Minutes of September 2014 Meeting:
Oklahoma Space Alliance met September 13, 2014 at Harry Bear’s All-American Grill in Moore, Oklahoma. Attending were Steve, Karen and Brian Swift, Vickey Richartz, Dave Sheely, Claire and Kip McMurray, Tim Scott, Penny and James McBride, Craig Crawford, Dennis Wigley, Arvind Srikanth and Syd Henderson. This was Arvind’s first meeting. He read about us on Meetup and came to meet us
Steve and Craig talked to a member of Congressman (and Senatorial candidate) Lankford’s staf for 90 minutes as part of the hometown blitz. Among other things, they discussed the commercial crew initiative, continued support of the International Space Station. They didn’t talk about rocket support from Alabama for the Space Launch System. They emphasized the Oklahoma Spaceport.
Steve has been talking to XCOR. Their craft is called Lynx and will go as high as 60 miles.
What’s Happening in Space:
Quote: “At the end of recruiting, NASA had many highly qualified individuals. They took six women and Arfican-American men. It was a very fulfilling accomplishment.”—Nichelle Nichols, who once helped NASA recruit new astronauts. Among these were Sally Ride, Judith Resnik and Charles Bolden.
Curiosity arrived at Mt. Sharp. It is part of an effort to find out what Mt. Sharp is made of. It would be particularly interesting if it were composed at least in part of sedimentary rock.
A hypothetical resonant cavity thruster is being investigated by NASA. It would require no propellant, and uses some sort of electical propulsion. [This sounds a bit like getting something for nothing, but I wonder if it might be exploiting the Earth’s magnetic field. A few years ago, NASA was investigating the possibility of generating electricity through a cable cutting Earth’s magnetic field, and it was suggested that this could be used to move spacecraft.]
Climate change by microbes might cause a mass extinction event. [The Permian, I believe.]
Minutes by OSA Secretary Syd Henderson
Reported by OSA President, Stephen Swift
Contact person for Oklahoma Space Alliance is Claire McMurray.
PO Box 1003
Norman, OK 73070
Webmaster is Syd Henderson.
Copyright �2014 Oklahoma Space Alliance.