Minutes of May 2021 Oklahoma Space Alliance Meeting
Oklahoma Space Alliance chapter of National Space Society had its regularly scheduled meeting on May 8, 2021, at the McMurray residence. Attending in Person were David Sheely, Adam Hemphill, Tom and Heidi Koszoru, Clifford and Claire McMurray, John Northcutt, and Syd Henderson. We had no attendees by Zoom this time . OSA president David Sheely presided over the meeting. He did an Update discussing links to material covered in the meeting and this is online at http://osa.nss.org/Update2105.pdf, so I’ll cover the details that aren’t covered there.
Several of us purchased earthballs and Syd received his at this meeting,
We watched a video of the first flights of the Mars helicopter Ingenuity as taken by Perseverance.
We watched a video of the launch of China’s Long March rockets.
We watch a video of the construction of China’s new space station Tiangong 3, including a video of the launch of the first module, the core Tianhe. The station will be six times larger than China’s previous stations. Russia tried to get China to increase the inclination of Tiangong 3’s orbit so Russia could more easily add modules, but China refused.
We watched a “Crazy Engineering” video on extracting oxygen on Mars.
We watched a video of the night launch of the Space X Crew 2 spacecraft to the International Space Station.
We watched a video of the landing of the SpaceX Crew 1 spacecraft from the ISS. The was SpaceX’s first night landing
We watched a video of all flights of the Mars helicopter Ingenuity. The video had the amplified sound of the helicopter blades.
Business: We now have $884.21 in the checking account, $267 in the cash box, plus $40 membership and donation from Mike Hopkins minus $16.86 for newsletter copying expenses in a currently uncashed check, for a total of $1,174.35.
We received a copy of “Cosmic Careers: Exploring the Universe of Opportunities in the Space Industries” by Alastair Storm Browne and Maryann Karinch, mailed to us by Mr. Browne. This is a new book that was only released on February 9. Adam will read it and review it for NSS.
Our “Christmas Party” postponed from last year will be be a cookout and conversation on June 12. Kip has ordered a video on Alexei Leonov for entertainment.
Adam has a proposal for a flight from Oklahoma Space Port that would go up to twenty-five miles. It would have to remain in sight for the entire flight by FAA regulations. Adam will have to work this out with OSIDA. This is a test flight of a method of shipping supplies to a clinic in Honduras that cannot easily be supplied by road.
We watched a video of Elon Musk and Peter Diamandis on methods of removing carbon from the Earth’s atmosphere. There is an X-Prize for carbon removal.
--Minutes by OSA 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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