Saturday, March 6, 2021 – Monthly Meeting – 2 PM US Central – ONLINE – Featured Speaker: Hugh Blair-Smith – Left Brains for the Right Stuff: Computers, Space, and History

Join us for our Monthly NSS North Houston Space Society (http://NorthHoustonSpace.org) meeting. Connect with others who are excited about exploring the cosmos, learning how to use the resources of space to improve human life, and who want to go and spread humanity to the rest of the universe.

The meeting will be on Saturday, March 6, 2021 at 2PM (CDT) ONLINE Via ZOOM:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85216600533

Tentative Agenda:
2:00 PM – Opening Remarks – Nathan Price
2:10 PM – Recent Space News – Greg Stanley
2:30 PM – “Left Brains for the Right Stuff: Computers, Space, and History” – Hugh Blair-Smith
3:30 PM – Q&A
3:45 PM -Share your personal space experiences since the last meeting. Rocket Launches, Other Meetings, Research, etc.
4:00 PM – End of Meeting

Featured speaker: Hugh Blair-Smith
Author of “Left Brains for the Right Stuff: Computers, Space, and History

What made the Space Race possible? What made it necessary? How close a race was it? And what did it achieve? The answers involve the history of three technologies—rockets, navigation, and computers—and how they were woven together by systems engineers to make Apollo and the Space Shuttle, significant contributions to winning the Cold War. Left Brains for the Right Stuff traces the Space Race to its end in 1975.

Author Hugh Blair-Smith, a part-time Cape Codder since 1946 and full-time since 2005, was a staff engineer at MIT’s Instrumentation (later Draper) Laboratory from 1959 through 1981. He and many colleagues created one answer to the long-sought quest for “a moral equivalent to war.” Half a century later—after mixed adventures with digital-tech startups—he created a rigorous computer self-check that rode back to the Moon in the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. He is now working on a sci-fi novel.

Summary of February 6, 2021 – Monthly Meeting – Featured Speaker: Brett Hoffstadt – Creating a better space exploration future through children’s books

Follow Up Items from Discussion:

To connect with Brett Hoffstadt, the featured speaker from the meeting, and to stay connected with his projects, visit http://moonbound.gr8.com

Inspiration4 will be sending 4 people on a SpaceX Dragon as early as November of this year. One of those seats will go to someone that donates to St. Judes in February 2021. For more information, checkout http://inspiration4.com

The Science & Engineering Fair of Houston is having their annual event this month and is looking for judges. You only need to have a bachelor’s to be eligible to judge. For more information checkout: https://sefhouston.org/

Mars Rover Celebration is an exciting educational opportunity for students to gain valuable hands-on experience building a mock-up Mars Rover. It is a memorable experience that may inspire a future space explorer! This project builds on classroom learning, putting students’ enthusiasm and inventiveness to work in conjunction with teachers’ lesson plans: either in the classroom, home schooling, or through community organizations such as the Scouts. Elementary (Grades 3-5) and middle school (Grades 6-8) students interested in science and engineering will participate in the design and construction of a model of a Mars Rover to carry out a specific science mission on the surface of Mars. They need judges also. Find out more at https://www.marsrover.org/

Space Settlement Entrepreneur Competition: Develop a private space company decades into the future! for High-school and Undergraduate-college students  is an online (virtual) competition for high-school and undergraduate-college students, interested in the future of space technology and entrepreneurship. Over the course of this 3-5 day online competition. March 25, 2021 – March 28, 2021: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/space-settlement-entrepreneur-competition-2021-tickets-133770343699?aff=

Space Settlement Design Competitions: https://spaceset.org/

Texas Science Festival February 16-March 26, 2021. Free and open to science enthusiasts everywhere, the Texas Science Festival is a celebration of discovery and learning. Register now and interact with leading experts from across the sciences, hear about the latest innovations and enjoy virtual events with the whole family. https://www.sciencefest.utexas.edu/event/e5191210-feeb-49bd-b1a5-f7c65f6ad8b2/websitePage:e58ec143-5502-455d-8bd4-8ccaaa740a45

“Quartered Priced Books” is a place to pick up vintage space books:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Quarter-Price-Books/115427878487054

Details about Brett’s Presentation

TOPIC: Creating a better space exploration future through children’s books
PRESENTER: Brett Hoffstadt

Description:
A topic of continuous concern and discussion in the aerospace field is the workforce or “STEM” pipeline. How to attract, recruit, retain, and foster the people with potential to help us reach our fullest potential in the universe? (Can we fulfill our destiny as an interplanetary species?)

Throughout his 20+ year career in the aerospace and engineering industries, Brett Hoffstadt has contributed his time and energies to many efforts to bring people into the aerospace community through mentoring, educational outreach, and career development initiatives.

In 2014, he wrote and self-published his first book, How To Be a Rocket Scientist, which is geared toward high school-age students. More recently, he has concluded that the sooner we engage and inspire people to pursue a career in space exploration, the better off we will be as a species. Recall how the Apollo program and moon landing motivated an entire generation of kids to follow in the “footsteps” of the moon walkers by pursuing a career in aerospace fields.

He is now focused on publishing puzzle and activity books for preschool and grade school-age children on space exploration and related STEM themes. To reach children even earlier, he is currently producing a space-age spin-off of the classic book Goodnight Moon which is called Goodnight Moon Base. In this talk, Brett will share examples of his publications and invite discussion, suggestions, and feedback for how this strategy might promote space exploration efforts further.

Website

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The children’s classic bedtime book “Goodnight Moon” is getting a space-age update. Let’s inspire children to go TO the moon! Get a preview here:

https://moonbound.gr8.com/

About the Meeting

Meetings are open to all age groups and interest levels. Come explore with us the potential that developing and exploring space has to better life here on earth and to open up new frontiers creating new perspectives that can help enrich the human experience.

The Vision of NSS is people living and working in thriving communities beyond the Earth, and the use of the vast resources of space for the dramatic betterment of humanity.

The Mission of NSS is to promote social, economic, technological, and political change in order to expand civilization beyond Earth, to settle space and to use the resulting resources to build a hopeful and prosperous future for humanity. Accordingly, we support steps toward this goal, including human spaceflight, commercial space development, space exploration, space applications, space resource utilization, robotic precursors, defense against asteroids, relevant science, and space settlement oriented education.

Website:  http://NorthHoustonSpace.org
MeetUp: https://www.meetup.com/Future-North-Houston-National-Space-Society-Chapter/
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/NssNorthHoustonSpaceSociety/

Follow Up Items from Feb. 6, 2021 Meeting

To connect with Brett Hoffstadt, the featured speaker from the meeting, and to stay connected with his projects, visit http://moonbound.gr8.com

Inspiration4 will be sending 4 people on a SpaceX Dragon as early as November of this year. One of those seats will go to someone that donates to St. Judes in February 2021. For more information, checkout http://inspiration4.com

The Science & Engineering Fair of Houston is having their annual event this month and is looking for judges. You only need to have a bachelor’s to be eligible to judge. For more information checkout: https://sefhouston.org/

Mars Rover Celebration is an exciting educational opportunity for students to gain valuable hands-on experience building a mock-up Mars Rover. It is a memorable experience that may inspire a future space explorer! This project builds on classroom learning, putting students’ enthusiasm and inventiveness to work in conjunction with teachers’ lesson plans: either in the classroom, home schooling, or through community organizations such as the Scouts. Elementary (Grades 3-5) and middle school (Grades 6-8) students interested in science and engineering will participate in the design and construction of a model of a Mars Rover to carry out a specific science mission on the surface of Mars. They need judges also. Find out more at https://www.marsrover.org/

Space Settlement Entrepreneur Competition: Develop a private space company decades into the future! for High-school and Undergraduate-college students  is an online (virtual) competition for high-school and undergraduate-college students, interested in the future of space technology and entrepreneurship. Over the course of this 3-5 day online competition. March 25, 2021 – March 28, 2021: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/space-settlement-entrepreneur-competition-2021-tickets-133770343699?aff=

Space Settlement Design Competitions: https://spaceset.org/

Texas Science Festival February 16-March 26, 2021. Free and open to science enthusiasts everywhere, the Texas Science Festival is a celebration of discovery and learning. Register now and interact with leading experts from across the sciences, hear about the latest innovations and enjoy virtual events with the whole family. https://www.sciencefest.utexas.edu/event/e5191210-feeb-49bd-b1a5-f7c65f6ad8b2/websitePage:e58ec143-5502-455d-8bd4-8ccaaa740a45

“Quartered Priced Books” is a place to pick up vintage space books:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Quarter-Price-Books/115427878487054