LUNAR'clips 2005

LUNAR’clips Volume 12, Number 2 Livermore Unit of the National Association of Rocketry March/April 2005

Note From the Editor The Range Head, March/April 2005 Geoff Canham, LUNAR #534 Jack Hagerty, LUNAR #002

Made it through tax day ... huge sigh of relief. Now you can Hi folks; relax and enjoy the latest offering from our writers, starting It seems nearly all of the items this time have to do with “the off with the latest news of everyone’s favorite rocket—the Ranch.” Piñata, what else could it be? MARCH SNOW RANCH LAUNCH

Also, if you are getting around to planning your vacation for For the March launch we almost had to change the name of next year, we have an update on the plans for the X Prize Cup the ranch from “Snow” to “Mud.” It was pretty soggy. Two 2006, to be held in Las Cruces, New Mexico. weeks of rain had saturated the ground, although the day itself was gorgeous. The one spot that gave everyone trouble was My thanks to all who have submitted articles, and those that the narrow squeeze where the hill runs into the creek at the are promising them, but with one edition of the ‘Clips going entrance to the flying field. While almost everyone made it out it’s time to start planning the next, so here’s the first call through without incident, there’s always one incompetent for articles for the May/June edition. who gets himself in trouble. One fool tried to get on the field in a small I-talian sports car and got a little sideways going in, and managed to swap ends and sink up to his rims on the way out. It took pretty much all the LUNAR officers to extract In This Issue him. I spent about half an hour and $5 worth of quarters at the coin-op carwash the next day removing pieces of Snow Ranch Note From the Editor ...... 1 from my wheel wells and chassis parts… The Range Head ...... 1 Piñata Rocket: The Evolution ...... 3 Utterly Alien ...... 6 Spaced-Out IT Guys ...... 7 Governor Announces The X-Prize Cup ...... 8 February & March Snow Ranch Launches ...... 10 Who we are ...... 13 LUNAR calendar ...... 14

LUNAR’clips is also available on-line at http://www.lunar.org

Jack backwards (see also page 11) Of course the more vocal members of the club just couldn’t resist after Joe Heckenbach and Dave Flournoy posted pictures on the “lunar.general” mailing list. Charles Winter had probably the best take with the following missive:

“I was away with family, but had I know you were going to give a stuck vehicle demonstration, I would have gone out to Snow Ranch! • Were there not enough L's or M's to stick under that thing and build JATO pack? • Maybe the club should build a Snow Ranch Puddle Ejector. • I had no idea your car was so nimble it could do 360's in mud puddle - Those foreign carmakers think What’s the connection to between IT and space exploration? of everything! See page 8. PS: it has nothing to do with the above object • We could post a sign that says: "You must be this tall seen at MacWorld.

to pass." (Me or my car? – JH) on what they are going to do, and the ones selected are funded • Did you get a chance to “wash down” the folks that by NASA to carry out the experiment. The two teams made helped to extract your ride? - That can be fun. three HP flights ("J" motors) as part of their development Better luck next time.” process. The Laguna Creek team, which was mentored by Steve Kendall, just took national honors at the final competition at NASA Huntsville! It wasn’t just fun sliding around in cars with no ground clear- ance, we also did some rocketry! Dave Raimondi made a suc- Advanced Scouts – Rob Briody brought out a Boy Scout cessful L2 certification flight, plus, there were three L1 certs troop who are doing advanced rocketry. They built two car- (one of them a Jr. L1). Even more impressive, there were a bon-fiber "J" powered models that they planned to fly twice whole bunch of TARC R&D flights, and the team from Sara- each. I only counted two flight cards for them (one for each), toga HS bit the bullet and went for a qualification flight. They so I'm not sure if they got all their planned flights in. took the "safe" approach and did a single stage, single motor Certification – Seems we were awash in cert flights! We had flight, which we thought would only give them 30 seconds or five L1 cert flights (one of those a Jr. HPR cert), and one L2 so, but they caught a thermal right at the very end and cert. stretched it to 53 sec.

One disturbing occurrence in March happened on the way APRIL ROBERTSON LAUNCH out. The club officers always seem to be the last ones to Not to be left out, we had our first night launch of the year at leave, and this time we noticed a number of wheel ruts and Robertson Park on April 16. We also had four Cub Scout “donuts” well off the road onto the fields. LUNAR is the dens, the Boys & Girls Club of San Leandro and several 4-H grateful guest of the Orvis’s at Snow Ranch, and do not want clubs in attendance throughout the day and evening. This was to loose such a precious resource. It would be a terrible shame our first launch from our “new” field, which is actually a cor- if were asked not to come back because someone wasn’t ner of the parking lot. The planned use of the unimproved thinking about the consequences of their actions and ruined it field will probably not work since the grass is too high, even for everyone else. I don't want to point fingers, but somehow I when mowed, since it is not irrigated and is already to dry to don't think that our regular members would do this. I offered be safe. The parking lot thing worked tolerably well, be we to Bruce and Roma Orvis (Bill’s parents) that we could put really need to find a new field in the area. together a work party to help repair any damage. VP Steve Kendall also suggested that we could buy them a load of 4H LEADER gravel to help "pave" the road out at the very end to help with the slick spots. We’ll be talking with them more about this in Robert Tashjian, the LUNAR member who also coordinates the coming months. the 4-H Rocket Day’s that we hold at our night launches, is looking for someone to coordinate an area-wide rocketry pro- APRIL SNOW RANCH LAUNCH gram: A month later things had dried out a little. A lot less sliding “Dublin 4-H club would love to have a rocketry project around and a lot more diverse rocket projects. It was, in fact, and needs a Rocketry Project Leader, so I thought this the biggest confluence of events that I've ever seen in my 13 might be the perfect place to find one! The project would years with the club (which means all 13 years of the club :-) probably start next August-September. (4-H tends to fol- In addition to the two hundred or so regular model and High low the school year as that is when the project signups Power flights, here is a list of all the "special" things that went usually take place.) It could start earlier if you wanted to on: run it through the summer. TARC flights – This was the last chance for teams to fly with “The curriculum would largely be up to you, and would full LUNAR support at a regular launch before the deadline involve meeting with the kids once a month or so plus, of of April 11. We had five teams from three different schools course, a trek out to LUNAR to launch. The Bayside pro- participating that made a total of 19 flights. Seven of those ject typically has a short lecture, maybe an experiment, were official qualification flights, and I'm pleased to report and a building session . If you want more information, that all of them produced a qualification, a couple of which send me email and I can give you a more detailed idea of have since made the finals with scores of 1 or 2 (zero is per- how the Bayside Rocketry project works. fect). “Sharon Clay is the Community Leader for the Dublin 4- Student Launch Initiative (SLI) – There were also two SLI H club, you can contact her directly ([email protected]. teams out there doing R&D flights. This is a much more in- com) or send me email with any questions (rob@tashjian. tense contest than TARC in that the teams have to do some com).” actual science data gathering. They have to write a proposal

style, so I needed an unusual way to give them Piñata Rocket: The out. In a moment of brilliance I decided to drop Evolution them from a rocket, but a falling sucker might be kind of painful so I attached a streamer to Tony Cooper, LUNAR#571 each sucker. At the time, the only rocket I had for lofting candy was a North Coast Rocketry Phantom 4000. I honestly didn’t expect the kind The Piñata Rocket began at the monthly LU- of response I got from the kids, they went wild NAR launch in October 1999, after my daugh- chasing down all the suckers. The next month, ter, Krystal, was born that September 23. I my son Kevon wanted to join into the fun and don’t smoke, so I gave out candy in lieu of ci- fly candy for the kids. This is when I realized gars. I bought 60 "It’s a girl!" suckers from how much the kids liked it. We did a repeat Sees Candies to distribute to my rocket flight at the LUNAR November launch 1999. At friends. But just handing them out wasn’t my this point I knew I needed a better candy- deploying machine. About that time, Aerotech came out with the G- Force. It seemed to have every thing I needed: a 4" airframe and a large upper section that could easily be turned into a payload section, so the G- Force went on my Christmas list. It took until February 2000, before the G-Force actually shipped, but I got it built in time for the March 2000 launch. I built the G-Force essentially stock including using CA (cyanoacrylate or su- per glue) rather than epoxy for most of the joints. I was a little concerned about CA holding up to the stresses of H motors and all the candy I could pack into the rocket, so I used epoxy on the fore and aft centering rings. To fly this rocket on H motors meant that I had to leave out the motor block and motor hook. I used three 8- 32 studs, epoxied along the motor mount tube, for motor retention. The next modification was that I didn’t glue the nose cone on. Instead I ordered an extra parachute, added an eyebolt through the bulkhead of the payload section, and tied on a shock cord from the eyebolt to the nose cone. The grand plan was to use motor ejection to pop the drogue parachute, and then hope that gravity would pull the nose cone off, deploy the candy and the main parachute, and bring it

safely back to earth. During the first launch in March, that is exactly what happened. I was tickled and the kids loved it! The next flight, though, was April. I decided that an Easter theme was in order. I made little parachutes for about 40 little plastic candy filled eggs. This time, though, the payload section drag separated at main engine burnout due to the high drag of a 4" body tube trying to slice through the air. The M&M filled Easter eggs slammed upwards into the back of the nose cone which pushed the nose cone off. Those heavy little Easter eggs were deployed into a 150mph air stream. Needless to say, scotch magic tape wasn’t so magical and failed to hold the little eggs to the parachutes. Fortunately though, the kids saw the parachutes drift off with the wind. As they ran for the parachutes, little "eggrenades" started exploding on the ground where the kids were. Thankfully, not a single person was hit by falling eggs. It was kind of comical to see the explosion of M&Ms erupt from the ground where the eggs impacted. It re- minded me of the Skittles rainbow commercials. Next launch I tightened up the nose cone so it not get it to pass the ground test. Being scared I would not drag separate. It didn’t work. Three flew the G-Force with the motor as primary de- launches in a row the nose cone drag separated ployment and the AltAcc as backup. My fears spitting candy upward at 150mph. I finally did were unfounded. The AltAcc worked perfectly. get the nosecone the correct tightness for gravity The motor ejection charge went off, the AltAcc to pull the nose cone off. I remained concerned, detected parachute deployment and apogee and though, that one time the nose might not pull off it fired the drogue ejection charge. Gravity had and then a 6 pound, 5 foot tall, 4 inch rocket was already the deployed candy but at 500 feet on going to come back to Earth under one para- the way down I could see the AltAcc fire the chute. drogue parachute charge. It was nearing Christmas again, so I put a Black- Next launch I picked a longer motor delay. This Sky AltAcc2A altimeter on my Christmas list. made the motor ejection charge a backup and The night before the December 2000 launch, my allowed the AltAcc to act as primary drogue de- wife, Sheryl, gave me my present a little early. I ployment device. I also tightened the nose cone was up late that night reading directions and try- so it would not gravity separate. Perfection had ing to get the AltAcc into the rocket, but I could been achieved. At apogee the drogue chute

ejected on time, the motor backup charge could bottom of the rocket. I flew it on a Pro38 H110 be seen firing and then the main parachute with with 310 NSec total impulse. It was the biggest the candy deployed at 500 feet. "H" I’d flown at the time. It put the Piñata Rocket up 1300 feet. The kids enjoyed a lengthy Next launch I ran into difficulty when the amount of time anticipating the candy deploy- drogue chute separated from the booster section. ment as the rocket drifted from apogee to 500'. Luckily, it had a nice tumble recovery and the It was thrilling watching the rocket get closer to AltAcc still deploy the candy right on cue. I tied ground and seeing all the candy come out. the two ends of the shock cord back together and sent it up for a second flight. Again the Time has marched on and the Piñata rocket has shock cord failed, but the AltAcc saved the pay- continued to evolve. I only flew the Piñata load section of the rocket. The booster forward rocket once on the 38mm to 29mm adapter end was crumpled and 3" had to be cut off. This when I bought a new G-Force with an extra is when I invested in Kevlar cord from Pratt body tube. When it arrived I threw away the Hobbies and replaced the shock cord before the stock motor mount tube and replaced it with a next launch. The booster was now too short for LOC 38mm tube I had. I trimmed the Aerotech the payload coupler to fit in. I ordered another fins to allow for the 38mm motor mount and cut 18" body section and two body tube couplers. up the fin lock system so it would fit a 38mm From all the landings, the tail was getting pretty motor mount. I also bought a G-Wiz LC800. badly damaged. One coupler was used to length- The Piñata has now become drag racing Piñatas. ened the Piñata Rocket and the second coupler was added inside the tail of the rocket to reduce The first flight of dueling Piñatas was at LU- the crumpling during landing. NAR’s Robertson Park launch site. It was Easter again and with the two Piñatas, I had room for 6 The next flight of the Piñata Rocket resulted in dozen M&M filled Easter eggs. This time with its first failure of the AltAcc. For whatever rea- the altimeters in place, both Piñatas deployed son the drogue igniter did not fire. Fortunately dozens of parachuting Easter Eggs at low speed. the motor backup still fired and the AltAcc main The Easter Bunny’s job just got a little easier fired so both parachutes made it out and another and a heck of a lot more fun. safe recovery. Kids loved all the candy they were getting. I used the exact same ejection For over five years now, every month that charge in the same place the very next flight and weather and scheduling has permitted, candy it fired. Every flight since has been perfect. It’s has rained down from a LUNAR launch. Our still a mystery why it didn’t fire the first time. field has been encroached on by houses, which keeps me from flying at Robertson Park any The next problem came about because of the more, but during the winter at Snow Ranch, Aerotech fire in 2001 causing 29mm H motors look for the Piñatas in the sky. If you happen to to get very scarce. I bought a Pro 38 but learned be attending LDRS24 in Lethbridge Canada, be that it’s kind of difficult to get a 38mm motor up sure to look for the Piñata rockets from LU- a 29mm motor tube. I took a creative approach NAR! They are expected to be a featured event and built a 38mm to 29mm adapter. Yes, that’s about 1 PM each of the commercial flying days, right; it adapts a smaller motor mount tube to a July 14 - 17. larger motor that hangs about 10 inches out the

The cameras will also target Pluto's moon, Charon. Charon is more than half the size of Pluto, and the two circle one Utterly Alien another only 19,200 kilometers (12,000 miles) apart. (For comparison, the Moon is 382,400 kilometers [239,000 miles] from Earth.) No wonder some astronomers call the by Dr. Tony Phillips pair a "double planet."

Researchers believe that Pluto and Charon were created billions of years ago by some terrific impact, which split a bigger planet into two smaller ones. This idea is supported by the fact that Pluto and Charon spin on their sides like sibling worlds knocked askew.

Yet there are some curious differences: Pluto is bright; Charon is darker. Pluto is covered with frozen nitrogen; There's a planet in our solar system so cold that in winter Charon by frozen water. Pluto has an atmosphere; Charon its nitrogen atmosphere freezes and falls to the might not. "These are things we plan to investigate," says ground. The empty sky becomes perfectly clear, jet-black Stern. even at noontime. You can see thousands of stars. Not one twinkles. Two worlds. So alike, yet so different. So utterly alien. Stay tuned for New Horizons. The brightest star in the sky is the Sun, so distant and tiny you could eclipse it with the head of a pin. There's a Find out more about the New Horizons mission at pluto. moon, too, so big you couldn't blot it out with your entire jhuapl.edu/. Kids can learn amazing facts about Pluto at hand. Together, moonlight and sunshine cast a twilight spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/pluto. glow across the icy landscape revealing . . . what? twisted spires, craggy mountains, frozen volcanoes? This article was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a No one knows, because no one has ever been to Pluto. contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Admini- stration. "Pluto is an alien world," says Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado. "It's the only planet never visited or photographed by NASA space probes."

That's about to change. A robot-ship called New Horizons is scheduled to blast off for Pluto in January 2006. It's a long journey: More than 6 billion kilometers (about 3.7 billion miles). New Horizons won't arrive until 2015.

"I hope we get there before the atmosphere collapses," says Stern, the mission's principal investigator. Winter is coming, and while it's warm enough now for Pluto's air to float, it won't be for long. Imagine seeing a planet's atmosphere collapse. New Horizons might!

"This is a flyby mission," notes Stern. “Slowing the spacecraft down to orbit Pluto would burn more fuel than we New Horizons spacecraft will get a gravity assist from can carry." New Horizons will glide past the planet furi- Jupiter on its long journey to Pluto-Charon. Credit: ously snapping pictures. "Our best images will resolve fea- Southwest Research Institute (Dan Durda)/Johns Hop- tures the size of a house," Stern says. kins University Applied Physics Laboratory (Ken Mo- scati).

The report said that flight testing would likely begin in six Spaced-Out IT Guys to seven years, with basic facilities, such as an engine test stand, fuel and water tanks and an office building, getting Geoff Canham, LUNAR #534 under construction during the immediate future. Blue Ori- gin is already in the midst of the FAA pre-application Have you noticed how many people behind space tourism process for a launch site license. Bezos has supposedly al- ventures are people who’ve made their money in informa- ready assembled a team of veteran rocket scientists who tion technology? The co-founder of Microsoft, Paul Allen, have worked on a variety of aerospace and missile defense provided the financing for the winning X-Prize entry, projects, and their Web site, www.blueorigin.com, is ad- SpaceShipOne, and another X-Prize entry, Armadillo, is vertising for more, if anyone’s interested in real high led by John Carmack, author of the computer games power rocketry and is willing to move to Texas. DOOM (1993) and Quake (1996). Well, here’s news of two more IT guys who are finding ways to reach into Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) space: The founder of PayPal, Elon Musk, now heads up SpaceX, spending some of the $1.5 billion proceeds from the sale of Blue Origin PayPal to eBay to try to win the $50 million America's Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon.com has founded a space Space Prize established last year by Las Vegas hotelier and exploration company called Blue Origin, and has an- space entrepreneur, Robert Bigelow. nounced plans to build an aerospace testing and operations center on a ranch located north of Van Horn, Texas. The whole venture is rather secretive, but is said to include plans for building a suborbital spacecraft that can launch and land vertically with three or more astronauts, accord- ing to a report in the local Van Horn Advocate newspaper.

Falcon I at SpaceX launch pad, Vandenberg Air Force Base (picture from SpaceX Web site)

But SpaceX is already a commercial venture, providing a satellite launching service with its Falcon I rocket. Falcon I uses a single Merlin merlin engine, but the planned Falcon V rocket will use five Mergine engines in the first stage, and is expected to be capable of carrying at least five people into low Earth orbit. Their Web site is www.SpaceX.com

Falcon V Jeff Bezos

GOVERNOR ANNOUNCES that will not only assist in opening the space frontier to all private citizens, but will bring THE X PRIZE CUP new companies, provide new jobs, increase tourism statewide, and help brand New Mexico as the place to be to experience the future.” The following is a copy of an email received April At a press conference in Las Cruces, the Gover- 13 about the plans for the X-Prize Cup nor outlined the week's activities for the Count- down to X PRIZE CUP. Joining the Governor in the announcement was Dr. Peter H. Dia- mandis, Founder and Chairman of the X PRIZE Foundation, which is partnering with New Mexico in developing the X PRIZE CUP annual even, and New Mexico Secretary of Eco- nomic Development Rick Homans. “The X PRIZE Foundation is thrilled to be part- ners with the citizens of New Mexico in creat- Governor Bill Richardson Announces X ing what will become the premiere space event PRIZE CUP Events of the 21st Century as we launch the personal New Mexico's X PRIZE CUP event follows spaceflight revolution,” said Dr. Peter H. Dia- last year's second biggest news story - $10 mandis, Chairman and Founder of the X PRIZE Million Ansari X PRIZE won by SpaceShi- Foundation. pOne Events announced for the Countdown to the X PRIZE CUP include: LAS CRUCES, NM (April 13 2005) - As part o Demonstration flights of reusable space vehi- of a groundbreaking move to make New Mex- cles by future X PRIZE CUP contenders at the ico the launch pad for commercial space travel, Las Cruces International Airport Governor Bill Richardson today announced o Preview flights of the Tier-1 X PRIZE Rocket southern New Mexico will host a special event Racer at the Las Cruces International Airport. called Countdown to the X PRIZE CUP, that o Static hardware displays of the X PRIZE will include X PRIZE CUP team demonstra- team vehicles, flight simulations and opportuni- tions, an exhibition, the largest-ever space edu- ties to visit with astronauts, spacecraft design- cation day, and space-related community events ers, and X PRIZE team leaders and pilots, statewide. The event will take place this fall, as o Education Day at the Alamogordo Space His- Governor Richardson declared October 4-9, tory Museum for New Mexico's next genera- 2005 will be “X PRIZE CUP” week throughout tion of engineers, pilots, astronauts, and space the state of New Mexico. entrepreneurs with more than 2000 students “New Mexico continues to take the lead in ad- participating vancing the next generation of space vehicles o During the event, Zero Gravity Corporation's and space travelers,” said Governor Richard- G-FORCE One will conduct weightless flights son. “This year's Countdown to X PRIZE CUP utilizing the only FAA approved zero-gravity is the important first step in creating an event aircraft

Also taking place at the Countdown to the X The X PRIZE was the second biggest story of PRIZE CUP will be the announcement of fu- 2004, when SpaceShipOne, built by Burt Rutan ture X PRIZE CUP competitions, a preview of of Scaled Composites and sponsored by New X PRIZE CUP 2006, and community events Mexico resident Paul Allen, won the $10 mil- celebrating space throughout the state. Commu- lion ANSARI X PRIZE. Scaled Composites nity meetings are being scheduled across the built and flew the first private spacecraft to an state to help communities create their own altitude of 62 miles to the edge of space, mak- space-related events for X PRIZE CUP Week, ing suborbital pilots Mike Melvil and Brian to listen to ideas and answer any questions. Binnie the first private astronauts. The X PRIZE CUP is an official partnership “The annual X PRIZE CUP has the potential to between the state of New Mexico and the X be an event of global importance, bringing visi- PRIZE Foundation, an educational 501(c)3 or- tors and visibility for New Mexico from around ganization. New Mexico officially won the the world and beyond” said Michael Cerletti, right to host the X PRIZE CUP in a national New Mexico Tourism Department Secretary. competition conducted by the X PRIZE Foun- “The planet will be watching as we reach for dation in 2004, winning over Florida, Califor- the stars.” nia and Oklahoma. The mission of the X PRIZE Foundation is to Last year, the state has allocated $9 million to create radical breakthroughs in space and other develop the infrastructure, launch and landing technologies for the benefit of humanity. In the facilities necessary to host and market the com- spirit of CHAMP CAR and the America's CUP, petition and related events throughout the state, New Mexico's X PRIZE CUP will provide the and to prepare the Southwest Regional Space- arena for X PRIZE-class vehicles to compete in port in Upham, near Las Cruces, to become the the future for cash prices in annual races at the country's first licensed inland spaceport. This Southwest Regional Spaceport. year, the legislature created the New Mexico Specific and updated information regarding the Spaceport Authority to build and operate the activities scheduled for X PRIZE CUP 2005 Southwest Regional Spaceport and Governor can be found on the X PRIZE Foundation web- Richardson committed $1 million dollars in site: www.xprize.org/xprizecup2005. capital outlay funds to support it. For further information, contact Rorie Hanra- White Sands Missile Range will be the interim han, Communications Director, Economic De- spaceport until the Southwest Regional Space- velopment Department, State of New Mexico port is opened in 2007 or 2008. They plan on ([email protected]) or Ian Mur- hosting the 2006 Inaugural X PRIZE CUP, phy of the X PRIZE Foundation (press@xprize. pending proper licensing of the competition ve- org). hicles. “The Countdown to the X PRIZE CUP begins a ======new era for New Mexico,” said Rick Homans, Have you visited the new X PRIZE website New Mexico Economic Development Depart- lately? Take a peek and if you have a moment ment Secretary. “It puts us on the ground floor please fill out our new member form at http:// of the whole new commercial space travel in- www.xprizefoundation.com/xpf_form.asp dustry.” ======

Copyright © 2005 by LUNAR, All rights reserved. Page 9 LUNAR’clips Volume 12, Number 2 Livermore Unit of the National Association of Rocketry March/April 2005 February & March Snow Ranch Launches David Flournoy & Joe Pettinicchi

Here’s some real high power ;-)

Jack sideways

contest launches for points in the NAR national contest stand- Who you gonna call? ings, theme launches where we focus on a particular class of rocket, and night launches. LUNAR HOTLINE (925) 443-8705 PRESIDENT LUNAR’s launch site has been certified by the Fire Marshall [email protected] (925) 455-1746 up through “H” power, and is the only place in northern Cali- VICE PRESIDENT fornia where this level of power can be legally flown. Steve Kendall, [email protected] (408) 225-1729 TREASURER The LUNAR Hotline - (925) 443-8705 Sheryl Cooper, [email protected] The Hotline is available to provide up-to-date event informa- MEMBERS AT LARGE tion. It’s a good idea to call our Hotline to verify the date of Joe Heckenbach, [email protected] the next launch or meeting. Lee Teicheira, [email protected] EQUIPMENT On launch days, the Hotline recording is updated by 7:00 a.m. Bill Orvis, [email protected] to reflect the Go/No-Go status of the launch. On launch days EDUCATION with questionable weather, it is especially important to call Craig Saunders, [email protected] the Hotline to get the latest information. You can also leave MEMBERSHIP messages on the Hotline. Tony Cooper, [email protected] Meetings NEWSLETTER Geoff Canham, [email protected] The LUNAR annual meeting is held during the first quarter of the calendar year at a time and place announced to the mem- ======bership. At this meeting, officers are elected and other club Who We Are... business is conducted. Other section meetings are currently held on a bi-monthly LUNAR is the Livermore Unit of the National bases. These meetings cover section business, and typically Association of Rocketry, Section #534 include presentations by club members or other experts on some aspect of the hobby, ranging from simple building tips LUNAR is located in Livermore, California, about fifty miles to advanced science and engineering principles. southeast of San Francisco. We are organized to supply a safe, educational and legal means of furthering the hobby of WWW site! model and high-powered rocketry in northern California, to LUNAR maintains a World-Wide-Web site on the Internet. It aid and encourage the development of all club members’ is accessible via the URL (uniform resource locator) knowledge and expertise in the area of rocketry, to promote youth education and community involvement, and to engage http://www.lunar.org in scientific, educational and related activities. LUNAR is There’s a lot of stuff to see there, and it always contains the open to rocketry hobbyists of all ages to further the sport and latest information about LUNAR and our activities. For ex- science of hobby rocketry within the NAR (National Associa- ample, you’ll find our latest launch and meeting calendar, di- tion of Rocketry) and Tripoli safety codes. These codes have rections to our launch site, a gallery of photos from past allowed hundreds of millions of model rocket launches by launches, the on-line issues of the LUNAR’clips (the section hobbyists since the late 1950’s without serious injuries. newsletter), our section bylaws, pointers to member rocket LUNAR also supports assorted rocketry activities of commu- pages, pointers to other rocket and space related information nity youth groups. We have hosted launches (and in some on the Internet, and lots more! case building sessions) for the Boy Scouts, 4H, Indian The on-line version of the LUNAR’clips is in some ways bet- Guides, the GATE program, and LARPD Science Camp. ter than the hard copy version that we mail to the membership. For example, the on-line version often has color images Launches or additional visual material that doesn’t appear in the hard copy version. Section launches are usually held from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p. m. on the third Saturday of the month, unless preempted by other civic events. Our launch site is in Livermore at the soccer practice field of Robertson Park, adjacent to the rodeo grounds, in the southeast corner of town. Generally these are sport launches, although we occasionally hold sanctioned

LUNAR Calendar LUNAR’clipsLaunches at LARPD Soccer Fields, Robertson Park or Snow Ranch (see Web Volume site f or12, directions) Number 2 Livermore Unit of theMeetings National Associationat LARPD ofRec Rocke Centertry on Eighth Street in Livermore. March/April 2005 WARNING! Times and dates are subject to change with little notice. Setup starts an hour before the listed time and teardown and packing up usually takes an hour after the listed time. For launch confirmation call the LUNAR Hotline (925) 443-8705 after 7 am on launch day. Other- wise, visit the LUNAR web site at www.lunar.org for the latest information.

January 19, 2005 May 18, 2005 September 14, 2005 Meeting 7:30 to 9:30 PM Meeting 7:30 to 9:30 PM Meeting 7:30 to 9:30 PM Elections January 2005 launches May 2005 launches September 2005 launch Jan 8: 9 am - 3 pm, Snow Ranch May 7: 9 am - 3 pm, Snow Ranch Sept 17: 9 am - 1 pm, Robertson Park Jan 22: 9 am - 1 pm, Robertson Park May 21: 9 am - 1 pm, Robertson Park February 2005 launches June 2005 launch October 2005 launch Feb 5: 9 am - 3 pm, Snow Ranch June 19: 9 am - 1 pm, Robertson Park Oct 15: 4 pm - 10 pm, Robertson Park Feb 19: 9 am - 1 pm, Robertson Park Father’s Day Night Launch March 16, 2005 July 20, 2005 November 16, 2005 Meeting 7:30 to 9:30 PM Meeting 7:30 to 9:30 PM Meeting 7:30 to 9:30 PM Planning Meeting for 2005 March 2005 launches July 2005 launch November 2005 launches March 5: 9 am - 3 pm, Snow Ranch July 23: 9 am - 1 pm, Robertson Park Nov 5: 9 am - 3 pm, Snow Ranch March 19: 9 am - 1 pm, Robertson Park Nov 19: 9 am - 1 pm, Robertson Park April 2005 launches August 2005 launch December 2005 launches April 2: 9 am - 3 pm, Snow Ranch Aug 20: 9 am - 1 pm, Robertson Park Dec 3: 9 am - 3 pm, Snow Ranch April 16: 4 pm - 10 pm, Robertson Park Dec 17: 9 am - 1 pm, Robertson Park

LUNAR 1970 Marineview Drive San Leandro, CA 94577

Hotline: 925-443-8705 Website: www.lunar.org