Minutes of July Meeting
Oklahoma Space Alliance met July 9, 2022, at the McMurray’s house in Norman, Oklahoma. Attending were Clifford and Claire McMurray. Mark Deaver, Adam Hemphill, John Northcutt, Dave Sheely, and Syd Henderson. Robin Scott attended via Zoom. This was Mark’s first meeting. OSA President Clifford (Kip) 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/Update2207.pdf so I’ll cover the details that aren’t covered there.
China is making serious plans about sending people to the Moon. They will have an orbiter, lander and ascent vehicle. Kip compares it to the Apollo lander and return.
We watched a video on the launch of CAPSTONE. The company that’s doing this is also planning CubeSat missions to Venus and Mars.
We watched a detailed video of BepiColombo’s recent flyby of Mercury. Several flybys are required for BepiColombo to settle into Mercury orbit due to Mercury’s small mass. [Putting a spacecraft into Mercury orbit also involves increasing its velocity to match Mercury. This is actually more difficult than sending a spacecraft to the outer solar system.] This flyby took BepiColombo 125 miles above the surface of Mercury.
There are repeated proposals to create a Space National Guard as part of the United States Space Force. [We already have an Army National Guard and Air National Guard, and members could transfer from them to the Space National Guard.] Air National Guardsmen used to support the Air Force Space Command. If they aren’t transferred to the Space Force they may have to transfer to new specialties within the AFNG. States affected include California, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Ohio, New York, Florida, and Alaska. (Alabama doesn’t have a Space Force branch for them to transfer to.
We looked at an article about the James Webb Space Telescope being hit by a meteoroid. This was accompanied by a video on meteoroids hitting the solar panels of the Hubble Space Telescope. (Some panels were brought back) and the hazards they present to all spacecraft including the JWST.
We went through a Space News article on Orbit Fab’s contract for refueling satellites, including military satellites that fall within the scope of the Space Force’s duties.
We had a long discussion on the Russo-Ukraine War and the Western response
We went through an article on Intersatellite Laser Communication. [Which, if I remember, is how SkyNet began.]
--Minutes by OSA Secretary Syd Henderson
Contact person for Oklahoma Space Alliance is Claire McMurray.
PO Box 1003
Norman, OK 73070
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