VOLUME 24
November 2000
NUMBER 8
Can Space Matter?
The Search For Extraterrestrial Utility
The next dinner meeting of the Phoenix Section of
the American Institute of Aeronautics and
Astronautics (AIAA) will be held on Thursday,
November 30, 2000. Our guest speaker will be Dr.
Rick Fleeter, CEO and President of AeroAstro, a
builder of nanosatellites and
other miniature technologies.
Dr. Fleeter has been one of the
industry’s leading proponents
of spacecraft miniaturization,
has authored two books and
several papers on the subject,
and has lectured on the topic
around the world.
all but a few technologists who often themselves
cannot foresee where their creations might lead.
Nearly 50 years into the space age, space remains a
ponderously slow, expensive activity which is at
most marginally relevant to the great majority of
people. Whether space will remain a niche
technology for science and warfighting, or if it will
usher in a new era in human life, depends on our
ability to create utility - to produce value for people –
in space. To date, this search for utility at the "final
frontier" has produced much less than we like to
admit.
Note that there will be no meeting in December.
Have a great holiday season!
Dr. Rick Fleeter
His talk will discuss how every significant wave of
technology which sweeps society - the jet aircraft, the
atomic age, the PC, the internet, is preceded by a long
period of development which is largely invisible to
AmericaWest Tour was a Real Ride
Those who attended the tour at America West
facilities at Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix got a
special treat: simulator rides! About 15 members and
guests attended a tour of America West facilities on
November 2, 2000. The evening included tours of the
cockpit of a 757 aircraft, the engine maintenance
shop, and the 3D motion simulator used for pilot
training. The highlight of the evening was the
simulator rides. We went in three groups and took
off from LAX, turned around to the southwest and
over Long Beach, and then landed at LAX. The
second group was treated to a crash. Watching the
simulator go through its gyrations from the outside
was almost as much fun as riding inside. Big thanks
to Eriko Yamaguchi for arranging this and to Ron
Roden for getting the word out.
November Meeting
Date:
Thur. Nov. 30, 2000
Time:
6:00 pm Social
7:00 pm Dinner
8:00 pm Speaker
9:00 pm Council meeting
Location:
DoubleTree Guest Suites
320 N 44th St.
Menu:
Italian Buffet
Prices:
Members:
Guest of Members:
Students:
Non-Members
$20
$20
$10
$25
Reservations to your facility rep or Mike Mackowski
by noon, Tues., Nov. 28:
Work: 480-892-8200,
Home: 480-926-4765
Phoenix Section AIAA Newsletter November 2000
Page 1
Welcome New Members
OCTOBER:
Mr. Stanley J. Caminsky
Mr. Luis M. Flamand
Ms Karen M. Linda
Mr. Ken R. Murray
Mr. Jerome R. Petersen
Transfer In
Mr. Robert M. Berlind
Mr. Michael R. Cunningham
Ms Jody L. Fisher
Mr. Robert C. Gassert
Dr. Barbara Sorensen
Honeywell Inc
Honeywell Inc
Orbital
Date:
Event:
Location:
Speaker/Topic:
Tues. Jan. 31, 2001
Dinner Meeting
Wyndham Gardens, 44th St.
Dava Newman, AIAA Distinguished
Lecturer, Human Space Flight from
Mir to Mars
Date:
Event:
Location:
Speaker/Topic:
Thurs., Feb. 15, 2001
Dinner Meeting
Double Tree, 44th St.
Dr. Edward Gibson, The SkyLab
Experience
Date:
Event:
Sat., Feb. 17, 2001
Tour Precision Die Co. with ASME
Date:
Event:
Location:
Sat., Feb. 24, 2001
Engineers Week Exhibit
Arizona Science Center
Date:
Event:
Location:
Speaker/Topic:
Thur., March 8, 2001
Joint Dinner Meeting with ASME
Wyndham Gardens, 44th St.
Mechatronics
Space Automation & Robotics
USAF Academy
Date:
Event:
Space Systems & Services Div
Speaker:
April 5 - 7, 2001
AIAA Student Conference at ASU
Dinner Meeting Apr. 5 or 6
Dr. Wesley Harris
Motorola
ERAU
Boeing
ERAU
ERAU
Motorola
Motorola
Date:
Event:
Honeywell Inc
AF Res Lab
Students (New):
Mr. Anthony M. Agelastos
Mr. Courtney D. Balzer
Mr. Shaun P. Brown
Mrs. Deborah M Butterfly
Mr. Scott Jennings
Ian Q. King
Mr. Nathan A Radar
Mr. Jeffery R. Schuldt
Satoko Yoshida
Students - Transfer In
Ms Christi L. Bohmback
Mr. Mario A D’Alessandro
Mr. Gunnar O Einarsson
Mr. Sean G. Travares
Transfer In
Dr. John C. Ruth
Mr. Bemis C. Tatem
Educator:
Mr. Phillip R. Nash
Mr. James E. Shapiro
In last month’s newsletter, we ran a new member
listing for a “Mr. Wen Tong” of TRW Inc. We were
informed that is it actually “Ms.” Wen Tong, who
also has a doctorate in chemistry. We apologize to
her for the misinformation.
Upcoming Section Events
Educator:
Ms Anne M. Howe
NOVEMBER:
Professional (new):
Mr. Joseph L. Becker
Cadet Carrie E. Brackett
Mr. Dan P. Coughlin
Mr. Ken Crawford
Mr. Mario A D’Alessandro
Mr. Mark Fried
Mr. Sean C. Hannan
Mr. Moutaz Helwani
Mr. Garrett K. Hogan
Mr. Kristi M. Kleinhesselink
Mr. David Lamoreaux
Ms. Barb S. Millman
Mr. Jeremy W. Mohr
Mr. Brian Sander
Mr. Binsar H. Siregar
Mr. Andrew D. Upson
Mr. Anthony Vahle
Ms. Shannon Wamsley
Correction
ASU
ERAU
ERAU
ERAU
ERAU
Boeing
Sat., May 5, 2001
Prescott trip, including Embry Riddle
tour and picnic
Please Return Your Surveys!
This is a reminder to please fill out your membership
surveys and mail them back to Ron Roden. This is
YOUR Section and we really would like to get some
feedback so we can better serve your needs regarding
programming and the future direction of the Section.
Keep Up with the AIAA Phoenix Section on
the Web:
www.pr.erau.edu/~aiaa-az/aiaa.html
Phoenix Section AIAA Newsletter November 2000
Page 2
Report on International Space
Development Conference
The 19th annual International Space Development
conference (ISDC), sponsored by the National Space
Society (NSS - www.nss.org), was held in Tucson over the
past Memorial Day weekend. Being a long time NSS
member and having attended several of these conferences
in the 1980s, I could not resist the opportunity to attend
this event being held so close by. I was present for the
Friday and Saturday sessions.
The conference was oriented towards space enthusiasts and
activists. An underlying theme was that NASA's space
program is too timid. In many attendees' view, the
International Space Station is more than inadequate, it is a
hindrance to truly opening up the space frontier. Still,
many of the presenters were representatives of NASA or
their big industry partners (all termed "the enemy" by one
speaker), since right now, there are few options for getting
into space.
One of these optional paths that has experienced some
recent success is the Space Frontier Foundation (SFS www.space-frontier.org). They were key players in setting
up MirCorp and arranging the private lease on the Mir
space station. Rick Tumlinson of SFS gave the behind the
scenes story on how that was pulled off.
Other speakers that I heard or chatted with were Buzz
Aldrin (who recently stepped down as NSS Chairman and
made a stop here in the middle of a book tour), Cong. Jim
Kolbe (seems to be a true space supporter), Robert Zubrin
(developer of the "Mars Direct" approach to getting a crew
to Mars and founder of the Mars Society www.marssociety.org), Dr. Robert L. Forward (advanced
space propulsion, who now heads "Tethers Unlimited"),
Bob Gounley (JPL Mars program engineer who gave a
status on unmanned Mars mission plans), and John Lewis
(U of A professor who gave a survey of off-planet mineral
resources).
"We know more about Mars today than we knew about the
Moon in 1961 when Kennedy approved the Apollo
program" - Zubrin
Several themes surfaced over and over at the conference.
First, NSS members want a space program that "goes
somewhere". Right now NASA has strict limitations on
R&D spending and is forbidden to spend any money on
studies or technology that directly supports a manned Mars
mission. But perhaps the biggest barrier to space
development is high launch costs, and the big aerospace
companies have no incentive to be aggressive in this area
as long as they can make lots of money on expendable
vehicles. That is why the entrepreneurial efforts of
companies like Rotary Rocket and Beal Aerospace have
such appeal to activists. Some of the speakers claim that
one way out of this dilemma is to promote space tourism.
They think this could be the driver in generating a higher
launch rate, which is part of the equation of reducing costs.
Still, it is a chicken and egg situation (there's no possibility
of space tourism until launchers get cheaper, and we won't
have cheaper launch vehicles until tourism increases the
demand for launchers.)
There was a fair amount of activist sessions, trying to
inform members on what they could do now to help their
cause. This mostly focussed on visiting and calling
members of Congress to ask them to fund what are felt to
be key elements of NASA's budget. There were also
sessions to help local chapters be more effective and a
review of NSS's recently released mission, vision,
rationale, and roadmap statements.
I had been very involved in the St. Louis (Missouri)
chapter of the NSS back in the 1980s. I now am hoping to
help start an NSS chapter in Phoenix, which has never had
such a group. So far we’ve had a couple of initial
meetings, but we need more participants. If anyone is
interested in helping form a local club for space
enthusiasts, please get in touch with me.
M. J. Mackowski
May 31, 2000
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ASU to Host AIAA Student
Conference
The ASU Student Section of AIAA will be hosting the
Region VI Student Paper Conference April 5-7. This will
be a great opportunity for ASU to show the rest of our
region the great projects the students are working on. It is
also an opportunity for our state's aerospace community to
inform all the conference attendees about our extensive
aerospace industry in the valley. The students of the ASU
Student Section and Dr. Valana Wells, the student section
advisor, welcome your support of this event.
Phoenix Section AIAA Newsletter November 2000
Page 3
Phoenix Section Officers
Chair
Keith Jenkins
(480) 706-8317
keith.jenkins@
computeraccess-world.com
Vice Chair
Ron Roden
(602) 822-4383
ron.v.roden@honeywell.com
Secretary/Treasurer
Eriko Yamaguchi
(480)693-7348
eriyama@flash.net
Newsletter
Mike Mackowski
(480) 892-8200
mackowski@specastro.com
Organizational Representatives
Honeywell Engines & Systems
Liz Lieber
602-231-2815
Honeywell
Joe Vecera
602-822-3251
Lockheed Martin
Ken Van Meter
623-925-7239
Spectrum Astro
Mike Mackowski
480-892-8200
Motorola - CGISS (Roosevelt)
Doug Hill
480-441-8118
Computer Access LLC
Keith Jenkins
480-706-8317
Orbital Sciences
Scott Schoneman
480-814-6688
Arizona State University
Valana Wells
480-965-4777
Embry-Riddle University
Ron Madler
520-708-3896
Northern Arizona University
Tom Acker
520-523-8363
Tucson Section
Kevin Kremeyer
520-882-7349
Section members pose in front of an AmericaWest jet during the
November 2nd tour. The young man is J.T. Hyde, Tupper Hyde’s son,
who came as a birthday outing. It was his 9th birthday and he chose
planes over dinner out. His ride in the simulator (including a crash in
the Pacific off LAX) was the talk of his class the next day.
Phoenix Section AIAA
M. J. Mackowski, Editor
1022 W. Juanita Ave.
Gilbert, AZ 85233
Printed and distributed courtesy of
Lockheed Martin
M&DS-Reconnaissance Systems
November 30th Dinner Meeting:
The Search For Extraterrestrial Utility
Phoenix Section AIAA Newsletter November 2000
Page 4