contest. For grades one through six, we’ll have ‘What would your home look like in Space?’
Annual reports are due by February 15. There will be a chapters leader telethon on Annual Reports on Tuesday January 14. There is a new format for the activity report which differentiates between active and passive outreach. For example, sitting at a table is passive outreach, but giving Girl Scouts information that they need for space merit badges, or manning panels at a convention is active, as was Steve’s presentation to OSIDA.
What feature presentations can we do for the upcoming year?
Mars Contest: Sooner Fashion Mall would be interesting in doing a display of the kid’s art. Since entries can be submitted electronically, we can put out money for color ink. We need permission forms for displaying the art.
What’s Happening in Space?
Quote of the Day: “We will eventually build space science labs and hotels, prodding the capability for missions beyond the orbit of the Earth. Our space-hotel guests will be able to take breath-taking excursions, flying a couple of hundred feet above the Moon’s surface in small two-man spaceships. In time, we will launch missions to Mars and beyond.” Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic, in the December issue of The Economist.
Presentations this month: (Links to the articles can be found on our website at http://osa.nss.org/1401%20January%20Whats%20Happening.pdf , so I won’t duplicate them here.)
China Deploys Luna Rover. China launched a Moon lander on December 2 and it landed on December 14, thirty-seven years after the last soft lunar landing. [That last landing was Luna 24, a Russian sample return mission. Although Jade Rabbit survived its first lunar night, it sent an alarm message before its second night and we’re waiting to see if it survived. The name “Jade Rabbit” comes from a rabbit that lives on the Moon in Chinese legend, much as we see a Man in the Moon.]
We watched a preview of Interstellar. The movie will come out in November, 2014.
Shape morphing may lead to artificial muscles for robots.
Congress stumbling along on space policy issues. Among these are commercial launch indemnification, which expired on December 31 and Congress can’t get its act together to extend it despite lack of opposition. Debate also stumbles along concerning removal of commercial spaceflight from the US Munitions List.
NASA Ames developing “Super Ball Bot” designed to land on the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan. This actually is a robotic linkage that rolls around by changing its shape, carrying an instrument package in its center.
Movers and Shakers this month was SpaceX, and we had a series of articles on them. Business Week had an article on how SpaceX is already drastically reducing the price of launches, and Parabolic Arc mentioned how this is affecting the pricing of Ariane launches. SpaceX has also won the right to negotiate for use of launch pad LC-39A, which was previous used for Apollo and Shuttle missions.
Steve has changed the format for Space News, as will become apparent when you look at the January What’s Happening online. Among the other news he has links to are “200-Kilometer-High Jets of Water Discovered Shooting from Europa,” India’s Mars Mission Adjusts Course,” “Mars One Slashes Applicant Pool by 99.5%” [from 200,000 to 1,000], and much more. He also has links to every launch from December 3 (SpaceX launch to geosynchronous orbit) through January 3 (Orbital Science’s first resupply mission to the space station), and includes European, Chinese, Russian and Indian launches.
Tim was collecting dues for year 2004.
Minutes by Oklahoma Space Alliance Secretary Syd Henderson
Notes on January OSIDA Meeting
The OSIDA board met on January 8, 2014 in the conference room at the Department of Transportation Building in Oklahoma City. Board members in attendance were Don Wetekam, James Cunningham, Robert Conner and Robert Cox. In Mr. Goodbary’s absence, James Cunningham presided. Steve Swift and Syd Henderson attended on behalf of Oklahoma Space Alliance, and there were three others in the audience.
Oklahoma Spaceport director Bill Khourie will be giving a presentation on January 13 at the Western Tech Center of an overview of operations that will be taking place at the Spaceport.
The new Operations Center is now fully operational.
Bill is meeting with Bryan Boone of ODOC (Oklahoma Department of Commerce, I believe) about development of the website.
The Control Tower equipment was upgraded by the FAA.
The Spaceport is doing interviews for Operations Manager.
The Board’s meeting was short for us because they went into two executive sessions in a row. There was a vote to have the next meeting at the Oklahoma Spaceport at 1:30 p.m. on February 12.
Notes by Oklahoma Space Alliance Secretary Syd Henderson
Contact person for Oklahoma Space Alliance is Claire McMurray.
PO Box 1003
Norman, OK 73070
Webmaster is Syd Henderson.
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