Horizons Volume 39 The Newsletter of AIAA Houston Section May / June 2014 Issue 5 The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics www.aiaahouston.org MORPHEUS THE UPS AND DOWNS OF AN AUTONOMOUS LANDER This bar on every page is a link to return to this page. May / June 2014 Horizons, Newsletter of AIAA Houston Section TABLE OF CONTENTS Chair’s Corner 3 Editor’s Corner 4 Morpheus, The Ups & Downs of an Autonomous Lander: Cover Story 5 L’Oiseau Canari, Odds & Ends 12 May 9, 2014: Our Section’s Annual Technical Symposium (ATS 2014) 13 Horizons is a bimonthly publication of the SWOT, AirSWOT, & InSight: Staying Informed 14 Houston Section of the Chapter 12 (Houston) of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) 15 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. AIAA Historic Aerospace Site, the 1940 Air Terminal Museum 16 Horizons team: Douglas Yazell, Editor, Dr. Steven E. Everett, Shen D. Yazell’s bimonthly column, Climate Change & Local Responses 17 Ge, Ellen Gillespie, Ryan Miller (& Don Kulba & Alan Simon) Part 6 of 6, Address to our Section, The Late James C. McLane, Jr. 18 Regular contributors: Philippe Mairet, Wes Kelly, Triton Systems LLC (Kelly’s Corner), Dr. Steven E. Everett (Cranium Crunch- The Johnson Space Center (JSC) Astronomical Society (JSCAS) 20 ers) JSCAS: Part 7 of 7: Building an Astronomer’s Chair, Jim Wessel 20 Contributors this issue: Jon Olansen, Jim Wessel, Larry Jay Friesen, Laura Sarmiento, Bill West, James C. McLane III JSCAS: Dr. Stanley G. Love, Challenges of Traveling to Mars 22 ESA Swarm Satellites & Earth’s Magnetic Field: Current Events 25 AIAA Houston Section Council 45th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Larry Jay Friesen 26 Michael Frostad, Chair The Martian, by Andy Weir; Reviewed by Bill West: Book Review 32 Dr. Michael Martin Shen Ge 4 Major Section Events of the Last 12 Months, by Laura Sarmiento 33 Chair-Elect Secretary June 26, 2014: Annual Honors & Awards Dinner Meeting 34 Daniel Nobles Jennifer Wells Student Chapters, Calendar, Puzzle, Scholarship Winner: Section News 40 Past Chair Treasurer The Back Cover: The NASA Climate Change Website 46 Eryn Beisner Clay Stangle Vice Chair, Operations Vice Chair, Technical Operations Technical Dr. Gary Turner Dr. Albert A. Jackson Laura Sarmiento Dr. Zafar Taqvi Congratulations! Eetion Narcisse Liz Warren Horizons and AIAA Houston Section Website Rafael Munoz Dr. Satya Pilla Svetlana Hansen Sheikh Ahsan Section Chair Daniel Nobles Victoria Wills Bebe Kelly-Serrato AIAA 2013 National Communications Third Place Award Winner Douglas Yazell Roger Kleinhammer Ryan Miller Dr. Steven E. Everett This newsletter is created by members of AIAA Houston Section. Opinions expressed herein other Kathleen Coderre Gary Brown than by elected Houston Section officers belong solely to the authors and do not necessarily repre- Irene Chan (acting) Ted Kenny sent the position of AIAA or the Houston Section. Unless explicitly stated, in no way are the com- Dr. Kamlesh Lulla ments of individual contributors to Horizons to be construed as necessarily the opinion or position of Evelyn Mirellas AIAA, NASA, its contractors, or any other organization. All articles in Horizons, unless otherwise Councilors noted, are the property of the individual contributors. Reproduction/republishing, in any form ex- Alan Sisson cept very limited excerpts with attribution to the source, will require the express approval of the in- Christopher Davila dividual authors. Please address all newsletter correspondence to editor2013[at]aiaahouston.org. Dr. Larry Friesen Shirley Brandt Sarah Shull Irene Chan Front cover image: Morpheus. Image credit: NASA. Robert Plunkett This page: The 1889 van Gogh painting, The Starry Night. Ellen Gillespie This page: Skyline of downtown Houston, Texas USA, from Sabine Park. Author: Jujutacular. Michael Kezirian Source: the Wikipedia Houston article. Douglas Yazell AIAA Houston Section Horizons 2 May / June 2014 Community Chair’s Corner MICHAEL FROSTAD, CHAIR It has been a solid year for the AIAA challenges helped us grow and taught us Houston Section and the aerospace just what it takes to pull off a successful community we support. In the community, event. With many of the EC committing we have seen multiple successful Morpheus to return next year (starting July 1, 2014), Flights which are now testing out the these lessons will not go to waste. From ALHAT system, steady progress towards freshly written dinner meeting and lunch Orion Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1), and learn step by step instructions, to successful Cygnus and Dragon supply expanded use of the www.aiaahouston.org runs to the International Space Station website calendar function, and increased Michael Frostad (ISS), progress towards commercial crew contact with AIAA Regional and National AIAA Houston Section vehicles in the form of the CST-100, levels, AIAA Houston Section is poised Chair, 2013-2014 Dragon and Dream Chaser spacecraft, and to have an even better year in 2014-2015. HX5/JSC Engineering, Technology, and initial agreements in support of a Houston With the lessons learned this year I Science (JETS) Contract Spaceport at Ellington field. In addition, the encourage those interested to come and M.S.A.A., University of Washington International Space Station celebrated 15 learn from all of our leaders next year. years in orbit! As I mentioned at the time, Come participate, learn, and practice for any child born after November 2000, leadership - there will be ample opportunity they have never known a time in which as our next Chair, Michael Martin (PhD there have been no Humans in space! And almost completed) is eager to see the while there are obvious challenges, it has Houston Section grow and flourish. He has truly been another incredible year for the ambitious plans for AIAA Houston Section aerospace field. with a special emphasis on energizing our In the midst of these technical feats, local College Chapters and we would both here at the Section level, we hosted great appreciate your assistance in this. technical lunch and learns, professional On a more personal note, I hope to have development meetings, and amazing served the 2013-2014 AIAA Houston dinner meetings with multiple astronauts. Section Executive Committee and you, Above: SpaceX Dragon 2 crew vehicle We participated in various STEM events, the Community at large, well this year. I at a May 2014 announcement ceremony. raised a significant donation for the will work to make sure the lessons we have Image credit: SpaceX. Challenger Learning Center for Space learned this year are passed on to the next Science Education, hosted another EC so we can continue to serve you better successful Annual Technical Symposium and I look forward to continuing to serve (ATS 2014), and awarded the Spirit in the Past Chair position. This was a great of Apollo Scholarship. These events opportunity to learn and practice actual sought to provide professional forums leadership and I thank the community for to discuss our community’s trade outside it. It has been my honor to be the Chair of our normal cubicles and offices. They of the American Institute of Aeronautics provided opportunities for us to grow as and Astronautics Houston Section for the professionals, to help and inspire the next 2013-2014 year and to work with all those generation, and to provide forums to share on the Executive Council in providing and collaborate on technical ideas. the events above for the community This year we had quite a few new comers at large. I hope to see you at an AIAA Above: Orion Comes Together. The Orion crew to the AIAA Houston Section executive event soon and I will leave you with this module for EFT-1 is shown in the Final Assembly and System Testing (FAST) Cell, positioned over the council (EC) - all of different minds, all thought: Freedom. Life. Discovery. These service module just prior to mating the two sections with a passion for aerospace, and all with are basic values of space exploration. together. The FAST cell is where the integrated crew a desire to build a stronger aerospace As always, you can stay up to date and service modules are put through their final sys- community. As the year progressed and with the AIAA Houston Section via our tem tests prior to rolling out of the Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Cen- the EC coalesced our momentum picked Section’s website: www.aiaahouston.org. ter in Florida. Technicians are in position to assist up, our communication improved and In addition you can make sure your with the final alignment steps once the crew module our events increased in frequency and membership is up to date and that you are tied is nearly in contact with the service module. In De- quality. While there were some mistakes, in to the National level here: www.aiaa.org. cember, Orion will launch 3,600 miles into space in a four-hour flight to test the systems that will some unforeseen circumstances, some be critical for survival in future human missions things that could be improved – these to deep space. Image credit: NASA/Rad Sinyak. AIAA Houston Section Horizons 3 May / June 2014 Editor’s Corner Morpheus, LPSC, & the end of our AIAA Year DOUGLAS YAZELL, HORIZONS EDITOR site for this year’s event, and the invit- I started volunteering in various roles ed speaker for the Mazursky lecture was in our Section’s council in about 1999, Apollo 15 Commander David Scott, the when Merri Sanchez was starting her year seventh person to walk on the Moon. as our Chair. John Keener is one long- time Horizons Editor who served at that JSCAS time. Later Jon Berndt started his service ? Our Horizons newsletter and AIAA as Horizons Editor. As I recall, he started Houston Section partnership with the with the last issue of 2004, and his last Johnson Space Center (JSC) Astronomi- issue was the last issue of 2007.