Volume 39 The Newsletter of AIAA Houston Section September / October 2013 Issue 2 The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics www.aiaahouston.org Hubble Revisited on NASA’s 50th Anniversary 100 Year Starship Public Symposium Pathway to the Stars, Footprints on Earth Hyatt Regency Houston September 19-22, 2013 Also, Continuing in this Issue! Part 8 of 8: Man Will Conquer Space Soon! (Collier’s 1952-54) AIAA Houston Section Horizons September / October 2013 Page 1 Near the top of every page is an invisible link to return to this page. The link is in located here (the blue bar), but not all pages display this bar. September / October 2013 Horizons, Newsletter of AIAA Houston Section T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S Chair’s Corner, by Michael Frostad 3 From the Editor, EAA Chapter 12 at WOH airshow, by Douglas Yazell 4 Cover Story: 100 Year Starship Public Symposium, Wes Kelly & Shen Ge 5 Staying Informed: Orion Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) 13 The 1940 Air Terminal Museum at Hobby Airport 14 Horizons is a bimonthly publication of the Houston Section Climate Change and Local Responses, IPCC AR5 AGU Press Release 16 of The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The Johnson Space Center Astronomical Society (JSCAS) 17 Douglas Yazell, Editor Editing team: Dr. Steven E. Everett, Ellen Gillespie, Shen Space: Drawings, Fears & the Dreams of Children, Philippe Mairet, 3AF 21 Ge, Don Kulba, Alan Simon Regular contributors: Dr. Steven E. Everett, Douglas Comet ISON: Bang or Bust? By Dr. Patrick Rodi 22 Yazell, Scott Lowther, Philippe Mairet Contributors this issue: James C. McLane III, Jim Wes- The Late James C. McLane, Jr. (Part 2 of 6, Dinner Meeting Presentation) 23 sel, Michael Frostad, Dr. Patrick E. Rodi, Dr. A. A. Jackson, Professor Larry Bell (UH SICSA) Section News: Calendar 24 AIAA Houston Section Section News 3AF MP: Automated Transfer Vehicle Control Center 25 Executive Council Section News: 3AF MP Organization Chart & ATV-4 Albert Einstein 26 Michael Frostad Chair Section News: Section Organization Chart and Boeing CST-100 27 Dr. Michael Martin Shen Ge Student Section News: Rice University 28 Chair-Elect Secretary Student Section News: Texas A&M University 29 Daniel Nobles Jennifer Wells Past Chair Treasurer The Collier’s 1952-54 Series, Man Will Conquer Space Soon! 30 Eryn Beisner Clay Stangle Collier’s of April 30, 1954, Man Will Conquer Space Soon! 33 Vice-Chair, Operations Vice-Chair, Technical Afterword for the Collier’s Space Series, Dr. A. A. Jackson 36 Operations Technical The Back Cover: Professor Larry Bell (UH SICSA) & Houston Spaceport 52 Dr. Gary Turner Dr. Albert A. Jackson IV Laura Sarmiento Bebe Kelly-Serrato Eetion Narcisse Dr. Zafar Taqvi Rafael Munoz Liz Warren Horizons and AIAA Houston Section Web Site Svetlana Hanson Dr. Satya Pilla AIAA 2013 National Communications Third Place Award Winner: Section Chair Daniel Nobles Victoria Wills Sheikh Ahsan Douglas Yazell Roger Kleinhammer Ryan Miller Dr. Steven E. Everett Kathleen Coderre Gary Brown Irene Chan (acting) Ted Kenny Dr. Kamlesh Lulla Ludmila Dmitriev-Odier Evelyn Mirellas This newsletter is created by members of AIAA Houston Section. Opinions expressed herein other Councilors than by elected Houston Section officers belong solely to the authors and do not necessarily repre- Alan Sisson sent the position of AIAA or the Houston Section. Unless explicitly stated, in no way are the com- Christopher Davila ments of individual contributors to Horizons to be construed as necessarily the opinion or position Dr. Larry Friesen of AIAA, NASA, its contractors, or any other organization. All articles in Horizons, unless other- Shirley Brandt wise noted, are the property of the individual contributors. Reproduction/republishing in any form Sarah Shull except limited excerpts with attribution to the source, will require the express approval of the indi- Irene Chan vidual authors. Please address all newsletter correspondence to editor2012[at]aiaahouston.org. Robert Plunkett Ellen Gillespie Cover: The interior of the Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown Houston looking up Michael Kezirian Douglas Yazell from the lobby. This hotel was the site for the 100 Year Starship 2013 public symposium. Image credit: Wes Kelly. www.aiaahouston.org This page: part of Vincent van Gogh’s 1889 painting The Starry Night. AIAA Houston Section Horizons September / October 2013 Page 2 Page 3 Collaboration for Success in Human Spaceflight Chair’s Corner MICHAEL FROSTAD, CHAIR A business buzzword with real mean- landing gear, the left main gear did not ing, collaboration is important whether deploy. This resulted in a rough landing. you are farming in the Midwest, develop- Damage was sustained to the vehicle. Image credits: NASA. ing new software in Silicon Valley, or However, Sierra Nevada says that it is working in aerospace at the Johnson repairable. The landing gear on the vehi- Space Center. Since the last Chair's Cor- cle tested is not the final design to be ner, collaboration has been on full display used on the vehicle. Flight data before Further fruits of collaboration will soon in human spaceflight. the landing will be used to refine the include the launch of ISS Expedition 38 A collaboration between Orbital and vehicle. This collaboration allowed good aboard a Soyuz launched from Baikonur NASA with the Cygnus vehicle that flight data to be obtained and it found Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, continuing a launched September 18th saw to it that the issues prior to a real flight, exactly the partnership with Roscosmos. This launch vehicle safely docked to the International results one desires from a test. will be a special one as it will be the first Space Station (ISS). After testing out The second collaboration was at Ken- nedy Space Center on October 28th, with Lockheed Martin and the Orion vehicle's avionics. The avionics systems were installed on the Orion Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) vehicle and powered on for the first time. The systems worked as expected, completing another step to- wards the actual flight test mission, tar- many functionalities for the first time in geted for the fall of 2014. The upcoming space, Cygnus attempted its first approach test will stress avionics, sensors, reaction to ISS. The spacecraft made it to within control jets, and the thermal protection about 15 kilometers, but encountered an system at higher velocities than any oth- issue with GPS readings between it and er vehicle designed to carry humans ISS. Cygnus safely backed off and the since Apollo. This collaboration contin- time there have been nine humans in orbit Orbital & NASA team went to work to fix ues to build capabilities and the data since 2009 without a Space Shuttle docked the problem. After analysis and investiga- from the flight test will be very valuable. to the ISS. In addition to rotating the crew of tive work, a GPS timing issue was found It is not just collaboration between the ISS and maintaining six people aboard and overcome. This led to a second ap- NASA and companies but also between the space station, the crew of this Soyuz will proach to ISS, which successfully com- have one American astronaut, one Russian pleted further test objectives before cap- Cosmonaut, and one Japanese astronaut – ture by the ISS Space Station Remote stressing the point of international collabora- Manipulator System (SSRMS) and berth- tion and cooperation to push humanity far- ing to the ISS. ther than it has ever gone before. The ISS is Further collaboration between NASA a laboratory for learning how the body func- and other aerospace businesses culminat- tions in space and how to work in space, and ed in two major project milestones. The it is more than that. It is a beacon pointing to first was with Sierra Nevada Corporation's the future for all of humanity. It is a wonder Dream Chaser vehicle at Dryden Flight NASA and other national space pro- built by dedication and collaboration. Research Center. They completed the first grams that continues to support human This list of successful collaborations does free flight test of Dream Chaser on Octo- spaceflight activities, specifically the not go into detail about the hard work and ISS. ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle dedication that comes with any collaborative (ATV-4), named Albert Einstein, effort, but it shows the results of collabora- launched and docked with ISS in June tion. It shows that if we harness each other’s 2013. Over the course of its mission it strengths, push through issues, and over- gave two delta-V boosts to the station come obstacles that lie in our path, then to- (1.0 m/s and 1.45 m/s), provided sup- gether we can accomplish amazing feats. plies to those on board ISS, provided The challenge that is left to us is to continue propellant to the Russian segment of the collaborations, to grow them, and to im- ISS, and when the Albert Einstein left prove them. The next time you hear the ber 26th. During the flight test glide por- ISS it took out the trash. This was a good word collaboration, take a moment to reflect tion, performance was nominal and the mission to sustain the ISS and the people on its meaning, its past successes, and how craft approached the runway right on tar- carrying out the science aboard it – ac- might you harness it for a future success. A get. However, as the craft lowered its complished through collaboration. word that gets is done is collaboration. AIAA Houston Section Horizons September / October 2013 Page 3 Page 4 From the Editor The Experimental Aviation Association (EAA) Chapter 12 (Houston) DOUGLAS YAZELL, EDITOR We omitted the EAA Chapter 12 page in this issue.