AIAA Houston Section News
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Volume 32, Issue 4 AIAA Houston Section www.aiaa-houston.org Fall 2007 Artwork courtesy of John Frassanito & Associates AIAA Houston Horizons Fall 2007 Page 1 Fall 2007 T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S From the Editor 3 HOUSTON Chair’s Corner 4 Horizons is a quarterly publication of the Houston section Visualizing the Mission: John Frassanito & Associates 5 of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. “And the Angels Sing” - History, Book Excerpt 7 Jon S. Berndt Wernher von Braun’s Long Road to Mars 9 Editor Staying Informed 10 AIAA Houston Section Executive Council Dinner Lecture Summary Report: A Spacecraft System Engineer’s In- 11 troduction to Emerging Photovoltaic Technologies Douglas Yazell Chair Wings over Houston Outing 12 Chad Brinkley Membership Page 13 Chair-Elect Dinner Lecture Summary: NEEMO, Becoming an Aquanaut 14 Dr. Jayant Ramakrishnan Lunch-n-Learn Summary: Apollo 13 Trajectory Reconstruction 16 Past Chair Seabrook Middle School and the NASA Student Launch Initiative 17 Sarah Shull Secretary Local News: Lockheed Martin Team Opens EDL 18 Tim Propp Local Industry News 20 Treasurer Calendar 22 JJ Johnson Sean Carter Vice-Chair, Operations Vice-Chair, Technical Cranium Cruncher 23 Operations Technical Odds and Ends 24 Nick Pantazis Dr. Al Jackson Conference Presentations/Articles by Houston Section Members 26 Gabe Garrett Dr. Zafar Taqvi Munir Kundawala Sheikh Ahsan Sister Section Relationship with AAAF Toulouse Reaffirmed 28 Dr. Douglas Schwaab Bill Atwell AIAA Local Section News 29 Svetlana Hanson Ludmilla Dmitriev Jon Berndt, Editor William West Gary Cowan Paul Nielsen Horizons and AIAA Houston Web Amy Efting Dr. Michael Lembeck Site Matthew Easterly Dr. Kamlesh Lulla AIAA National Jim Palmer Gary Brown Communications Award Linda Phonharath Chet Vaughan Winner Dr. Jaehyung “Joshua” Ju Bebe Kelly-Serrato Lisa Voiles Bob Beremand Joel Henry Venkat Vardhineni Councilors Shirley Brandt Bob McCormick 2005 2006 2007 Aaron Morris Dr. Rakesh Bhargava Dr. Merri Sanchez This newsletter is created by members of the Houston section. Opinions expressed herein other than Brenda Weber by elected Houston section officers belong solely to the authors and do not necessarily represent the Mike Lammers position of AIAA or the Houston section. Unless explicitly stated, in no way are the comments of Ellen Gillespie individual contributors to Horizons to be construed as necessarily the opinion or position of AIAA, Lorenn Vega-Martinez NASA, its contractors, or any other organization. Please address all newsletter correspondence to David Segrera the Editor:[email protected] More information at: www.aiaa-houston.org/orgchart Cover: Ares-V Liftoff, courtesy of John Frassanito & Associates. AIAA Houston Horizons Fall 2007 Page 2 Page 3 From the Editor ISS: A Valuable Endeavor JON S. BERNDT Jeff Kluger wrote an interest- editor of Time pointing out the weathered so many political ing piece in Time magazine last error, but as far as I can tell, there storms [including some “category August. In that article, he de- never was a retraction. In any case, 5” storms] spanning several ad- scribed the “risky” mission then Mr. Kluger seems to have decided ministrations to get to where it is about to be taken: for himself what the value of the today. There are some who ques- space station is. tion today whether or not a long- “The Endeavour crew will be term human spaceflight program delivering a two-ton truss segment I can’t count how many times can be undertaken successfully that will help hold solar arrays I have read the tired lament about outside of the special circum- and will require three risky space- how the space station (and the stances that drove the Apollo walks to install. If the ISS were space shuttle) only goes around program. I believe there is enough doing good science at an arguably and around and never gets any- bipartisan support to sustain the reasonable price, those risks where - which sounds a lot like Vision for Space Exploration. would be worth taking. But it's some columnists, to me. Of course, doing almost no science at all at the path that ISS takes is governed The International Space Sta- an exorbitant price — an esti- by physics. While it operates in the tion undoubtedly has provided a mated $100 billion a year …” vacuum of space, I think that the means to further develop strong International Space Station is pro- working relationships around the I was immediately impressed viding value far beyond what is world in the area of space explo- that NASA was able to coax normally considered. I think it’s ration. The late astronomer Carl “$100 billion a year” out of its value is getting shortchanged in Sagan wrote in the July 18, 1989 annual budget of roughly $16 the press, despite its purported issue of Parade magazine an arti- billion! I guess I shouldn’t be budget getting inflated. cle entitled, “The Gift of Apollo”. surprised to see such simple fac- tual mistakes like this in print. I First of all, I find it amazing – (continued on page 10) Orion docking with ISS. Image cour- fired off an immediate letter to the and encouraging – that ISS has tesy of John Frassanito & Associates. AIAA Houston Horizons Fall 2007 Page 3 Page 4 Chair’s Corner DOUGLAS YAZELL, AIAA HOUSTON CHAIR There are no mistakes, only a local resident who is an author and members in our section, and our org lessons, someone wrote. This year of journalist and a former NASA/JSC chart (www.aiaa-houston.org/orgchart) service leadership by many volunteers contractor aerospace engineer. He has 45 boxes. Only one vacancy re- in AIAA Houston Section is looking spoke about the Soviet and Russian mains, the chair of the communica- good from my point of view. space programs. An enthusiastic crowd tions and tracking technical committee. Planning is ongoing for our of about 50 people attended this event. Lisa Voiles is our new membership region’s (region IV: Texas, New Mex- David Fuller presented his lunch- chair. We welcome BeBe Kelly- ico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas) Student and-learn on Friday, November 30, Serrato as chair of the space operations Paper Competition (SPC), hosted this 2007, in room 111 of building 16 at & support technical committee. Linda year by our section, led by Sarah Shull. NASA. He spoke about “Leaving the Phonharath is our new college and co- The NASA/JSC Gilruth Center rooms Big City and Working for a Startup”. op chair, and she is supporting SPC in are reserved for this on Friday and He now works for TGV Rockets in addition to supporting our student Saturday, April 18-19, 2008. The more Norman, Oklahoma. About 15 people sections (which includes finding student papers (graduate and under- attended and they asked plenty of ques- speakers for their meetings). Munir graduate) we attract, the better. tions. Mr. Fuller’s event was organized Kundawala is our new public policy by our section’s guidance, navigation chair. Venkat Vardhineni is our new Sean Carter is leading our sec- professional development chair. Pro- tion’s Annual Technical Symposium and control technical committee, chaired by Robert Beremand. fessor Jaehyung “Joshua” Ju is our (ATS). This is typically held on a new honors & awards chair. Ludmila Friday from 8 am to 5 pm in the Our section’s International Space Dmitriev-Odier is the new chair of our NASA/JSC Gilruth Center in April or Activities Committee (ISAC) is work- International Space Activities Commit- May. The tentative date is now May 9, ing to create sister sections in Russia tee (ISAC). And we welcome new 2008. and elsewhere. Working with our part- councilors Lorenn Vega-Martinez and ners in France, we succeeded in creat- I am pleased that AAS (the David Segrera. ing the sister section relationship with American Astronautical Society) asked Our newsletter editor post will be AIAA Houston Section to co-sponsor the Toulouse – Midi-Pyrenees branch of the Association Aeronautique et empty once this issue is online, though Yuri’s Night this year. We can say yes Jon Berndt will be here to advise his to that, since their track record of Astronautique de France (AAAF). In Houston, we will work to keep the successor. Jon aimed at being the organizing and executing this event in Aviation Week of the Houston Clear Houston is excellent. This celebrates ISAC web page (http://www.aiaa- houston.org/tc/isa/) up to date as we Lake area, and he made a lot of pro- the 1961 Yuri Gagarin flight and the gress in that direction. Thanks in part 1981 STS-1 flight, both of which make this come alive in the next three years and beyond. to his cover stories, editor’s columns occurred on April 12. The first Yuri’s and a new look for Horizons, each Night event took place in 2001, so we We scheduled a lunch-and-learn quarterly and online-only issue is can see that 2021 will be a natural for January 11, 2008, with speaker downloaded about 6,000 times, though target for a big Yuri’s Night Celebra- Marianne Dyson (www.mdyson.com), our section has less than 1,100 mem- tion. The 2001 event was reportedly a author and former NASA/JSC flight bers. Current and past issues are visi- product of the Space Generation Advi- controller. This event is sponsored by ble at www.aiaa-houston.org/horizons. sory Council of the United Nations our section’s astrodynamics technical Candidates may apply using contact Program for Space Applications. The committee. information on our web site (www.aiaa International Space University chose Captain High of the 1940 Air -houston.org) or by e-mailing its date of formal creation as April 12, Terminal Museum [email protected].