Volume 33, Issue 2 AIAAAIAA HoustonHouston SectionSection www.aiaa-houston.orgwww.aiaa-houston.org April 2008 Arthur C. Clarke 1917 - 2008

2001: A Space Odyssey - 40 Years Later Yesterday’s Tomorrow

Artwork by Jon C. Rogers and Pat Rawlings AIAA Houston Horizons April 2008 Page 1

April 2008

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

From the Acting Editor 3 HOUSTON Chair’s Corner 4

2001: A Space Odyssey - 40 Years Later: Yesterday’s Tomorrow 5 Horizons is a quarterly publication of the Houston section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. International Space Activities Committee (ISAC) 14

Arthur C. Clarke: A Prophet Vindicated by Gregory Benford 16 Acting Editor: Douglas Yazell [email protected] Book Review (Subject: Ellington Field in Houston) & Staying Informed 18

Assistant Editors: Scholarship & Annual Technical Symposium (ATS 2008) 19 Jon Berndt Dr. Rattaya Yalamanchili Lunch-and-Learn Summary: Rovers by Dr. Mark Adler/JPL 20 Don Kulba Robert Beremand Dinner Meeting Summary: John Frassanito & Associates 21 Lunch & Learn: Sailing the Space Station with Zero-Propellant Guidance 22 AIAA Houston Section Executive Council Membership 23

Chair: Douglas Yazell Inaugural Space Center Lecture Series: of Apollo 17 24 Chair-Elect: Chad Brinkley Past Chair: Dr. Jayant Ramakrishnan Yuri’s Night Houston by AAS, co-sponsored by AIAA Houston Section 26 Secretary: Sarah Shull Constellation Earth, Michel Bonavitacola, AAAF , Toulouse, France 27 Treasurer: Tim Propp Calendar 30

JJ Johnson Sean Carter Cranium Cruncher and a Pre-College Event: Engineer for a Day 31 Vice-Chair, Vice-Chair, Operations Branch Technical Branch Odds and Ends: EAA Houston Chapter 12, James C. McLane, Jr. 32 ESA Leopold Eyharts Returns to Houston from ISS 33 Nick Pantazis Dr. Albert A. Jackson Gabe Garrett Dr. Zafar Taqvi Munir Kundawala Sheikh Ahsan Dr. Douglas Schwaab Bill Atwell Svetlana Hanson Ludmila Dmitriev-Odier Gary Cowan William West Horizons and AIAA Houston Web Amy Efting Paul Nielsen Site Matthew Easterly Dr. Michael Lembeck AIAA National Jim Palmer Dr. Kamlesh Lulla Communications Award Linda Phonharath Gary Brown Winner Dr. Jaehyung “Joshua” Ju Chet Vaughan Lisa Voiles Bebe Kelly-Serrato Joel Henry Bob Beremand Dr. Benjamin Longmier

Councilors

Shirley Brandt 2005 2006 2007 Bob McCormick This newsletter is created by members of the Houston section. Opinions expressed herein other than Aaron Morris by elected Houston section officers belong solely to the authors and do not necessarily represent the Dr. Rakesh Bhargava position of AIAA or the Houston section. Unless explicitly stated, in no way are the comments of Dr. Merri Sanchez individual contributors to Horizons to be construed as necessarily the opinion or position of AIAA, Brenda Weber NASA, its contractors, or any other organization. Please address all newsletter correspondence to Mike Lammers the Editor:[email protected] Ellen Gillespie Lorenn Vega-Martinez Cover: Artwork by Jon Rogers and Pat Rawlings. David Segrera Arthur C. Clarke: born December 16, 1917, died March 19, 2008. Photo: a snapshot of Mr. Clarke taken by Dr. Albert A. Jackson’s friend in 1969 at a dinner More information at: www.aiaa-houston.org/orgchart hosted by the club The Cepheid Variables at Texas A&M University.

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From the Acting Editor DOUGLAS YAZELL The authors of our feature 2-sided, glossy, color pages so write, edit, or publish, please story have been working on that we can hand it out at our come and join us in this volun- that for a few months. As they events prior to the end of our teer work to be of service to planned, this issue of Horizons AIAA year on June 30, but that our profession. AIAA Houston ? will go online in April of 2008 might not be in our budget. Section membership consists in order to celebrate the anni- of about 1,150 people. Hori- Photo of our Thanks to our assistant editors versary of opening night for zons is online at www.aiaa- next editor Don Kulba, Jon Berndt, Robert the movie 2001: A Space Od- houston.org/horizons. You can Beremand, and Dr. Rattaya yssey. Opening night was always contact us at edi- “Chow” Yalamanchili. Our April 6, 1968. Al Jackson was [email protected]. section’s council of 45 people in touch with Mr. Clarke by e- Below: this plaque is on helps with our newsletter, too, mail to work on nominating display at NASA/JSC’s but special thanks go to these someone as an AIAA Fellow. Rocket Park, outdoors near assistant editors. If you like to Mr. Clarke was an AIAA Hon- the nose of the Saturn V orary Fellow. Mr. Clarke rocket. agreed to help as a reference for that nomination. After Mr. Houston’s second AIAA Clarke died on March 19, Historic Aerospace Site is 2008, at age 90, our editors the 1940 Air Terminal decided to devote this issue of Building at Hobby Airport. Horizons to him as much as A ceremony to unveil its possible. plaque will take place late this 2008 calendar year or Our French sister section in early next year at the mu- Toulouse (AAAF TMP) pro- seum at Hobby Airport duced an article about light (www.1940airterminal.org). pollution for their newsletter, la Gazette. This article was created with our newsletter in mind, too, so it is included here now that I worked on its translation. That translation work was a good education for me. We thank its author, Mi- chel Bonavitacola, and Mr. Philippe Mairet, who brought us together. Our next editor has probably been identified already, and we thank him in advance. Dur- ing this transition period, I enjoy being acting editor, but I need less computer work in my life, not more. This issue will be online by April 25, 2008, followed by our last issue of our AIAA year on June 25, 2008. We will then return to a quarterly schedule. We will look into printing a shorter version of this issue on

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Chair’s Corner DOUGLAS YAZELL, AIAA HOUSTON SECTION CHAIR Our AIAA year is winding down, year. Its leader is our section’s of that annual conference. AIAA and it will end on June 30, 2008, secretary Sarah Shull, who recently Houston Section space operations preceded by a few busy weeks. We returned to our section after taking technical committee chair BeBe will end the year by ensuring our an educational leave of absence Kelly-Serrato attended that confer- section’s annual report is submit- from her job to earn her masters ence and asked one of their most ted at www.aiaa.org by June 30. degree from MIT. We have 30 popular speakers to speak at a On June 25, 2008, our year’s last papers in the competition and about lunch-and-learn at NASA/Johnson issue of Horizons will 85 students attending. Volunteers Space Center during the confer- go online at include about 30 online judges and ence next year, and he agreed, so www.aiaa- 12 oral judges, as well as Linda we are working to build on that houston.org/horizons, Phonharath, our college and co-op beginning. then we will return to chair. SPC 2008 takes place April a quarterly schedule. 18 and 19, 2008, at the Gilruth Our events during that busy week AIAA Distinguished Center and Space Center Houston. were: Lecturer Roger Corporate sponsors are helping Launius of the Smith- greatly to make this event a big Monday, March 10, 2008: lunch- sonian Institute will success. and-learn by Dr. Mark Adler/JPL, be our dinner meeting Mars rovers & Opportunity speaker on Tuesday, In our next issue of Horizons we June 10, 2008, proba- will report on Yuri’s Night Houston Tuesday, March 11, 2008: dinner bly speaking about, “Key Turning (www.yurisnighthouston.net), led meeting with John Frassanito & Points in the History of the Space in Houston by the American Astro- Associates Age”. That’s our annual honors & nautical Society and co-sponsored awards dinner meeting. by AIAA Houston Section. Local Wednesday, March 12, 2008: communities such as Nassau Bay lunch-and-learn by Nazareth Our section’s Annual Technical invited Bay Area Rally, a big mo- Bedrossian/Draper, Sailing the Symposium will be Friday, May 9, torcycle rally, into Space Center Space Station with Zero- 2008, at the NASA/JSC Gilruth Houston for a few days in order to Propulsive Maneuver (ZPM) Guid- Center (no badges stimulate local businesses during a ance required). The morn- slow season. While the rally was ing keynote speaker there for a few days, our event of Thursday, March 13, 2008: co- will be Wayne Hale/ Saturday, April 12, 2008, was a sponsoring the first of the Space NASA-JSC, who very nice fit to add on to their Center Lecture Series: see recently directed event. SpaceCenterLectureSeries.com launches. The lunch- The week of Monday, March 10, The children from Satori School eon keynote speaker 2008, saw us with four events in who attended our March 10 lunch- will be someone four days, two of which took place and-learn about the Mars rovers from the NASA/JSC that week because the speakers participated in the January 2008 lunar lander program were in town for the Lunar and Mars rover competition, a Univer- office. Professor Planetary Science Conference. sity of Houston event that our Daniele Mortari of AIAA Houston Section co- Students from Satori School section supports. Texas A&M University plans to sponsored the last of those 4 events, wrote letters to AIAA and Dr. give a presentation about the a lecture by Apollo 17 astronaut Adler after his lunch-and- On April 11, 2008, our section co- flower constellations, one of those Harrison Schmitt, the last person to learn about the Mars rovers. sponsored Engineer for a Day at rare science and engineering sub- step onto the Moon. That attracted They had a 90-day expected the Boeing building on Bay Area jects that almost everyone finds to a crowd of 450 to Space Center mission due to Martian dust Boulevard. About 70 high school be inspiring. Houston’s Northrup Grumman on their solar panels. Sur- students spent the day with us, IMAX theater, so our volunteers prise! Martian dust devils organized by the Boeing Black The Student Paper Conference were happy and exhausted at the clean them, so they are still Employees Association. (SPC 2008) for our 4-state region end of that night. Dr. Larry Friesen going after 4 years! (Art: Ben IV (South Central) is being run by pointed out to me that we would be from Satori School and NASA) our AIAA Houston Section this wise to interact with the organizers

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2001: A Space Odyssey - 40 Years Later Feature Yesterday’s Tomorrow Article AL JACKSON, BOB MAHONEY, AND JON ROGERS

This year marks the fortieth But these "projection errors" sures on space program fund- anniversary of the release of are programmatic in nature, ing had not developed until the and Arthur C. not technology-related. One film’s production was nearly Clarke’s must recall that the film was complete. This was also at a 2001:A Space Odyssey and the conceived in the mid-1960s time when individual countries of the same name. The when the space programs of unilaterally pursued their own narrative structure of the film both the U.S. and U.S.S.R. space programs. is a transcendent philosophical were racing ahead at full Yet when one looks beyond meditation on extraterrestrial speed. Checking any pertinent the obvious programmatic civilizations and biological literature of the late 1930’s "overshoot" of the film to the evolution, a theme known in through 1965 reveals that technical and operational de- science fiction since H. G. many writers assumed such tails of their portrayal of Wells as one of the ‘BIG extensive infrastructure was spaceflight, Kubrick and THINKS’. Books, articles, and perfectly feasible (even inevi- Clarke’s cinematic glance into even doctoral dissertations table) by the turn of the last the crystal ball seems much have been written about the century. (It should be noted more remarkable. There are film. Framing these deeper that many prose science fiction few sources of technical mate- speculations was a ‘ writers including Robert rial about the in the history’ constructed on a foun- Heinlein and film although we know that dation of rigorously re- hedged their bets and put such Marshall engineers Fredrick searched then-current scien- technological developments Ordway and Harry Lange tific and engineering knowl- depicted in the film 50 to 100 (7,8), spent nearly three years edge. Today, nine years after years beyond 2001.) The many designing the technical details (as portrayed in the film) the social and economic circum- Art: Jon Rogers discovery of the extraterres- stances that would place pres- (Continued on page 6) trial artifact on the Moon, we address this technology back- drop and assess its accuracy. We’ll leave any commentary on the film’s philosophy to film critics and buffs.

Hailed at the time as a bold vision of our future in space, it presented both Kubrick's and Clarke's predictions of space- flight three decades beyond the then-current events of the Gemini and early Apollo pro- grams. One's first impression, even in 1968, is that Kubrick and Clarke were overly opti- mistic. We certainly don't have 1000-foot diameter space sta- tions spinning in Earth orbit and multiple large bases on the lunar surface supporting hun- dreds many more of people. There are no large nuclear- powered manned space mis- sions to the outer planets.

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(Coninued from prior page) Another implied technical design studies of their Sänger Feature feature of the Orion III dock- II/Horus-3b shuttle (9), note 2. Article for the film with the help of ing operation is that the space (A multitude of TSTO studies both the American and British plane’s crew is not doing the in the Future European Space Dr. Al Jackson came to JSC aerospace industries. Their flying; the space plane’s com- Transportation Investigations (MSC then) in 1966 and has considerable efforts are evi- puters are. While this isn't Programme (9) echoed the been involved with crew train- dent even down to the details. quite the way the shuttle docks space transportation system ing during Apollo, flight plan- to the space station today (the suggested in the film 2001.) Commercial Space Trans- ning software, planetary sci- crews fly most of the approach But perhaps Clarke’s pre- port Inevitability? ence, orbit debris and engi- and docking manually but science (and ESA’s design neering simulation software for Take the Orion III space their stick and engine-firing inspiration) stemmed not from NASA and several contractors. plane. Excluding the Pan Am commands pass through the looking forward but from He is currently with Jacobs logo (no one would have ex- computers), fully automatic looking back. Amazingly, ba- Engineering on the ESCG con- pected Pan Am to go bankrupt dockings have been the norm sic had guided Eugen tract. He is Chair of the AIAA only 15 years later!), the space for Russian Soyuz and Pro- Sänger and Irene Brent—in Houston Section Astrodynam- plane ferrying Dr. Floyd into gress for many years and the 1938!—to define this funda- ics technical committee, with Earth orbit shares an amazing recently launched ESA Auto- mental configuration many publications in the area number of features with to- mated Transfer Vehicle has (including the rail sled) for of astrodynamics, celestial me- day’s one active space plane, done the same. But the prem- their proposed ‘orbital space chanics, and astronautics. Dr. the shuttle. Not only does it ise of the space plane flying plane’ the Silbervogel. Jackson received his PhD in have a double-delta wing, but itself as the crew monitors its Zero G physics at the University of the three sweep angles (both progress is standard operating Texas in 1975. leading and trailing edges) are procedure for shuttle ascent One of the best aspects of within 10 degrees of those on and entry. 2001, and certainly a signifi- NASA's shuttle. One also cant reason most knowledge- Speaking of ascent, the film finds it intriguing (as superfi- able space enthusiasts admire leaves us to speculate on how cial a matter as this might be) it, is its absolute respect for the Orion III achieved orbit, that the back ends of both ve- true physics. Nearly every but Clarke’s novel fills this in, hicles have double bulges to spaceflight scene shown in and here we find a serious accommodate their propulsion 2001 conforms to the way the divergence from the currently systems. real universe works. Only one flying stage-and-a-half verti- other film since 2001 has even Watching the docking se- cally launched shuttle. (It has come close to portraying quence cockpit view in the been suggested that the Orion spaceflight so realistically: film is like sitting in the flight III was a ‘III’ because the first Apollo 13. And talk about a engineer's seat on the shuttle stage, Orion I, was the compliment to the special ef- flight deck. Three primary booster, while Orion II was a Dr. Albert A. Jackson at the fects crew of the 1968 film— computer screens, data meters cargo carrier: see note 1.) In Lunar and Planetary Institute the Apollo 13 team achieved spanning the panel over the the novel, Clarke clearly de- in the Houston Clear Lake most of their zero-g effects windshield, a computer system scribes the Orion space liner area, where he is a visiting with zero g, by filming inside by IBM, and dynamic graphics configuration as a piggy-back scientist. Dr. Jackson is also a the NASA KC-135 training of the docking profile can be Two-Stage-to-Orbit (TSTO), Fellow of the British Inter- aircraft as it flew parabolic found in today's Orbiter. Horizontal Take Off and Hori- planetary Society and a mem- arcs. While the real shuttle ap- zontal Landing (HTOHL) tan- ber of AIAA Houston Section’s proaches not nose-first but dem vehicle launched on some If you are in an orbiting space- International Space Activities top-first, and the dynamic im- form of railed accelerator sled, craft that's not undergoing Committee (ISAC), whose web ages of space station ap- such as a maglev (magnetic continuous acceleration due to page is proaches are displayed on lap- levitation, which is now used its own propulsion, you can't www.aiaa-houston.org/tc/isac. top computers, not the primary with maglev trains). just walk around like you're computer screens, these are heading into the kitchen from This mid-60’s speculation for minor discrepancies driven by the living room. Those bas- an ascent/entry transportation particular engineering and tions of "science" fiction pop system is remarkably in line aesthetic choices of both the culture, and Star with (minus the rail sled) filmmakers and the real shut- Wars, conveniently used an many of the European Space tle’s engineers. Agency’s extensive ’80s/’90s (Coninued on next page)

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(Coninued from prior page) tifically legitimate speculation, quences (the stewardess head- real physics on the soundstage, ing up to the cockpit in the Feature old prose science fiction ploy, and a touch of artistic license Aries IB moon shuttle) gains Article ‘super-science’ ‘field-effect’ that collectively helped to pro- its impact with the idea—the gravity, to permit walking (and duce visually compelling aes- stewardess calmly (if awk- thereby limit their F/X budg- thetics. wardly) walks her way up a ets). However, careful com- curving wall until she's upside In 2001, when the crew move parison of the 1968 film down. Shuttle and Station as- about in non-rotating parts of scenes to those of crew mem- tronauts must fidget anxiously their spacecraft, they walk bers operating in spacecraft when they watch this scene (and even climb up and down today quickly reveals that Ku- since they would accomplish a ladders) on Velcro (or some brick dealt with the technical similar trip today in seconds similar material) with special (and potentially F/X-budget- with just a few pushes. In to- busting) challenge of faking footwear. In fact, one of the zero gravity by blending scien- more visually interesting se- (Coninued on next page)

Society Imperfect? While the individual spaceflight technology predictions in 2001 remain hit or miss, Kubrick’s most precise piece of prognostication might have been his comment on how technology would affect our society. He predicted with an uncannily keen eye that advancing technologies of per- sonal communication and entertainment would fracture our communities and isolate individuals even as the greater world grew into one vast conglomeration of cultures. On board Discovery, as we see Bowman and Poole performing their individual tasks, we catch a scene wherein the two crewmembers join up for a meal at the ship’s dining table (certainly a sym- bol of community) as they watch a previously recorded BBC interview with themselves. Yet even though they sit less than five feet apart, they’re not eating together. Trading caretaker shifts, one appears to be eating breakfast, the other lunch or dinner, both meals individually specified. They exchange no words. Most telling of all, they’re watching the same television broadcast on their own separate video devices! Recall that this scene was filmed in the mid-1960s when the notion of the nuclear family sitting together in front of the living room television was still very much a societal norm. Personal DVD players and Watchmans were far in the future. The Orion III space plane so majestically ferrying Heywood Floyd into orbit carries another clue to this technology-driven isolation. In a cabin designed to carry forty or more people, each and every seat has its own TV screen and controls. No in-flight movies for everyone to watch to- gether—just individual in-flight satellite TV streams or, more likely, some sort of Internet access. In fact, this aspect of the space plane design has done away with the need for the passengers to carry along their own isolation-enabling ‘personal electronic devices’ - they’ve already been built into the spacecraft! Finally, the Aries IB moon shuttle cabin also supports this capacity for personalized entertain- ment; one of the flight attendants is seen watching, of all things, a judo or wrestling match. Linked with the aforementioned British television interview, Floyd’s daughter’s request for an African bushbaby as a birthday present, and the close familial relationship (shared vacations) be- tween Floyd and the Russian scientist (not Soviet…now that’s impressive!) he greets on the space Image: Wenhua station, there can be no mistaking that Kubrick was suggesting that globalization would march www.google.com forward hand in hand with personal isolationism. How did he know? Kubrick's most subtle technological prediction regarding our time may have been his most accu- rate, and it wasn’t restricted to the realm of spaceflight. He foresaw that as our technology ad- vanced it would contribute to the loss of our sense of community by permitting us to retreat into our personal, individual worlds, even as that same technology enabled the global village. In this sense, the date in the film's title was a bit too far into the future. Thanks to the ever-advancing invasion of personal technologies, many of us have spent the last two decades or more alone.

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(Continued from page 7) hooks, eventually wears out space medicine research that Feature day's spacecraft, you don't and small pieces break off and makes the ISS such an impor- Article walk anywhere; you float. can become airborne hazards to tant laboratory. Kubrick adopted the concept equipment and crew. Conse- Ordway and Lange designed Passion for spaceflight pro- (not necessarily an unreason- quently, long-stay crews keep the Discovery’s crew quarters pelled Bob Mahoney through able one for the mid-60s) that equipment and themselves in centrifuge realistically to bachelor's and master's degree routine space flyers would place with other fastening tech- simulate/generate 0.3 g while programs in aerospace engi- insist on retaining the norms niques: magnets, bungee cords, counteracting Coriolis forces, neering at the University of of earth operations, including plastic clips, or even just sim- but a 300-foot diameter wheel Notre Dame and the University walking, while in zero gravity. ple foot straps. was just not feasible as a set. of Texas at Austin, respectively. (In fact, most crewmembers do Artificial Gravity Nevertheless, Vicker’s aircraft Love of writing carried him prefer at least a visual sense of built the fully working prop into lead editorships of his high a consistent up-and-down in Kubrick and Clarke's other with remarkable accuracy. (6) school's literary magazine and spacecraft cabins.) While this means of fighting zero g was The space station interior set Notre Dame Engineering's helped him out of a major well-established in the litera- did not rotate, but consisted of Technical Review. cinematic challenge, it pre- ture of the time: centrifugal a fixed curved structure nearly dated the early 70’s Skylab force. (The physiological ef- Bob discovered an outlet for 300 feet long and nearly 40 program when fi- fects of zero g on humans had both of these passions while feet high. (2) The curve was nally had enough room to been a worry from the early serving nearly ten years as a gentle enough to permit the really move around and learn days of theoretical thinking spaceflight instructor in the actors to walk smoothly down the true freedom of zero grav- about spaceflight. Some Mission Operations Director- the sloping floor and maintain ity. (You'll note too that the thought it might be beneficial, ate at . the desired illusion. flight attendant’s cushioned but many worried that since the While working at JSC, he headgear also helped avoid the human body evolved in one g Propulsion taught astronauts, flight con- likely impossible task of cine- long exposure to no or reduced trollers, and fellow instructors While the Orion III space- matically creating freely float- gravity might be detrimental.) in the disciplines of orbital plane’s external propulsion ing long hair, a common sight In the film, both the large space mechanics, computers, naviga- elements hint at systems a few in today's downlink video.) station orbiting Earth and the tion, rendezvous, and proximity years beyond even today’s habitation deck of the Jupiter operations. His duties included 2001 was probably the first state-of-the-art (possible air mission's Discovery spacecraft development of simulation space flight film to actually intakes for a scramjet and a rotate to create artificial gravity scripts for both crew-specific use zero g to depict zero g. In sloping aerospike-like exhaust for the inhabitants. While and mission control team train- the scene where astronaut nozzle), the spherical Aries 1B Gemini 11 achieved this during ing. Dave Bowman re-enters the moon shuttle has rocket noz- an experiment, the general Discovery through the emer- zles which would look per- Bob supported many missions, trend in space operations has gency hatch, the movie set was fectly at home on the old lunar including STS 35, the first been to live with zero gravity built vertically. This allowed module. Kubrick was smart to (properly termed microgravity) actor Keir Dullea to be not show exhaust as they fired, while combating its effects on (Coninued on next page) dropped, and thus undergo a only lunar dust being blown the human body through exer- second or two of freefall, be- off the lunar surface landing cise. This path was chosen for fore the wire harness pad. Ordway has indicated that two reasons: a rotating space- his plunge. (Note 5) the propellants were LOX/ craft's structure must be signifi- LH2 and thus would be ex- Of course, today's space flyers cantly sturdier (and thus more tremely difficult to see in a use Velcro to secure just about massive, and thus more expen- in sunlight. Even the everything else. Cameras, sive to launch) to handle the MMH/N2O4 shuttle jet firings checklists, pens, food contain- stresses of spinning, and the wash out during orbital day. ers—you can tell the space utility of zero g has far out- items apart from their earth- weighed (sic?) its negative One particular propulsion de- bound cousins by their exten- aspects. Yet one must note that piction potentially unique to sive strips of fuzzy tape. Un- research on the ISS has indi- 2001, which Kubrick likely fortunately, this convenient cated there are limits to how used more for cinematic aes- fastener’s days in the space much exercise and other simi- thetics as well for the sake of program may be numbered for lar countermeasures can coun- realism, is the roar, whine, or long-duration flight. Velcro, teract physical deterioration. boom of engines in the space composed of tiny plastic This is one of the aspects of (Continued on page 9)

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(Continued from page 8) otherwise vertebrae-like Dis- Discovery is flooded with a vacuum. Kubrick correctly covery's structure like giant background hum, most cer- Feature shows these propulsion-related butterfly’s wings. (Even the tainly meant to be the many Article events in silence when the decidedly non-nuclear fuel- spacecraft systems running camera uses external views. cell-powered shuttle and solar- continuously, including air Continued from prior page Even Apollo 13 fell down cell-powered ISS sport sizable circulation fans. Crews have here, going for the rock ’n’ radiators to dump the heat of reported that the shuttle cabin roll excitement of the service their electricity-powered hard- is a very noisy workplace, and flight of Spacelab post- module's jets pounding away ware.) Ordway and Lange some portions of ISS were Challenger, and STS 71, the with bangs and rumbles in were quite aware of the need once rumored to merit ear- first shuttle docking to Mir. As external views. for such radiators and appro- plugs. Lead Rendezvous Instructor priate models were built, but Something that almost all fic- As already noted, the Orion III for STS 63, the first shuttle- in the end aesthetics carried tional space TV and movies cockpit is remarkably similar Mir. rendezvous, and STS 80, the day so the cinematic Dis- miss is the cabin noise of to the shuttle cockpit. One the first dual free-flyer de- covery coasted along (silently) those jets firing, however. notes that all of the cockpits in ploy-and-retrieve, he ensured somewhat sleeker than known Unlike the vacuum outside, a the film are "glass" cockpits, both crew and flight control physics demanded. (One inter- spacecraft’s structure can where all information is dis- team preparedness in rendez- esting tidbit here: some Glenn carry sound and the shuttle played on computer screens vous and proximity opera- Research Center engineers crews do hear their jet firings; (versus the dials and meters tions. redesigned the Discovery re- at least the ones up front near typical of 1960s technology). cently as an engineering exer- The highlight of Bob's time at the cabin. They are quite loud; But this time it was the real- cise. (10)) JSC was serving as Support- crewmembers have compared world shuttles that caught up them to howitzers going off. Cabin Interior with the film (and a significant The Moon Bus was small portion of the world's airlin- (Coninued on next page) Speaking of sound, 2001 may enough that the film probably ers). During the 1990s the be the only fictional film to should have depicted this. orbiter’s cockpit displays convey the significant back- (including many 1972-era di- 2001’s one big cinematic over- ground noise in a spacecraft shoot propulsion-wise is the cabin. Every interior scene in (Continued on page 10) Art: Jon Rogers nuclear rockets of the inter- planetary Discovery. While deep-space probes such as Voyager, Galileo, and Cassini employ RTG units to generate electricity with the radioactive heat of their plutonium, no nuclear propulsion has ever flown in space to date, primar- ily because (and this gets back to the movie's optimism) no manned mission thus far has required such high specific impulse and sizable thrust. Note, though, that the U.S. NERVA nuclear thermal rocket program was not can- celed until 1972, a full four years after the movie’s release. Discovery was actually miss- ing a major component: mas- sive thermal radiators. As any nuclear engineer could point out (and described properly in the novel), these huge panels would have dominated the

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(Continued from page 9) it inside after replacing it with of the commands through a Feature als and meters) were entirely a substitute. After finding noth- backup unit, with at least one Article replaced with glass-cockpit ing wrong with it, the crew more unit waiting in reserve technology. Try to tell them (acting on the ominous sugges- beyond that. This wouldn't be Continued from prior page apart now! tion of the erroneous HAL a very dramatic turn, but such computer) decides to put the a sequence would better paral- Communications original unit back. lel the occasional shuttle and ing, and then Lead, Tether Dy- This is a technology that really ISS systems failures that have Here's the problem: a system as namics Instructor for STS 46 tends to hide behind the flash- thus far been irritating but not critical as the communications and 75, respectively, the first ier and more obvious equip- showstoppers. (Of course, not pointing system would not missions to operate deployable/ ment but is so critical that it too long ago Mir lost all atti- have a single-point failure, retrievable space tethers. He should never be taken for tude control when its one com- especially in a manned space- found developing and then exe- granted. Unfortunately, by puter failed, so perhaps the craft flying all the way to Jupi- cuting the unique training flow using it as a device serving the premise isn't too farfetched...) ter! In fact, a shuttle launch for this entirely new realm of subplot involving HAL and Once again, though, this tech- was scrubbed because one of space operations especially the Discovery crew, Kubrick nical ‘gaffe’ was dictated by two communications black rewarding. In July 1996 Air & and Clarke committed a seri- the cinematic narrative. Is it boxes was not working prop- Space/Smithsonian published ous misstep in predicting the not interesting, however, that erly. The shuttle was designed his essay describing the disap- technology of today—er, yes- our premier unmanned Jupiter with fail-operational fail-safe pointment and wonder of terday. If you recall, the first probe, Galileo, suffered a crip- redundancy. In other words, if watching the broken STS 75 sign of HAL's neurosis is his pling failure of its primary a critical unit fails, the shuttle tether fly overhead in the early false report that the AE-35 unit communications antenna? can still support mission opera- (the electronic black box re- tions. If a second, similar unit On the spinning space station, sponsible for keeping Discov- fails, the shuttle can get home Dr. Floyd makes an AT&T ery's antennae suite pointed at safely. Realistically, such a videophone call to his daugh- (Coninued on next page) Earth) is going to fail. Mission failure in a sophisticated Jupi- ter. Today's space station in- Commander Dave Bowman ter-bound manned spacecraft habitants do, in fact, converse Art: Jon Rogers must take a spacewalk to haul would call for simple rerouting with their families over a video link, but we are reasona- bly certain that their calls don't cost $1.70 and get charged to their calling cards. Spacesuits & EVA 2001 presented spacesuits (especially those on the Jupiter mission) that were sophisti- cated, logical in design, quite impressive in capability, and perfectly believable for an advanced space program. The single component of the 2001 suits worn by Dave Bow- man and Frank Poole most analogous to the EMUs today is the built-in jet maneuvering pack. Small, unobtrusive, minimal—that pretty much sums up the SAFER unit de- veloped for station EVA. The 2001 suit does reflect the modularity concept of the shuttle-era suit as well: helmet (Continued on page 11)

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(Continued from page 10) control of the ship's highly perimenting with voice- and gloves attach to the main intelligent computer, could activated controls of some Feature suit with ring seals, but Ord- help out). But if you think systems, but these are superfi- Article way and Lange did not antici- about it, we're really not too far cial similarities. More impor- pate the move towards "hard off with the shuttle and ISS tantly, we find a better com- shell" design (the American remote manipulator systems parison in the command and Continued from prior page suit’s rigid torso, the Russian (the Canadarms). These now control realm: during large back-door-entry Orlan) . The (especially with the recent ad- portions of a shuttle's mission morning darkness on a Galves- cinematic suits appear much dition of DEXTRE with its two the fail-operational, fail- ton beach. more akin to the old Mercury multi-jointed arms) permit the operational, fail-safe (FO-FO- His dedication earned him a and Gemini configurations, or accomplishment of some tasks FS) primary & backup com- Silver Snoopy Award, the even the recent advanced de- outside the spacecraft without puter suite of five GPC com- NASA Public Service Medal, sign of Dr. Dava Newman at EVA, and they have proven puters do control the vehicle the NASA Space Flight Aware- MIT. (3) themselves capable EVA assis- just as HAL could completely ness Award, numerous group tants under the control of a control Discovery. (In fact, as While not a matter of technical achievement awards, and the highly intelligent computer— a particularly curious side prognostication, we can’t help honor of sharing in the hanging namely, a crew member back note, the programming lan- but mention that the EVAs of the STS 75 mission plaque in inside the spacecraft cabin! guage for the shuttle's primary shown in 2001 remain the Mission Control. computers is actually termed most realistic fictional depic- The most glaring difference in HAL/S, for Higher Assembler tion of spacewalking ever put EVA, however, lies in proto- Bob is married and has four Language/Shuttle, but this just on film. The fluidity of motion col. During the EVAs in 2001, children. His interests include might be a not-so-subtle hom- and the free-floating grace of a single crewmember conducts vertebrate paleontology and age to the film by the software the crewmembers as they the EVA. This is just not done the history of technology. He development team.) However, move completely in line with today. Both Americans and gave up his career teaching 2001, just like most visions of real physical laws is nearly Russians always leave their astronauts to pursue something the future from the sixties, identical to what you see spacecraft in pairs (and in rare more challenging: stay-at- missed the PC revolution. downlinked on NASA TV. circumstances, as a trio) for home dad and full-time writer. Not impressed? Compare safety's sake—if one crew- The film was created at a point Damned to Heaven is his first Bowman’s approach and arri- member gets in trouble the in history when the computer's novel. val at the Discovery’s antenna other can come immediately to invasion of our society in 2001 to the 2010 depiction their aid. However, practically (including spaceflight) might of Max and Curnow’s reality- speaking, both crew members have taken one of two paths: defying kinematics during did have a companion: HAL bigger and more powerful their transit from the Leonov to the computer, controlling the mainframe computers that the Discovery. How’d Kubrick space pod. But, of course, the would interface everywhere pull it off? Skilled stuntmen solo EVA, the single-point through an extensive but cen- suspended from cables filmed communications failure neces- trally controlled communica- from below—that was the key. sitating the EVA, and HAL's tions network, OR smaller and Filming at high speed and then control of the space pod, col- smaller special-purpose com- slowing the footage for incor- lectively set up the greatest puters that each would do a poration in the film also drama in the film: HAL trying little bit of the work. HAL helped. to kill off all his crewmates. certainly represents the pinna- cle of achievement for the One EVA item in 2001 that Artificial Intelligence former—an artificial intelli- today's engineers and astro- Given the many different levels gence that could control every nauts would love to have but at which the space program single aspect of the Discov- don't is the space pod: that ball (and society as a whole) use ery's operations. The distrib- of a spacecraft with the pair of computers today, it is within uted PC network controlling multi-jointed arms out front. this niche that the film's accu- the ISS today reflects the lat- Such a vehicle would elimi- racy is most difficult to gauge. ter. nate the need for some suited EVAs (the crewmember could Certainly, we have computers Yet the depiction of the HAL just stay inside the pod) and that can talk, and shuttle and 9000 (Heuristically pro- would make others much eas- station crews are currently ex- (Continued on page 12) ier (since the pod, under the

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(Continued from page 11) the film today (despite its use Kubrick and Clarke, the prog- Feature grammed Algorithmic Com- of clunky, ill-suited words like nosticators of realistic space- Article puter) in 2001 remains one of computer and program) and craft design. We find Bowman the film’s eeriest elements. For realize that HAL was a TRUE and Poole discussing how to their description of artificial AI. HAL likely will exist in a partially shut HAL down by intelligence, Kubrick and universe which we have yet to leaving only primitive func- Clarke only had the terminol- realize, but one has no idea tions operating. That could ogy and of the mid-1960’s. At when! (4) only be an option if the human that time the prevailing con- crew could control the Discov- Reverse Engineering cept expected ‘AI’ to be a pro- ery manually (or rather, more grammed computer. Thus the From the moment we meet practically, semi-manually) term ‘computer’, with all its HAL the impression is given with a lot of help from still- implications of it being a ma- that this special Artificial Intel- working automated systems. chine, occurs repeatedly. ligence has total control of Thus there would have been everything in the Discovery. backup systems, making the In the last 40 years no true AI He can take action—open pod issue of disabling HAL an- has emerged. Today’s corre- doors, open pod bay doors, other hint at HAL’s lack of sponding term would be even adjust couch cushions!— absolute control. ‘strong AI’ (11); their use of at a crewmember’s spoken mid-1960’s terminology ob- In fact Kubrick mildly trumps word. Yet after HAL kills scures the fact that Kubrick Clarke technically and dra- Frank Poole and the hibernat- Mr. Jon C. Rogers, I.S.E., and Clarke constructed an AI matically in the film’s narra- ing crewmembers followed by CmfgE, is currently a private that is unmistakably ‘strong’, tive structure (wherein Bow- Dave Bowman’s return to the consultant (RogerService!). that is, capable of "general man leaves the ship to rescue Discovery, what do we see? A Mr. Rogers, an A.I.A.A. mem- intelligent action." How this Poole, setting up the emer- manual, emergency airlock/ ber for over 20 years, started as would have been achieved gency airlock action scene). In entrance. QA inspector on Apollo Hi- Kubrick and Clarke left as an the novel Clarke merely has Gain antenna system, built mi- extrapolation. What is that doing there? Di- HAL “blow down” the Dis- crocircuits for the Space Shut- rectly, to provide the film with covery by opening the pod bay Since HAL seems to be a tles, and was Sr. Mfg. Engineer an “action scene”, but the im- doors. However, examining ‘strong AI’, capable of feeling, on the GOES, INTELSAT-V, plications are deeper. Ordway/ Lange and Ordway’s drawings independent thought, emo- SCS1-4 Satellites. Mr. Rogers Lange (and the mythical de- of the Discovery’s living quar- tions, and almost all attributes has written articles, co- signers) of the Discovery knew ters reveals at least two air- of human intelligence, anyone authored/illustrated the Space- their spaceships! A ship that locks between the pod bay and viewing the film today should ship Handbook, and presented substantial on an important the centrifuge (7, 8, and 9). forget the film’s and novel’s to the A.A.S. national conven- mission must have redundancy; Independent double and triple use of the terms ‘computer’ tion, on the early history of if not in the communications overrides (over which HAL and ‘programming’. HAL spaceships. Mr. Rogers, a Tau system, then at least to back up would have had no control) seems able to reason, use strat- Beta Pi, received his degree the onboard AI! What if HAL would have come into play to egy, solve puzzles, make judg- from SJSU in 2000. had been ‘holed’ by a very prevent this very scenario ments under uncertainty, rep- freak meteor hit? What if an from happening, whether me- resent knowledge including ultra-high-energy cosmic ray chanically or insane-AI- common-sense knowledge, bored a damaging track instigated. plan, learn, communicate in through one of HAL’s solid natural language, perceive and How about HAL’s control of state modules? Any of a num- especially see, have social Dave’s pod? Actually one can ber of possible unpredictable intelligence, be able to move capture a screen feature in the second and third-order failures and manipulate objects pod (‘N/A HAL COMLK’) might occur, so the crew might (robotics), and integrate all that shows that Bowman, even be forced to take care of the these skills toward common though he left his helmet be- ship and mission “on their goals. These attributes are hind, had the sense to cut own.” possible not through program- HAL’s control of the pod. It is ming as much as through And it is here, in the considera- impressive but not surprising ‘evolving’ or ‘growing’ a tion of backup systems, where that Kubrick and his team ‘solid-state intelligence’. That we catch Kubrick and Clarke, is why it is amazing to watch the storytellers, at odds with (Continued on page 13)

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(Continued from page 12) based on a screenplay by 9. Dieter Jacob, G Sachs, thought to include such a de- Stanley Kubrick and Ar- Siegfried Wagner, Basic Feature tail. thur C. Clarke. Copyright Research and Technolo- Article 1968. The New American gies for Two-Stage-to- When Comes the Future? Library, Inc. Orbit Vehicles: Final Re- While Kubrick and Clarke’s port of the Collaborative 2. The Making of Kubrick’s iconic 1968 vision of space- Research Centres 253, 2001, edited by Jerome flight’s future may have been 255 and 259 Agel. Copyright 1970 The far off the mark in terms of (Sonderforschungsberiche Agel Publishing Company, how much we would have der Deutschen Forschung) Inc. The New American accomplished by the turn of Publisher: Wiley-VCH Library, Inc. the millennium, its accurate (August 19, 2005). anticipation of so many opera- 3. 2001: filming the future, 10. Realizing 2001: A Space tional and technological details by Piers Bizony. Copy- Odyssey: Piloted Spheri- remains a fitting testament to right 1994. Aurum Press cal Torus Nuclear Fusion the engineering talent of their Limited. Propulsion NASA/TM- supporting players, especially 4. The Lost Worlds of 2001, 2005-213559 March 2005 Fred Ordway and Harry by Arthur C. Clarke. AIAA-2001-3805. Lange. The astounding pre- Copyright 1972. The New science in their projections of 11. Searle, J. (1997). The American Library, Inc. the specifics of - Mystery of Consciousness. tions decades beyond the then- 5. The Odyssey File, by Ar- New York, New York current real spaceflight of thur C. Clarke and Peter Review Press. Gemini and Apollo, even when Hyams. Copyright 1984. 12. The film 2001: A Space constrained by storytelling Ballantine Books. Odyssey, premiere date aesthetics, offers the promise April 6 1968. that their spectacular rendering 6. 2001: A Space Odyssey, F.I. Ordway, Spaceflight, of a space faring society may Notes Vol. 12, No. 3, Mar. 1970, still come to pass. pp. 110-117. (Publisher: 1. Thanks to Ian Walsh, per- With the United States and The British Interplanetary sonal communication, for other nations now finally de- Society). suggesting this. veloping systems to return 2. Thanks to Wes Kelly of human crews to the Moon and 7. Part B: 2001: A SPACE Triton Systems for TSTO enable travel beyond, and with ODYSSEY IN RETRO- SPECT, Frederick I Ord- discussions. commercial entities actively way, III Volume 5, And pursuing private spaceflight 3. In the mid 1960’s many of American Astronautical across a spectrum of opportu- the SETI pioneers were Society History Series nities long considered a matter afraid that revelation of SCIENCE FICTION AND An image captured from the of , perhaps we can the existence of an ad- screen from 2001: A Space Od- take heart in the possibility SPACE : PAST AND PRESENT, F.I. Ord- (Continued on page 14) yssey. “N/A HAL COMLK” that by the time another forty years have passed, Kubrick way, Edited by Eugene M. and Clarke’s brilliant, expan- Emme, 1982, pages 47 - sive, and yet convincingly 105. (ISBN 0-87703-173- authentic future may finally 8). become real in both its details 8. Jack Hagerty and Jon C. and its scope. Rogers, Spaceship Hand- book: Rocket and Space- craft Designs of the 20th Selected Bibliography Century, ARA Press, Pub- lished 2001, pages 322-

351, ISBN 097076040X. 1. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke,

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(Continued from page 13) hatchway. Thus the normal 7. "Probably no one would Feature vanced extraterrestrial open/close mechanism ever know this: it did not Article civilization might cause a wouldn't have to be re- matter. In the 1980's Min- social disruption; many tracted out of the way in sky and Good had shown others disagreed with this. an emergency. The pyros how neural networks Kubrick and Clarke de- would be on the attach could be generated auto- cided to keep this as a plot points where the door joins matically -- self- device. the mechanism, and in an replicated-- in accordance emergency they'd blow the with an arbitrary learning 4. One aspect of the suit door further around the program. Artificial brains design included for dra- track, i.e., ‘frame left’, out could be grown* by a matic purposes was a of the way, while the regu- process strikingly analo- somewhat vulnerable oxy- lar mechanism stays put. gous to the development gen supply tube from the (Thanks to Jack Hagerty of the human brain. In any backpack EMS unit to the for this observation.) given case, the precise suit helmet (we see Frank details would never be Poole fighting to reattach 6. The novel 2010 explains known, and even if they his). Even in 1965 Apollo HAL’s ‘insanity’ in terms were, they would be mil- space suits had much of his keeping the discov- lions of times too complex more secure fittings. ery of the TMA-1 mono- for human understand- lith a secret for reasons of 5. A technical point about ing." national security. (2) the emergency entry into A. C. Clarke (2001: A (Whatever that means.) the Discovery: where did Space Odyssey, ROC This contradiction against the pod hatch go? One edition, trade paper back, his programming to never notes that the pod doors 2005, pages 92 - 93). report erroneous informa- slide ‘transversely’, i.e., tion created a "Hofstadter- they don’t swing in or * This is a remarkable Moebius loop," which out. In the airlock en- description of thoughts reduced HAL to paranoia. trance scene Dave about AI, known in the Since nothing so explicit launches himself from 1960's, and more elabo- is presented in the original ‘frame right’; normally rated upon in the present, film, and taking the char- the pod door slides open that AI's may be created acterization of HAL as a toward frame right (we’re by some kind of analog of strong AI (for all intents seeing the rear of the pod biological evolution. and purposes making him in the scene). Thus the ‘human’), HAL could have door's guide track ran on just a well gone bonkers both sides of the pod’s for no good reason at all!

International Like most people, AIAA Houston Section’s ISAC is Space Activities inspired by the international activity on ISS in the past few Committee months. At right (photo: (ISAC) NASA), STS-123 Endeavour www.aiaa-houston.org/tc/isac (ESA’s Mr. Eyharts’ ride home) approaches ISS for docking, similar to a scene in Photo: NASA the 1968 movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey. This space shuttle was carrying Kibo, a Japanese module, and DEX- TRE, a Canadian .

Continued on next page

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(Continued from page 14) Right: The historic docking International It’s a busy time for continuing of ESA’s first Automated international activity on ISS. Transfer Vehicle, Jules Space Activities Here we allow the pictures to Verne, took place 3 days do the talking. after this on April 3, 2008 Committee (ISAC) Below: ISS from STS-123: ESA’s Columbus at right and Japan’s Kibo laboratory to its left nearest the viewer STS-123 ceremony at Ellington Field:

Left: Bill Mackey, Candian Space Agency in Houston

Right: Michel Tognini from the European Astro- naut Center, Co- logne, Germany

Below: ISS from STS-123’s departure

Right: Expedition 16 Eyharts (ESA), Whitson (USA), and Malenchenko (Russia).

Below: STS-123 crew at Ellington Field in Hous- ton. (Photo: Yazell, all other photos: NASA). Left: Japan’s Takao Doi: 3rd DEXTRE, from right. ESA’s Leo- the SPDM, pold Eyharts: far right the new Ca- nadian robot on ISS.

Right: STS-123 ceremony at Ellington Field: Japan Aero- Agency (JAXA) Vice President Kaoru Mamiya

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Cover Story A Prophet Vindicated Arthur C. Clarke GREGORY BENFORD IN 1957 I was sitting on the of a Russian book about the Indeed, Clarke's wry wit often Gregory Benford -- physicist, chilly deck of the America, 21st century that found the skewers the short- sightedness educator, author -- was born when news of the Sputnik work extremely reasonable of such men. In discussing the in Mobile, Alabama, on Janu- launch arrived: a lone para- and the extrapolations quite space program, he quotes one ary 30, 1941. In 1963, he re- graph in the ship's newspaper. convincing. Remarks Clarke, of the early explorers of Aus- ceived a B.S. from the Univer- I ground my teeth, wanting "I hope this charge will not be tralia "reporting proudly to his sity of Oklahoma, and then more information, and leveled against me. If this mission control, back in attended the University of thought, "I'll bet Arthur is be- book seems completely rea- Whitehall, 'I have now California, San Diego, where side himself." sonable and all my extrapola- mapped this continent so thor- he received his Ph.D. in 1967. tions convincing, I shall not oughly that no one need ever He spent the next four years at He was. Arthur had no reason have succeeded in looking go there again.' " There are Lawrence (Calif.) Radiation to believe his meticulously very far ahead; for the one fact echoes of this blinkered pio- Laboratory as both a postdoc- sketched dreams of space about the Future of which we neer in NASA now. toral fellow and research flight would occur in his life- can be certain is that it will be physicist. time. So he became the lucki- utterly fantastic." Arthur firmly believes that Benford is a professor of est of prophets, a vindicated “exact knowledge is the physics at the University of sage in his own time. While Clarke's cool, analytical tone friend, not the enemy, of California, Irvine, where he clearly the most famous and pervades all his writing, fic- imagination and fantasy." His has been a faculty member international of all science tion or not. He prefers a pure, suggestion that satellites could since 1971. Benford conducts fiction writers, he is not a dispassionate statement of serve as economical radio re- research in plasma turbulence unique type. He stands in the facts and relationships, yet the lays appeared in Jet Propulsion theory tradition of English futurists result is not cold. Instead, he magazine, so named because and ex- who have used fiction or non- achieves a rendering of the "even the word 'rocket' was periment, fiction to spread their visions-- scientific esthetic, with its avoided as too Buck Rogerish; and in H.G. Wells, J.D. Bernal, Olaf respect for the universal quali- only 'jet propulsion' was re- astrophys- Stapledon, Freeman Dyson. ties of intelligence, its tenacity spectable." Though he says "I ics. He They were convinced that only and curiosity. His fiction has suspect that my early disclo- has pub- in scientific areas is reliable few villains since it neglects sure may have advanced the lished prediction possible; as Clarke conflict and the broad spec- cause of space communica- well over says"there are some general trum of emotion. For me, this tions by about fifteen min- a hundred laws governing scientific ex- gives it a refreshing honesty, utes," in fact his ceaseless pro- papers in fields of physics trapolation, as there are not contrasting with the jarring, motion of it did alert many to from condensed matter, parti- (pace Marx) in the case of superheated prose of much the implications. cle physics, plasmas and politics and economics." fiction. Even the virtual ab- mathematical physics, and sence of sex in his is He was no less right about several in biological conser- Of course his fiction influ- not greatly limiting--writing even larger issues. His 1946 vation. enced me as much as his non- about sex is easier to do than essay, "The Rocket and the fiction. In Profiles of the Fu- the strange landscapes of sf, Future of Warfare" anticipated He is a Woodrow Wilson Fel- ture (1962), an elegantly and for Clarke's purposes, the essentials of ICBM nuclear low and a Visiting Fellow at phrased "inquiry into the lim- pointless. war, and called for measures Cambridge University, and its of the possible", he used his to avoid it. Though many were has served as an advisor to fictional side, exploring what Indeed, his vision carries pre- concerned with "atom war" the Department of Energy, might be achieved within the cisely because he remains al- then--the United States made NASA and the White House bounds of scientific law. most obliviously above the its proposal of international Council on Space Policy. In Books on futurology date no- fray: "Politics and economics regulation of nuclear weapons 1995 he received the Lord toriously, yet this one has not, are concerned with power and to the U.S.S.R. and was turned Foundation Award for contri- principally because Clarke wealth, neither of which down--few saw the fateful butions to science and the was unafraid of being adven- should be the primary, still mating of the bomb and the public comprehension of it. turous. less the exclusive, concern of rocket. Notably, most of those In 1989 Benford was host and full-grown men." who did were science fiction scriptwriter for the television Decades later he read a review (Continued on page 17)

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A Prophet Vindicated Cover Story GREGORY BENFORD Arthur C. Clarke writers, who had long be- and detective stories.” trolled the destinies of men. (Continued from prior page) lieved that rockets were the The time may come when men next big step in aeronautics. His life focused on the control the destinies of stars.” grandest perspectives. Sta- series A Galactic Odyssey, which He has made a firm case for pledon, whom Clarke idol- When Elisabeth and I visited described modern physics and as- the importance of specula- ized, dragged the conflicts him this last spring, he was tronomy from the perspective of the tion in science. "If there had of his era into far-future cogent and engaged with the evolution of the galaxy. The eight- been government research visions, attributing Marxist-- world. Arthur took us to the part series was produced for an in- establishments in the Stone indeed, Stalinist--dynamics Swimming Club for lunch, a ternational audience by Japan Na- Age, we would have had to even alien, insectoid sunny ocean club left over tional Broadcasting. absolutely superb flint tools. races. This riddles some of from the Raj. Security was But no one would have in- Stapledon's work with everywhere. The civil war Benford is the author of over twenty vented steel." anachronisms. I doubt between the Sinhalese gov- novels, including Jupiter Project, Clarke’s will face this fate. ernment and the fascist Tamil Artifact, Against Infinity, Eater, and He sees imaginative, sci- Tigers has now run 23 years, . A two-time winner of the ence-based thinking as cru- Against the anti- killing hundreds of thousands. , Benford has also won cial to our future. The de- technological bias of our the John W. Campbell Award, the bate about information con- recent times, he remains A heavy machine gun on a Australian Ditmar Award, the 1995 trol, from Orwell on, "will impressed with the enor- nearby tower peered over us Lord Foundation Award for achieve- soon be settled--by engi- mous possibilities science as we swam in the pool. It felt ment in the sciences, and the 1990 neers, not politicians. (Just holds out to us. In the end, somehow right to watch the United Nations Medal in Literature. as physicists, not generals, "whatever other perils hu- Indian Ocean curl in, breaking Many of his best known novels are have determined the nature manity may face in the fu- on the rocks, and speak of part of a six-novel sequence begin- of war.)" Clarke belongs to ture that lies ahead, boredom space: the last, greatest ocean. ning in the near future with In the the unacknowledged legisla- is not among them." Indeed, Arthur mused, “All this effort, Ocean of Night, and continuing on tors of our future, the vision- “It may be that the old as- all this death, when we could with Across the Sea of Suns. The aries. As he observed, trologers had the truth ex- be building the staging area series then leaps to the far future, at “Politicians should read actly reversed, when they for a seaborne space eleva- the center of our galaxy, where a science fiction, not westerns believed that the stars con- tor.” desperate human drama unfolds, beginning with Great Sky River, and Related Links proceeding through Tides of Light, Furious Gulf, and concluding with COMPILED BY THE EDITOR AND DR. ALBERT A. JACKSON Sailing Bright Eternity. At the series' Arthur C. Clarke: 1917 - 2008 Photo: Wikipedia end the links to the earlier novels emerge, revealing a single unfolding From the New York Times: tapestry against an immense back- http:// ground. www.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/ His television credits, in addition to books/19clarke.html the series A Galactic Odyssey, in-

clude Japan 2000. He has served as From Wikipedia: scientific consultant to the NHK Net- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ work and for Star Trek: The Next Arthur_C._Clarke Generation.

From the British Broadcasting Com- pany: Want to know more? Read An Intro- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/ duction to Gregory Benford by Peter uk_news/2358011.stm Nicholls.

The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation: http://www.clarkefoundation.org/

AIAA Houston Horizons April 2008 Page 17 Page 18

We appreciate this new 2007 Short biographies are included Two lists personnel for mem- Book Review book , Defender of America’s for Lt. Eric Lamar Ellington bers of the 788t Women’s Gulf Coast, A History of (1889-1913), Colonel Ira Army Corps (WAC) at Elling- Ellington Field, Texas, Rader (1887-1958), Lt. Gran- ton Field, 1943, including a 1917-2000, by Kathryn ville Gutterson (1897-1918), Captain Louise E. Bain, Com- Black Morrow, whom you Colonel Walter H. Reid (1890- manding Officer. Appendix may contact at kathryn- 1958), the author’s father Three lists personnel for the [email protected]. Colonel Kermit Kellogg Black 79th Aviation Squadron. More Ellington Field has a rich (1907-1983), and our coun- information, including photo- history in Houston and try’s current president, George graphs of all of these men and with NASA/JSC. W. Bush (born in 1946), who enlistment records for some, served at Ellington Field as an can be obtained by contacting Its seven chapters are (1) F-102 with the Texas Air the author. Ellington Field 1917 to National Guard from 1968 to WWII, (2) World War II, More information can be 1973 in the 147th Fighter In- 1941 to 1945, Ellington found at KathrynMorrowRe- terceptor Group. Field Reopens, (3) Black search.com. Soldiers at Ellington Field: There are quite a few excellent From all of us who flew in and Desegregation in the Mili- photographs in this 172-page out of Ellington Field and at- tary, (4) Women at Elling- book. tended memorable events there ton Field, (5) Ellington Air Appendix One lists the person- (see page 33), thank you for Force Base, 1947-1976, (6) nel from the first graduating this book. The Space Program Comes class roster of the Women’s to Ellington, and (7) El- Review: Douglas Yazell, Flight Training Detachment lington in the 21st Century. [email protected] Morrow House Publishing (WFTD) Class 43-1. Appendix

“Jamar asked a question about Staying Informed the rovers: ‘How long do you COMPILED BY THE EDITOR think will they last?’ Well of course, I don't know. But I Web links from the book Space and : Decade by Decade by Marianne Dyson think that they'll last for at For book purchases, readers may use this e-mail address: [email protected] http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/snc least another Martian year Mars meteorites: which is almost two Earth These rare meteorites created a stir throughout the world when NASA announced in August of 1996 that years from now. We just have evidence of microfossils may be present in one of these Mars meteorites. to take it a Martian year at a time, since the dust storms http://exoplanets.org come once every Martian year, An almanac of extrasolar planets: University of California and the following Southern Winters do as well. Either a http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/about/ heavy dust storm season or a dr_goddard.html NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center: a good overview on hard Winter could be the last the career of this rocket pioneer. straw for one or both of the rovers.” http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/vonbraun/ Marshall Space Flight Center, Werner von Braun Mark Adler, our March 10, 2008 speaker on the Mars Rov- http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/dsh/TRANSCPT/ ers, answering to Satori School GILRUTH1.HTM in Galveston Oral histories with NASA pioneers, this one with Robert Gilruth

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/expmoon/ Lunar and Planetary Institute, all lunar programs, includ- ing future missions

http://www.state.gov/t/ac/trt/5181.htm Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies

AIAA Houston Horizons April 2008 Page 18 Page 19

2008-2009 “Spirit of Apollo” College Scholarship Scholarship Annoucement DOUG SCHWAAB, SCHOLARSHIP CHAIR The Houston Section is once GPA of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 bers -- that you know to apply again accepting applications scale. The qualified applicants for the 2008-2009 academic for the “Spirit of Apollo” must provide an essay, three year scholarship award! The Scholarship of $1000 for the letters of recommendation, deadline for application pack- 2008-2009 academic year. college transcripts, along with ages is June 1st, 2008. Addi- The “Spirit of Apollo” Schol- a description of extracurricular tional details and the applica- arship honors the historic and activities and work experience. tion form for our annual schol- unprecedented accomplish- arship can be found on the ments of the Apollo Space Last year there were several AIAA Houston Section web- Program by encouraging out- very competitive students from page (http://www.aiaa- standing students at Texas various Texas Colleges that houston.org/scholarship/). Colleges to continue their applied for our Spirit of studies in engineering, math or Apollo Scholarship. Please science. Qualified students encourage the deserving col- must have completed their lege students -- especially freshman academic year with a AIAA student chapter mem- ATS 2008 Upcoming Event GENERAL CHAIR SEAN CARTER Keynote Speakers: Wayne Hale, NASA/JSC Annual Clinton Dorris, ALTAIR lunar lander program office Technical

07:45 - Registration $10.00(Open All Day) Symposium 08:15 - Keynote speaker Wayne Hale/NASA-JSC (ATS 2008) 09:00 - Morning Sessions 12:00 - Lunch 12:45 - Luncheon Keynote Speech: ALTAIR 13:30 - Afternoon Sessions Friday 16:30 - End of Symposium May 9, 2008 Registration All Day at The Gilruth Center $5 Registration for Presenters. $10 Registration for Attendees. Gilruth Center Free Continental Breakfast, Compliments from our sponsors, provided in the Alamo Ballroom during registration. Reserve online in advance or pay at the Door(Cash or Check). Reservations in advance include a lunch buffet. Reg- ister online: www.aiaa-houston.org . Buffet includes vegetarian option. Advance registration is requested

AIAA membership and JSC badging not required. No Gilruth badging is required - ATS is open to pub- lic. No paper required All are encouraged to attend or present, including univesity professors, NASA/JSC personnel, and NASA/JSC contractors

AIAA Houston Horizons April 2008 Page 19 Page 20

Lunch-and- Mars Rovers: Spirit & Opportunity, Dr. Mark Adler Learn Summary DOUGLAS YAZELL, CHAIR March 10, 2008 AIAA Distinguished Lecturer ject and the operations of the • Prepare for Human Explo- Dr. Mark Adler of the Jet Pro- Spirit rover en route to Mars ration pulsion Labo- through the ongoing surface ratory con- mission. tacted our section once is a he learned he NASA Space Science project was coming to which launched two scientific Houston for a exploration rovers to two dif- conference. ferent sites on Mars in mid- 2003, with both landing suc- Nina Corley cessfully in early 2004. After brought her landing, each rover carried out elementary a 3-month mission to explore school class of its site and, through detailed Art: NASA and Rachel from 10 children from Satori School morphological and mineralogi- Satori School in Galveston, making our total cal investigations, provide an attendance grow to 50 people. understanding of the ancient history of each site. The rovers Dr. Adler earned his Ph. D. in are continuing to explore in Physics from the California their extended mission, going Institute of Technology in well past their intended 90-day 1990. He is currently the Chief life spans. Mission Concept Architect and Manager for Concept Devel- The rovers offer unique contri- opment at JPL. He is responsi- butions in pursuit of the over-

Rachel from Satori School illustrates a well-packaged rover landing on Mars

Right: from 2008: false color: Spirit’s West Valley: NASA Below: Dr. Mark Adler ble for the conception, design, all Mars science strategy engineering, and cost and to "Follow the Water." schedule estimation for pro- Understanding the his- posed new science missions tory of water on Mars is and space science instruments important to meeting the across JPL. four science goals of Art by Kai from Satori School: NASA's long-term Mars rover Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) Mark Adler con- Exploration Program: ceived the mission • Determine whether and led the proposal Life ever arose on team for the Mars Mars Exploration Rovers. • Characterize the He was responsible Climate of Mars for the mission sys- tem of the Mars Ex- • Characterize the ploration Rover Pro- Geology of Mars

AIAA Houston Horizons April 2008 Page 20 Page 21

John Frassanito & Associates: Space Architecture Dinner Meeting DOUGLAS YAZELL, CHAIR Summary While the Lunar Planetary gineering endeavors. It inte- component or mission is under March 11, 2008 Science Conference and a grates computer visualization development, the project team space shuttle mission kept and strategic planning to ad- has the tools at hand to help do some of our potential audience dress long-range issues in both the job. busy elsewhere, an enthusias- the government and industry. Mr. Fras- tic crowd of 25 people wel- It’s the new medium of sup- sanito comed Mr. John Frassanito as port for achieving manage- discussed our dinner speaker at the ment’s goals. modeling NASA/JSC Gilruth Center on Once a team has developed a and simu- March 11, 2008. John Fras- sound mission design, STRA- lation sanito trained as an industrial TEGIC VISUALIZATION ® ideas for designer at Art Center College is used to communicate that astronaut of Design in Los Angeles and concept to the general public. biomedi- worked as part of the re- This is a vital step that Dr. cal moni- nowned Raymond Loewy de- used to toring. He sign team on the interior con- enhance public support for showed a cepts for Skylab. He later be- space exploration. When Col- few short gan his own design firm, John lier’s (Magazine) presented films created for the NASA Frassanito & Associates the American public with a customer showing the newest (JF&A), which has designed bold and feasible vision of space vehicles planned for products for companies such excursions to Moon and other space station support and ex- as Scott Paper, Texaco, Sani- planets. Today, STRATEGIC ploration of the Moon and Fresh, Daniel Industries, Gen- VISUALIZATION® is used Mars. A copy of the 1998 eral Foods, and EMI Corpora- extensively both in the mission book Space Architecture was tion. design process within the tech- used as a door prize since the nical community, and to com- subject of the book is Mr. Poster courtesy of NASA and Since 1985, he has been work- municate the value of space Frassanito’s career. John Frassanito & Associates ing as a strategic planning, exploration to the general pub- mission, and spacecraft design lic. Movies and digital images consultant to NASA engineer- have been generated and ing, scientific, and planning shown on nationally broadcast teams for the agency’s future television and the Internet, as space missions. He was a key well as in magazines and digi- contributor to the architecture tal media.” of the International Space Sta- tion and the Vision for Space Since the ‘04 exploration plan Exploration and currently con- announcement, John Fras- sults to NASA’s Lunar and sanito & Associates, Inc. has Mars Exploration and other continued to support the Ex- programs. His work has been ploration Systems Mission featured in major space explo- Directorate (ESMD) at a num- ration exhibits, various publi- ber of levels including the cations, and broadcast televi- Administrator’s rollout of the sion. Exploration Systems Architec- ture (ESAS), the Lunar Recon- Strategic Visualization ® is a naissance Orbiter, the CEV/ proprietary process that works Constellation program, and at the heart of the creative other program elements. The process using an arsenal of firm archives and updates a visual tools to solve problems, library of current architectures chart a company’s future, con- in 3D formats that it provides ceptualize new products or to its NASA clients as part of business and supercharge en- its services so, when a new

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Lunch-and- Sailing the Space Station with Zero-Propellant Learn Summary Maneuver (ZPM) Guidance March 12, 2008 GREGORY JOSEPH, MEMBER, GN&C TECHNICAL COMMITTEE Recently, the Guidance, maneuvers can be. The Indeed, when the Russian Navigation, and Control following is an excerpt GN&C computers failed Technical Committee from the publicity flyer: during Shuttle mission welcomed Nazareth STS-117, manual thruster Bedrossian of Draper On Nov 5, 2006 and control and ZPM provided Labs for a Lunch and March 3, 2007, the Inter- the only two options to Learn. On March 12, national Space Station regain attitude control 2008, a group of 40 got a was maneuvered 90deg once the Orbiter un- chance to learn about the and 180deg nonpropul- docked. Come and find jaw-dropping capability sively using the new out why with ZPM guid- of ZPMs (Zero-Propellant Zero-Propellant Maneuver ance, CMGs can never Look for the PowerPoint charts at Maneuvers). ZPMs are an (ZPM) guidance method. lose attitude control! www.aiaa-houston.org/tc/gnc extremely new capability The identical 180deg ma- for the International Space neuver performed propul- Dr. Naz Bedrossian re- Station. These manuevers sively on Jan 2, 2007 con- ceived his Ph.D. in Me- allow the station to alter sumed 110lb of propellant chanical Engineering its attitude using only at an estimated cost of from Massachusetts Insti- CMG (Control Momen- $1.1 million. With ZPM, a tute of Technology in tum Gyros) effectors. new class of CMG capa- 1991. Since then he has Although these maneu- bility previously thought been at JSC working on vers seem to defy the very impossible can now be Shuttle and ISS control laws of physics, Nazareth achieved. ZPM enables systems design and verifi- Bedrossian with help from non-propulsive large an- cation. Naz is currently his Draper Graduate Fel- gle maneuvers, attitude the group leader for lows showed just how control with saturated manned space systems at possible (and useful) these CMGs, and rate damping. The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc.

Naz’s presentation was im- pressive, but as the “Ginsu” knives salesman would say, “But wait, there’s more!” In addition to showing the ZPM 90deg and 180deg attitude maneuver, Naz also showed LoAC recovery, CMG desatu- ration, and MT relocation methods using only CMG con- trol and ZPM guidance! Al- though these capabilities re- quire the ability to “look- ahead” and require ground coordination, it is always good to know there are options for ISS attitude control. Thanks again to Naz and the hardworking Draper Graduate Fellows!

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Membership LISA VOILES, MEMBERSHIP CHAIR Please welcome our newest Michael Wells Richard Covey Important notes: AIAA Houston Members! Mark Craig • Not a member? See the end page. STUDENT MEMBERS: Bradley Fiebig Report for March 1, 2008: Darkhan Alimzhanov Harlan Friedman MEMBERS: Dorothy Byford Daniel Garcia Sheikh Ahsan Ryan Clyburn Simon Halbur James Baker Robin Federico Radesh Iyengar Nominate a Colleague Timothy Budzik Patrick Harrington Wade Johnson for One of AIAA's Top Robert Campbell Scott Johnstone Vikram Kinra Awards Brandon Carringer Alex Jonischkies Jeannie Kranz Do you know of a colleague Sean Carter, vice chair of Connor Kelly Vaselia Patterson who has made significant our section’s technical Tomas Lafferriere George Radtke contributions to aeronautics branch Arin Lastufka David Ray or astronautics or to AIAA? Ryan Chambers Amy Lucas Jon Read Nominate them for one of Robert Curbeam Alex Monchak Natasha Rowell AIAA's top awards. Pedro Curiel Tetsu Nakamura Jean-Luc Rusingizandekwe Brian Dunaway Valliyappan Natarajan Benjamin Shoemaker Visit http://www.aiaa.org Cynthia Evans Taylor Nault Jason Tenenbaum Nathan Hall Thanasis Varnava Aaron Trott Jeremy Hart Daniel Wesely Steven Hawley Thomas Williams STUDENT MEMBERS: Natalie Pilzner Yvonne Jaurigue Nikhil Bhatnagar David Roden Thomas Jones EDUCATOR ASSOCIATES: Daniel Cannon Chandra Veer Singh Donald Kelly Peggy Eddy John Cassidy Albert Soto Benjamin Kirk Lollie Garay Jahaziel Chavira David Taylor Ramon Lebron-Velilla Janet Grout Jacalyn Cossette Moriah Thompson Corey Logan Jim Kirkwood Grimes Daniel Christine Tipton Chris Madden Marissa Zepeda Danielle Fitch Christy Tucker Anthony Maloney Brady Frazier Brannon Veal Eric Petersen Report for April 1, 2008: Sara Guest Katherine Westhoff Elfego Pinon MEMBERS: April Hughes Michael Yager Gregory Potts Koorosh Araghi Sanjay Kalidindi Jason York James Royston Edgar Bering Vanna Keller

Paul Spudis Raktim Bhattacharya Daniel Kidd EDUCATOR ASSOCIATES: Benjamin Stahl Frank Bittinger Julianne Larson Hope Smalley Jackson Patricia Stratton Sarah Brandt Jane Nguyen Tracy Spears Eric Stutz Gary Brown Roy Palacios

Update Your Membership Records

Please verify your AIAA member houston.org. May 15, 2008, is the deadline for record is up to date. Knowing nominating AIAA Fellows. In- where our members are working The membership total from Feb- puts from the related references is vital to the Houston Section in ruary 1, 2008, was 1192, which (or referees) are due June 15, obtaining corporate support for was 842 professional members, 2008. We have a few Associate local AIAA activities (such as our 266 student members, and 84 Fellow nominations in work, and dinner meetings, workshops, etc.). educator associates. For March 1, the inputs from their references Visit www.aiaa.org (log in, click 2008, that was 1156 members are due May 15, 2008. All of this on My Information, then Edit) to (841 members, 231 student mem- work can be done online. We update your member information, bers, and 84 educator associates). typically prepare some docu- or call customer service at 1-800- For April 1, 2008, our total mem- ments, then cut and paste into bership is 1150 (839 members, NEW-AIAA (639-2422), or con- forms at www.aiaa.org. tact us at membership@aiaa- 225 student members, and 86 educator associates).

AIAA Houston Horizons April 2008 Page 23 Page 24

Space Center Space Center Lecture Series: Inaugural Event Lecture Series BEN LONGMIER, PH. D., PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CHAIR March 13, 2008 Gary Kitmacher and Ben December 1972 on the lunar helped to make this event pos- Longmier inaugurated some- surface, sampling, document- sible are listed here, including thing they call the Space Cen- ing, and interpreting the some who will help with the Inaugural Event ter Lecture Series (SCLS) Moon's geological features next lecture: SpaceCenterLectureSer- and potential resources. Munir Kundawala ies.com. Gary and Ben Schmitt was trained at Caltech Shirley Brandt started the lecture series with a and at Harvard, where in 1965 Co-sponsored Mike Frostad presentation by the last person he received his Ph.D. in geol- Ben Blaser by AIAA to step out onto the lunar sur- ogy. He was first introduced to Molly White face, Apollo 17 astronaut Har- astrogeology by the late Nathaniel Fisher Houston Section rison ‘Jack’ Schmitt. A crowd Eugene Shoemaker, and was a Galina Povolotskaya of about 450 people attended Fulbright scholar in Norway in Tracy Richter this free event at the Space 1957-58. Schmitt has been George Parma Center Houston Northrop involved in the space program, Mallory Jennings Grumman IMAX Theater. space science, and space pol- Christina Gallegos icy for more than 40 years, Dr. Schmitt was kind enough Scott Pritchard including 10 years as an astro- to sign copies of his book, Janice Larson naut with NASA, 6 years with Return to the Moon. Neither Doug Schwaab as a United States Senator, and Schmitt nor the lecture series Shannon Maxie more than 20 years as a con- coordinators anticipated the Lara Ogle sultant and businessman, a nearly 2 hour line that resulted Dana Valish professor (at the University of from the 200 books that were Christina Hibbs Wisconsin), and an advocate sold and signed. Andrew (AJ) Hartnett for space-based private enter- Sian Terry Dr. Schmitt is currently the prise. Ryon Stewart last human being to have Dr. Schmitt shared his experi- stepped onto the Moon. As an AIAA Houston Section ence with the Apollo 17 mis- Apollo 17 astronaut and geolo- proudly co-sponsored this sion, lunar resource utilization, gist, he spent three days in event and plans to continue and his thoughts on the future that tradition. Future speakers of lunar exploration. The listed on the Space Center Apollo 17 mission was the last Lecture Series web site in- of the great campaigns to the clude former astronaut Dr. moon and included the longest Franklin Chang-Diaz (veteran lunar surface interval of any of 7 space shuttle missions), mission in history. NASA Administrator Dr. Mi- On his way back to Earth, Dr. chael Griffin, and former as- Schmitt took a photo showing tronauts Dr. Tom Jones, John the most complete disc of the Young, and Brewster Shaw. Earth at the time. It is claimed Ben Longmier is a post- that this photo is the most doctoral fellow at the Univer- widely distributed photograph sity of Houston and conducts in history. The ‘upside down’ his plasma physics research view here recreates how the with Dr. Chang-Diaz’s Ad Earth appeared to Jack when Astra Rocket Company on he captured this photo from Bay Area Blvd in the Houston the Apollo 17 command mod- Clear Lake area. His work on ule. Typically the Earth is this lecture series is not related flipped so that the South pole to AIAA Houston Section, but is at the bottom of the photo- our section was happy to ac- graph. cept when he applied a few A few of the volunteers who (Continued on page 25)

AIAA Houston Horizons April 2008 Page 24 Page 25

Continued from prior page science and exploration to the of the international Space Sta- public in the form of monthly tion, to past and future mis- Space Center months ago to be our profes- lectures from renowned scien- sions to the lunar surface. Join Lecture Series sional development chair. tists, engineers, physicians, us at Space Center Houston's and astronauts. From plasma IMAX theater for an hour of March 13, 2008 A few notes from our publicity rockets of the future, to scien- science, exploration, and ex- flyer: “Space Center Lecture tific expeditions to the South citement.” Series aims to bring the won- Pole, to heroic repair missions Inaugural Event der and excitement of space

Co-sponsored by AIAA Houston Section

Chris and Carina Olsen at the lecture, holding baby Ariana, future astronaut (class of 2038) and ‘Moonwalker.’ “Jack Schmitt is my favorite astro- naut” – Carina Olsen

Jack and Ben talk before the beginning of the first SCLS lecture

Additional photos on the Odds and Ends page, see page 32 Dr. Ben Longmier and Dr. Jack Schmitt , the last person to step onto the Moon

AIAA Houston Horizons April 2008 Page 25 Page 26

Celebrating Motorcyclists already had Space Center Hous- Yuri’s Night Yuri Gagarin’s ton reserved for Bay Area Rally at the request of Houston 2008 April 12, 1961 local cities, so we teamed up with them. launch and thanks to the America’s American Astro- STS-1 April 12, 1981 nautical Society launch, Yuri’s www.yurisnighthouston.net Night started April 12, 2001, as a worldwide celebration. In Houston this year, it started with the early morning 5 km fun run, then Co-sponsored by moved to Space Center Houston and contin- ued with Space Day education events, and AIAA Houston concluded with the evening celebration. Section Great live music Below: The 30-feet tall Ares I rocket model from NASA/JSC at Space Center Houston for Yuri’s Night Houston 2008

Right: AIAA member BeBe Kelly-Serrato speaking on Yuri’s life

Below: Red-shirted volunteers Linda Phonharath (at left), & Mike Frostad with Tara Hyland of Navigant Vacations and Virgin Galactic wearing the black shirt

Rockets from NASA Houston Rocket Club (Harold Larson & others)

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Constellation Earth From our French MICHEL BONAVITACOLA, AAAF TOULOUSE - MIDI-PYRENEES Sister Section TOULOUSE, FRANCE

I. Introduction measured from the ground, Simple and practical technical airborne vehicles, or space solutions exist to effec- The shifting pattern of day and vehicles. tively limit light pollution. night is one of the fundamen- These solutions, often aris- tal components of life on II. Light pollution and its im- Translation: ing from common sense, Earth. In fact, for hundreds of pacts on the environment Douglas Yazell are consistent with long- millions of years it has Light which illuminates the term development (energy brought to life and regulated sky and goes up into space savings, reduction of emis- the biological cycles for flora, serves no purpose. Well- sions of greenhouse gases, fauna, and human beings. conceived lighting lights up shrinking the ecological Human activities and exces- only the targeted areas on the footprint…). sive artificial light now invade ground. They generate reason- III. Light Pollution and the the night. Large urban centers able levels of light. They are Protection of the Environment now look like pinball games turned on only during the nec- with annoying, flashing lights. essary time slots. Photo 2: The night “Pouncho The cities are drowned in a d’Aagast” (town of Millau, in Badly conceived lighting gen- halo of orange and pink fog, the regional natural park “des erates quite a few nuisances: visible for tens or hundreds of Grands Causses” in the Midi- Photo 1: Europe seen at night kilometers. Without denying • Glare: this is light which (Continued on page 28) from space (courtesy of NASA) the benefits of artificial light- travels nearly horizontally ing, more and more people and blinds us now ask about the impact of light pollution on the nocturnal • Intrusive lighting: this is environment. unwanted light coming into our homes, which we must During the 1980s, the Interna- endure tional Astronomical Union and the International Lighting Diffused light: this is light Commission analyzed the ori- going up into the sky which is gin of parasitic light entering dispersed by atmospheric the telescopes of astronomical molecules and particles in the observatories. Its relation with . This creates the urban lighting is direct and bright halo of the cities and unequivocal. Recommenda- masks the night sky tions were therefore published The consequences of light for the protection of such sites pollution for the environment (references 1 and 2). are numerous (reference 3): Some nations and regions, • Impact on biodiversity notably in Europe, updated (flora, fauna…) their rules to reduce light pol- lution. Land settlement in • Impact on scenery these areas is required to con- (landscape): (day and night) form to new requirements and • Impacts on people (financial to control artificial light cost, legal impacts, cultural sources in accordance with aspects, scientific activities, associated impact studies. safety…) The necessary actions are im- Impact on the planet (energy plemented with a campaign of savings, carbon balance, waste measures using maps and im- of natural resources…) aging in a variety of spectrums

AIAA Houston Horizons April 2008 Page 27 Page 28

From our French Constellation Earth Sister Section MICHEL BONAVITACOLA, AAAF TOULOUSE - MIDI-PYRENEES TOULOUSE, FRANCE

(continued from page 27) The IAU strives to intensify ing material and processes interdisciplinary exchanges. It which respect the environ- Pyrenees region) – this photo maintains and develops nar- ment. It encourages and helps was taken as part of a suite of row, constructive, and practi- creation of environmentally tests in the context of a student cal links between the organiza- protected zones. internship, Licorness 2005. tions and the community of In France the National Asso- Copyright Baduel, Antoine – creators of light sources and ciation for the Protection of Simon, Grimal 2005. the users of the nocturnal envi- the Sky and the Nocturnal ronment. One of the major The International Community: Environment (NAPSNE, or undertakings is a coordinated ANPCEN in French) and The International Astonomical effort to create, by an evolu- Licorness (specialized in re- Union (IAU), the United Na- tionary process, laws, regula- search, education, and train- tions Organization (UNO), and tions, and controls at appropri- ing) work with IDA, the IAU, the International Lighting ate levels, whether local, re- and lighting creators for the Committee (ILC) work to- gional, national, or interna- rescue and classification of gether to encourage practical tional. national sites and the reduction programs for the control of The International Dark-Sky of light pollution (reference 4). artificial lighting and to limit Photo 2: The night “Pouncho Association (IDA) gathers the impacts of light pollution. Laws, Rules, and Conven- d’Aagast” (town of Millau, in together thousands of world- They encourage the work and tions: the regional natural park “des wide members. It is very ac- effort of organizations, gov- tive. In accordance with inter- Regional, national, and inter- Grands Causses” in the Midi- ernments, and industries Pyrenees region) – this photo national, industrial, and pro- national law is always evolv- around the world. was taken as part of a suite of fessional ogranizations of ing. tests in the context of a student The UNO granted the star- lighting, notably the Illumina- From a legal point of view, internship, Licorness 2005. filled sky a unique value, de- tion Engineering Society of light pollution can be ap- Copyright Baduel, Antoine – claring the night sky to be North America (IESNA), it proached on different levels, Simon, Grimal 2005. humanity’s common heritage. develops and encourages light- directly or indirectly (constitutions, subsidiary law, conventions, recommenda- tions, norms…). Special atten- tion is focused on areas classi- fied as legally protected, stra- tegic, sensitive, or fragile (scenic landscapes, national parks, seashores, natural re- serves…). Some countries already ad- dress light pollution in their rules and laws. Urban rules and land settlement processes evolve to adapt to new laws and rules. Planned work must therefore take into account new constraints and recom- mendations related to lighting. Related rules depend on fun- damental rules such as envi- ronmental norms (ISO 14001, (Continued on page 29)

AIAA Houston Horizons April 2008 Page 28 Page 29

Constellation Earth From our French MICHEL BONAVITACOLA, AAAF TOULOUSE - MIDI-PYRENEES Sister Section TOULOUSE, FRANCE

(continued from page 28) lighting only where needed or industrial site, a town, an with sufficient intensity and urban center, or a business or for example) and recommen- only when necessary. industrial zone. It targets im- dations defined by the Interna- provement in the usefulness High-quality and well-adapted tional Lighting Committee and and layout of lighting, keeping lighting, as well as realistic the IAU (reference 2). in mind concerns about visibil- and apprpriate rules, are also ity, appearance, safety, and Jurisprudence and experience sources of important financial energy savings. Such improve- acquired with the studies of savings. For example, the city ment can act as a window the environmental impacts of of Lille in France reduced re- shade protecting against light massive lighting projects al- lated costs by 35% in one pollution. low deveopment and refine- year, thanks to more eco- ment of judicial and legislative friendly streetlamps and other To be continued next issue, the Editor’s note: The Houston photo concepts all over the world. kinds of lighting. June 2008 issue, which is to be and map and the box below are online at www.aiaa- not part of the article from our Land Settlement: The Lighting Plan, a recent houston.org/horizons by June French sister section, but they fit concept, is a work plan, a way Common sense says apply 25, 2008. well with this article. to place lighting for a touristic

Photo of Houston : NASA astronaut Don Pettit Map of Houston: maps.google.com

As a member of ISS Expedition 6, American astronaut Don Pettit made an outstanding movie about his photography of cities of the world at night seen from ISS. By rigging up some machinery on- board ISS to counteract the motion of ISS, he was able to obtain photos with higher resolution (about 60 meters) than available elsewhere (about 2 miles). Here is a link to a low-resolution ver- sion of his 10-minute movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEiy4zepuVE

AIAA Houston Horizons April 2008 Page 29 Page 30

Calendar subject to change. See www.aiaa-houston.org for updates Contact [email protected] or [email protected] for further details.

April 7 Council meeting: see our org chart for contact information at www.aiaa-houston.org 11 Co-sponsoring Engineer for a Day: Boeing Black Employees Association 12 Yuri’s Night indoor & outdoor at Space Center Houston: www.yurisnighthouston.net 15 Congressional Visits Day in DC (2 days): see our public policy chair for information 18 Regional (4-state) Student Paper Conference, 2 days, Friday and Saturday 25 New issue of Horizons online if we stick to this schedule, the April 2008 issue 30 Dinner meeting moved to May 2, 2008

May 2 Dinner meeting, NASA/JSC Gilruth Center, speaker: Congressman Lampson 5 Council meeting: see our org chart for contact information at www.aiaa-houston.org 9 Our section’s Annual Technical Symposium: NASA/JSC Gilruth Center

June 2 Council meeting: see our org chart for contact information at www.aiaa-houston.org 10 Dinner meeting for our section’s honors & awards: speaker: Mr. Launius from the Smithsonian Institute 25 New issue of Horizons online if we stick to this schedule: quarterly again after this 30 End of this AIAA year

July (no council meeting this month: a leadership retreat might take place) 24 Regional Leadership Conference, 2 days, Thursday & Friday, 24-25th (Hartford, CT)

Date to be decided: our annual AIAA Houston Section leadership retreat modeled on the above conference, in July or August 2008

Images: NASA GRIN web site: Great Images In NASA Left: Mir & space shuttle viewed from a Russian spacecraft Right: NASA’s James Fletcher & Star Trek TV crew & Enterprise

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Below: AIAA Houston Section co-sponsored this pre-college Cranium Cruncher event for about 50 high school students BILL MILLER, SENIOR MEMBER

Last issue's puzzle concerning the ages of meeting attendees was correctly solved by Greg Pierce, Murugan Subramaniam, and Tom Dillon, who deduced that the attendees' ages were 35, 35, and 2 and that the manager's age was 36.

This issue's puzzle:

An automated Lunar rover is designed to travel in a straight line and reverse course (without pausing) when it meets an obstacle. The rover travels 4 kilometers per hour on level terrain, 3 kilome- ters per hour when it drives upslope, and 6 kilometers per hour when it is driving downslope.

On its first sortie the rover set off at noon and returned at six pm. Unfortunately the rover's memory had been corrupted so detailed route information could not be read out. It could be determined that the rover had traveled an unknown distance over level ground, then climbed a hill until it encountered a cliff face. The rover then re- versed course and returned to base.

Using only the information given, can you determine the total dis- tance traveled by the rover? And, for extra credit, the approximate time (within 30 minutes) that the rover encountered the obstacle?

Send your answers to [email protected] for inclusion in the next issue of Horizons.

Co-sponsored by: www.aiaa-houston.org

At left: A preliminary copy of the large poster prepared by our section (Dr. Rakesh Bhargava) to celebrate 75 years of AIAA. Over 1500 copies were printed. They were handed at events such as ATS 2007 (see our web site) and as speaker gifts. Most were hand-delivered to section members. And 100 copies were handed out at the event of March 13, 2008 (see pages 24 and 25), where the crowd size was 450.

AIAA Houston Horizons April 2008 Page 31 Page 32

Odds and Ends SPECIAL EVENTS, PICTORIALS, ETC.

Above at right: Houston Chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association www.eaa12.org Led this year by Richard Sessions Photo from Houston EAA e-mail note...

EAA Chapter 12 Meetings for 2007 -2008: 4 May 2008 – Chapter Party – Hanger Location TBD – Likely Pearland Regional (Old Clover Field) 7 May 2008 – Builder Visit – TBD – Volunteers? 4 June 2008 – Surviving Oshkosh, Neil Northington, Location: Southwest Services, El- lington Field 2 July 2008 – Oshkosh Arrival Procedures, David Staten, Location: Southwest Services, Ellington Field

Past AIAA Houston Section Chair (1971-1972) James C. McLane, Jr., has a unique souvenir of his Apollo-era career. This lunar map of the Apollo 17 landing site was used for astronaut training. This map was signed by the last person to step onto the Moon, Harrison Schmitt, when Mr. Schmitt inaugu- rated the Space Center Lecture Series on March 13, 2008 (www.SpaceCenterLectureSeries.com), co-sponsored by AIAA Houston Sec- tion.

AIAA Houston Horizons April 2008 Page 32 Page 33

Good afternoon. As you might have noticed, my body’s not European Space fully back on Earth, but I’m Agency Astronaut working on it, and I’m fully confident that it will be OK in Leopold Eyharts the next days. I’d like to say Returns to that it’s the same for my head, I mean, I’m still there (editor: Houston from focused on the mission accord- ing to his training). It has been ISS Expedition 16 a relatively short mission. I think I’ve got the record for the shortest long-duration mission International in the history of manned space- Space Activities flight. But that was a tremen- dous mission, I can tell you, Committee (ISAC) and it’s still hard for me to be- www.aiaa-houston.org/tc/isac lieve that this was true. And this three years. I’ve been here allowd me to get ready in my is true only, of course, because Houston ten years, working, head for this mission. Last but some people are working hard training, and it would be really not least, of course, my family. on the ground to make this pro- too long to go through the list of I know it has been hard for gram exist: to prepare us and all the people I want to thank: them sometimes: a lot of my also to run the operations on the here in Houston, in Moscow, of time spent out of our home and ground and in space. course, in Europe, without I know that was hard on them. doubt, Canada, also, and I They have been through it, and So yes, that was a very impor- Photos: Yazell: STS-123 mean, twice in Japan, too, we have been through it, and I tant mission for me because, as crew at Ellington Field where I really loved the train- am really happy. So thank you you know, we installed the Thanks to NASA/JSC for the ing. to everybody, and I will see you European laboratory, Columbus audio file from this event. very soon back at work. module, but, of course, even So I would like, also, to thank though that was the highlight of all those who supported me, my flight, there were a lot of allowed me to prepare, and also things after that were really important for me and the other partners. The station is amazing. It’s really big! It’s still hard for me to believe that there are so few peo- ple inside the station, compared to the shuttle, which is such a busy place, seven people in a small volume. I was wondering how they could live and work on it even during two days, so I really admire these guys for working on this flight and the previous flight, and all of this sta- tion preparation and as- sembly. I think it would take too long to thank everybody. I’ve been training during

AIAA Houston Horizons April 2008 Page 33 Non-Profit Organization U.S. POSTAGE PAID Houston Section PERMIT NO. 1 P.O. Box 57524 Webster , Texas Webster, TX 77598

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