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March/April 2012 Volume 37, Issue 5 AIAA Houston Section www.aiaa-houston.org March / April 2012 Hubble Revisited on NASA’s 50th Anniversary Develop Cislunar Space Next Paul D. Spudis AIAA Houston Section Horizons March / April 2012 Page 1 March / April 2012 T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S From the Chair 3 HOUSTON From the Editor 4 Horizons is a bimonthly publication of the Houston Section Cover Story: Develop Cislunar Space Next, Paul D. Spudis 5 of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Next-Generation Suborbital Researcher’s Conference (NSRC 2012) 10 Douglas Yazell Carl Walz of Orbital Sciences Corp.,Lunch-and-Learn, Commercial Cargo 13 Editor Past Editors: Dr. Steven E. Everett Douglas Terrier: NASA/JSC: Leading the Next 50 Years of Exploration 14 Editing team: Don Kulba, Ellen Gillespie, Robert Bere- mand, Alan Simon, Dr. Steven Everett, Shen Ge Lunar and Planetary Institute Lecture Series: NASA GRAIL Lunar Mission 16 Regular contributors: Dr. Steven Everett, Don Kulba, Philippe Mairet, Alan Simon, Scott Lowther SCEA Lunch-and-Learn: Dream Chaser, Sierra Nevada Corp., John Curry 18 Contributors this issue: Paul D. Spudis, Sean Carter, Daniel R. Adamo, BeBe Kelly-Serrato, Shen Ge Book Review: 50 Years on the Space Frontier, reviewed by Daniel Adamo 19 AIAA Houston Section The 1940 Air Terminal Museum at Hobby Airport 20 Executive Council With our French Sister Section 3AF MP: Astronaut Training in Star City 22 Sean Carter With our French Sister Section 3AF MP: International Cooperation 24 Chair Councilors EAA Chapter 12 in Houston: The Experimental Aircraft Association 25 Daniel Nobles Irene Chan Chair-Elect Secretary Virtus, Aerospace Projects Review (APR), E-Publication, by Scott Lowther 26 Sarah Shull John Kostrzewski AIAA Calendar 30 Past Chair Treasurer Cranium Cruncher 31 Julie Read Dr. Satya Pilla Vice-Chair, Operations Vice-Chair, Technical Section News 32 Operations Technical Current Events & Staying Informed 34 Dr. Gary Turner Dr. Albert A. Jackson IV Shen Ge Bebe Kelly-Serrato The Conquest of Space, and The Ugly Spaceship, Dr. A. A. Jackson 48 Melissa Gordon Dr. Zafar Taqvi The Back Cover:ISS Expedition 32 and NEEMO 15 56 Lisa Voiles Bill Atwell Rafael Munoz Sheikh Ahsan Svetlana Hanson William West Horizons and AIAA Houston Section Web Site Michael Frostad Paul Nielson AIAA National Communications Award Winner Dr. Benjamin Longmier Dr. Steven E. Everett Matthew Easterly Gary Brown Douglas Yazell Dr. Kamlesh Lulla Gary Cowan Ludmila Dmitriev-Odier Joel Henry Alan Sisson Ellen Gillespie Brian Banker Matt Johnson 2005 2006 2007 Clay Stangle This newsletter is created by members of AIAA Houston Section. Opinions expressed herein other Melissa Kronenberger than by elected Houston Section officers belong solely to the authors and do not necessarily repre- Sarah Barr sent the position of AIAA or the Houston Section. Unless explicitly stated, in no way are the com- Donald Barker ments of individual contributors to Horizons to be construed as necessarily the opinion or position Shirley Brandt of AIAA, NASA, its contractors, or any other organization. All articles in Horizons, unless other- Holly Feldman wise noted, are the property of the individual contributors. Reproduction/republishing in any form Gabe Garrett except limited excerpts with attribution to the source, will require the express approval of the indi- www.aiaa-houston.org vidual authors. Please address all newsletter correspondence to editor-in-chief[at]aiaa-houston.org. Cover: Develop Cislunar Space Next. Image credit: John Frassanito & Associ- ates, reproduced with permission and thanks. AIAA Houston Section Horizons March / April 2012 Page 2 Page 3 2012 AIAA Congressional Visits Day (CVD) From the Chair SEAN CARTER, CHAIR March 21, 2012 term value that science, engi- dustry neering, and technology bring 5. Sharing Stewardship of the Federal Houston Section Attendees: to America. After all, AIAA Aeronautics RDT&E Infrastructure Brian Banker, Joe Mayer, is the world's largest technical 6. Developing a Robust Next Genera- Sean Carter society dedicated to the global tion Air Transportation System aerospace profession. We 7. Strengthening the National Com- AIAA Houston members re- represent over 30,000 profes- mitment to Aerospace Research and cently traveled to our Na- sional who vote. The AIAA Development tion’s Capital and participated National Public Policy Com- 8. Facilitating Assured, Cost-Effective in the AIAA’s Congressional mittee plans the event Human Access to Space Visits Day (CVD). Each throughout the year to ensure 9. Recruiting, Retaining, and Develop- year, AIAA members – in- that our voice is heard ing a World-Class Aerospace cluding scientists, engineers, throughout the halls of Con- Workforce researchers, educators, and gress. 10. Increasing Emphasis and Funding technology executives – come for Technology and Engineering in to Washington, D.C. to take This year’s Key Issues, as STEM part in AIAA CVD, meeting determined by the AIAA Pub- with national decision makers lic Policy Committee, were: All of the members from Region IV to discuss critical issues in worked together as TEAM TEXAS by civil aeronautics, civil astro- 1. Assuring the Viability of visiting the offices of the following nautics, and defense. the US Aerospace and Members of Congress: Defense Industrial Base What’s Our Goal? 2. Dealing with Counterfeit Charlie Gonzalez (TX-20) and Malicious Hardware Ralph Hall (TX-4) Through face-to-face meet- 3. Supporting an Evolving Pete Olson (TX-22) ings with members of Con- and Adaptive Cyber- Lamar Smith (TX-21) gress, congressional staffers, security Policy John Culberson (TX-7) key Administration officials, 4. Lessening the Impact of Francisco Canseco (TX-23) and other decision makers, Export Controls on the Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX) Congressional Visits Day Domestic Aerospace In- Senator John Cornyn (TX) raises awareness of the long- Left: Back Row, L to R: Thomas Moore, Sean Carter, Congressman Ralph Hall, Joseph Mayer, Paul Giangarra. Front Row: Brian Banker. Thomas & Paul are from the South- west Texas Section. Sean, Joseph, & Brian are from Houston Section. Congressman Hall is the Chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. AIAA Houston Section Horizons March / April 2012 Page 3 Page 4 From the Editor The Next Logical Step DOUGLAS YAZELL, EDITOR Paul D. Spudis supplies an like the dinosaur killer from displays a Mickey Mouse excellent cover story for this 65 million years ago. A pub- tattoo: three circles, two side issue, and the outstanding licly available report quanti- by side for the ears and one illustrations are provided by fies that danger: Defending just below them to represent John Frassanito & Associ- Planet Earth (2010). his head. I recall that those ates. Some might call this novels described planet-wide The Next Logical Step, but Scott Lowther’s APR article danger due to trouble with Paul Spudis uses the title in this issue is especially their atmosphere-maintaining Develop Cislunar Space nice. It is also a good fit with machinery. That is a coinci- Next. our NASA/JSC aerospace dence, since “...there is al- community here in the Hou- most no disagreement among It might seem that we can- ston area. The color painting climate scientists that the celed Constellation because by renowned British aviation planet is [warming], and will of its cost (also because it artist Douglas Ettridge of a continue to warm due to hu- was too Moon-centric), then space shuttle orbiter being man emissions of greenhouse replaced it by what the Au- dropped by Virtus is excel- gases.” That is an April 2012 gustine Committee called a lent. quote from the Houston Flexible Path, an equally ex- Chronicle science/space/ pensive option. Are the ap- Robert Heinlein said that weather journalist Eric Ber- pearances deceiving? Is the Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote ger. E-mail: current path for NASA the good science fiction for his editor-in-chief [at] best possible path given the time, such as A Princess of Our next issue might contain aiaa-houston.org funding available? Mars from 1912, featuring an article about the 50th anni- the princess Dejah Thoris. versary of AIAA Houston Our web site www.aiaa- Is it realistic to call for a The hero, John Carter of Vir- Section, an event we will houston.org includes Horizons crewed mission to an asteroid ginia, becomes a hero on celebrate in late June 2012. back issues to 2005 or earlier. in 2025 when the mission is Mars not long after our Instead of publishing that For earlier issues (an incom- announced in 2010? American Civil War. If you issue by June 30, 2012, we plete archive being slowly are one of the ten or twenty might publish a few weeks updated) click here. As our astronauts train for people who reportedly saw earlier. asteroid rendezvous, we keep the new Disney John Carter in mind the chances of an movie, I hope you noticed asteroid hitting the Earth that among her many tattoos, again, an asteroid something the right arm of Dejah Thoris Wikipedia article excerpts: A Princess of Mars: Burroughs began work on A Princess of Mars in the summer of 1911 when he was 35. He wrote most of the first half of the novel while working for his brother in a stationery company, penning the words on scratch pads produced by the business. He had been struggling for some time to establish himself as a businessman, so far with little success, and with a wife and two children to support, turned to writing in desperate need of income. Despite failure in his business affairs, he had accumulated a wealth of unusual experiences from working a variety of jobs which had brought him into contact with miners, soldiers, cowboys, and Native Americans. Above: 100 years ago, February When Burroughs received his acceptance letter from Thomas Metcalf of The All-Story, 1912.
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