THE WRIGHT STUFF Vol XX No 4 The Official Newsletter of the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk NCC-1659 Jul / Aug 2009 C O N T E N T S A VIEW FROM THE CATBIRD SEAT ................................3 J.R. Fisher SCIENCE REPORT ................................................3 Elaine Pischke FIRST OFFICER AND OPERATIONS REPORTS .......................4 Larry Pischke SHORE LEAVE REPORT ...........................................4 Meg Hale FROM THE KITCHEN .............................................5 Volume 20 - Number 4 Lynn Stone is a publication of the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, the VOYAGER - DEALER'S CHOICE ....................................6 Raleigh, N.C., chapter of STARFLEET, an Brad McDonald international STAR TREK fan organization. This publication is provided free of charge to COMPUTER OPERATIONS REPORT .................................6 all chapter members in good standing. John Troan Subscriptions for non-members are $12.00 per UPCOMING EVENTS .............................................10 year (six issues). Please address all corres- pondence to CATBIRD Publications, 5017 Glen Forest Dr., Raleigh, N.C. 27612. This publication is a non-profit enterprise and is not meant to infringe upon any copyright or trademark held by Paramount Pictures, Gulf & Western, or any other holder of STAR TREK copyrights or trademarks. Unless otherwise noted, ENTIRE CONTENTS ARE COPYRIGHT © 2009 CATBIRD Publications, THE WRIGHT STUFF. Nothing in whole or in part may be used without the written permission of the publisher. THE WRIGHT STUFF assumes all material submitted for publication is gratis. The publisher and editors reserve the right to edit all submissions. Publisher ....................J.R. Fisher Editors ..................... Jane Fisher John Troan TOOL BOX: Pentium IV-3.0GHz; HP LaserJet 1200 & DeskJet 722C; Lotus WordPro; Adobe Acrobat. IMAGES - Title Banner Wright Flyer from NASA/Ames PAO photo archive; U.S.S. Kitty Hawk (USN CV-63) from navicp.navy.mil; Constitution class cruiser from gwu.edu/~rljones/khawk. IMAGE - Featured Front Page Shuttle Discovery rolls out to Pad 39A for the Aug 24 launch to the International Space Station. A View From the Catbird Seat By J.R. Fisher Summer is almost they cannot afford, and gather age information and we need to have a over and we are and gender appropriate winter very forthright discussion at our trying to wrap up clothing for children in desperate need September meeting regards all of the some of our of such before winter gets here. above. I know that some of you will projects. Please We are working on getting the not be here for that meeting, but I bring a can of food computers from an organization that hope you will share your thoughts with to the next meeting reconditions older machines and that me between now and then. in September as we conclude our it may take time to work out the details This is a project that will cover efforts to gather food for the food as far as what we can do besides several months as I am sure bank, and any cash donations will be provide money. searching our closets and drawers will appreciated as well. I will take the There are thirty children who are take time. We will strive to provide as food and cash to them the following in need of just about everything from much as we can from our own homes, week. toiletries to winter coats. There are 18 but obviously we will have to tap other As of this writing, August 16th, we girls and 12 boys in the group. Sizes sources to make any significant have completed the radio play for all that are needed are as follows. impact on their situation. Individuals but a few characters. Anthony will try may make purchases if they so desire very hard to collect the missing voices y Girls: Small, medium, large or may contribute monies to the ship before heading off to Dragon Con for y Women's: 4, 6, 8, 10 to be used specifically for this project. the Labor Day weekend. Everyone's y Girls' shoe size: 5, 5 1/2, 6, 6 1/2, Depending upon our success, we may cooperation would be appreciated. 7, 7 1/2, 8 feel the need to tap the treasury to At our next meeting, we will read y Boys: Small, medium, large and achieve our goals. one of Brad's stories in character just comparable shirt sizes It is time, once again, to show the for the fun of it. y Boys' shoe sizes: 7 in half sizes up world that we have the Wright Stuff. It Several of the crew attended the to 11 is the selfless acts of individuals and IC in Greensboro and had a good groups of individuals which have time seeing old friends as well as All appropriate toiletries for both made this country great. It is what will making a few new ones. The genders would also be appreciated. sustain us through this dark time in Bonaventure should be congratulated The questions arise as to how our history and make us great again. on an excellent effort. much of each size do we need and Esse Quam Videri Our new projects for the fall will just how many "outfits", for lack of a (To Be, Rather Than to Seem) include raising money to help some better word, should we be attempting needy kids get the computers that to provide? Obviously, we need more Science Report By Elaine Pischke Once again, NASA will be building ever? The building, which the number of people in the breaking new ground, this time will mostly be used as an office building, as well as the location of literally, on August 25th. That’s the building, but will also house some those people, and adjust day when construction will begin research and engineering units, temperatures accordingly. Ever on a new building at the Ames will utilize solar panels, geothermal been in a hot, crowded conference Research Center in California. energy, fuel cells, a water room for a meeting? Sustainability What makes this remarkable is recycling system, and even Base will automatically up the a/c that the building, to be named technology derived from NASA's to accommodate for the body heat. Sustainability Base, will be one of human and robotic space And the building will do all this the greenest buildings built to exploration missions. The without using any net energy. The date. Steve Zornetzer, Associate building’s computer system will building will, in effect, power itself. Center Director at NASA Ames, monitor the weather around the Sustainability Base is scheduled to says that, as long as NASA is building and adjust the interior of be completed in 2011. planning to build an the building accordingly, even environmentally friendly building, capturing nearby breezes to cool why not make it the greenest the building. It will also monitor THE WRIGHT STUFF PAGE 3 JUL / AUG 2009 First Officer and Operations Reports By Larry Pischke First Officer country, has ADHD. After Apollo 11, for now. Lift a glass and toast those the moon just couldn’t hold our with the Wright Stuff on the Shock! Surprise! Disbelief! I attention anymore. Space seemed to anniversary, and look back fondly at know what you’re all thinking. Yes, bore us. We weren’t whooshing the end of an era. it’s been a while since I’ve written anywhere. Mercury, Gemini, anything to be published. Well, your everything had been leading up to probation is now over. I have been Apollo and the moon. That was the Operations ordered to contribute from now on, so destination. President Kennedy said deal with it. it, and it was our duty to him to fulfill it. It seems you can’t get away from This is also a monumental issue me now! I am pulling double duty, th There was nothing on the map because it is the 40 anniversary of marked “Next.” stepping into the Operations chair – or the landing on the moon by Neil Oh, sure, there was the Skylab, is that squatting? Anyway, this used Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Just and the shuttle, but they weren’t going to be my office a long time ago, so it’s imagine, 40 years ago this month, anywhere; there was no destination. just a question of finding out where representatives from this planet Skylab went round and round, then whoever took over from me put managed to set foot upon another fell down. The shuttle was envisioned everything. celestial body, and promptly began as a cheap hauler (HA!) – take stuff For those of you who want to polluting it…. up, bring stuff down. There was no know, I did see Star Trek and I did not Think of the time frame from Kitty destination. like it. I won’t go into the details in this Hawk to Tranquility Base. Now think And with no destination, and no article. Maybe another one at a later of the time frame from Tranquility clear vision or mandate, the bean date. If you really want to know Base to now. Seems we’ve lost our counters stepped in. before then, ask me. I will ask you way. We could’ve been to Mars by I can go on and on – and probably one question though: What the heck now. Heck, we could’ve been a lot of will at a later date. But lets stop here is red matter?? places by now. The government, the Shore Leave Report By Meg Hale It's hard to believe the annual This year's Star Trek guests were Sunset Boulevard, with a "dead" body Shore Leave convention in Maryland from Voyager -- Robert Picardo, who floating in the hotel pool (and being is 31 years old this year.