Minutes of March 2022 Oklahoma Space Alliance Meeting
Oklahoma Space Alliance met on March 12, 2022, at the McMurray’s house in Norman, Oklahoma. Attending in person were Clifford and Claire McMurray. Adam Hemphill, Dave Sheely, and Syd Henderson. Russ Davoren attended by Zoom. OSA President Clifford McMurray 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/Update2203.pdf so I’ll cover the details that aren’t covered there.
This meeting occurred a few days after Russia invaded the Ukraine, so this was our special Ukraine War meeting.
Adam is involved in flying medical supplies by drone to clinics in remote regions of Honduras This means some negotiation with a small airport nearby, but they are not near the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, so air traffic isn’t large. Adam showed us a video of a test flight.
Chang’e’s upper stage would weigh 1000 lb. so should cause a substantial crater. [This was the stage that crashed into the far side of the Moon—we think.]
The European Space Agency Exosat Mission could find another launcher but there is no alternative for the Kazachok platform that would have been supplied by Russia.
Adam thinks China may go by itself (on its space program.)
Russia is now attacking Dnipro, which is the center of Ukraine’s Space Industry. This complex has 50,000 employees--nearly as large as NASA.
ISS navigation is within the Russian module.
The ESA’s Euclid mission is one of the launches affected by the Soyuz shutdown.
Since Dragon does not have an airlock, all four astronauts on Polaris Dawn will have to wear spacesuits during the first Polaris Dawn spacewalk.
We read the bios and saw the pictures of the first four Polaris Dawn astronauts. Syd asked if Jared Isaacman will be on all Polaris flights. We don’t know yet, but Kip thinks Isaacson will be on at least the first and third flights.
Elon Musk things Starship could launch really quickly after FAA Approval.
Mars helicopter Ingenuity has now flown 4.5 kilometers.
We watched spectacular videos of Juno’s flybys of Ganymede and Jupiter.
We watched several episodes of This Week at NASA, which included approval of the first Axiom crew.
The Parker Space Probe captured the first visual image of the surface of Venus.
We watched a video of the Antares spacecraft being transported.
We saw the first images for IXPE the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer.
Syd asked if we are doing anything for Yuri’s night. Kip proposed a cookout at the McMurray’s.
Minutes by OSA Secretary Syd Henderson
April 2022 Update (pdf format)
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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