We will have a guest speaker in November:

Nathan Johnson is a space law attorney licensed in Washington, DC, and has worked in the emerging commercial space industry. He worked at the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation during SpaceX’s first berth with the International Space Station, on Capitol Hill during deliberation over regulating commercial human spaceflight, and has consulted for private companies and investors in evaluating new and novel business opportunities in orbit, lunar, and deep space. He also volunteers as the Executive Director of the new Texas Space Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit advocacy group which works to increase awareness, activities, and action on behalf of the regional Texas space economy.

Nathan Johnson will discuss the history of space law, including the context of when it was created, the structure and principals of the major Outer Space Treaties, and the application of it on an international and domestic level throughout the past 50 years. He will talk about how space law has affected exploration and discovery, and how it will apply to the future of mankind’s endeavors in space.

Announcements:

If you are not already a National Space Society (NSS) member, please sign up.  It is only $20.  And if you join through this link, half of that comes back to our chapter to help pay for food, supplies, and anything else that will help us in our mission to keep up on advances in Space Exploration and sharing that with others.

Next month (November), the New Worlds Conference is happing in Austin, TX on November 9-10, 2018.  Find more information and sign up at http://newworlds2018.space/.  There are many great guest speakers and people to meet there.  While I won’t go into them all, there are a few to point out Richard Garriott one of the private space explorers who has spent a week on the ISS will be there.   Dr. Philip Metzger from the UCF Florida Space Institute gave a great presentation covering the moon mining contests that he oversees.  Last years presentation was amazing seeing the variety of approaches to this problem, his analysis of commonality of certain design characteristics of successful designs.  Rick Tumlinson is the main guy behind the conference.  He has been a very successful advocate for space.  Holly Melear who runs STEAMSPACE will be hosting the cities in space contest.  It is amazing to see the creativity of these students.  Bill Gerstenmaier the NASA Associate Administrator, Human Exploration and Operations.  Last year I got to speak to him for a bit before the conference started.  And there are many, many more.  I definitely recommend going!  http://newworlds2018.space/

There are some local events on drones, space talks, and some other related topics that STEM-E, Youth Career Development Program will be hosting.  Check out the events page at https://www.steme.org/events.

BFR/BFS

Did you see the big announcement about DearMoon?  check out this video:

This was announced on Sept 17, 2018 at SpaceX headquarters.  The plans to send a handful of artists around the moon, a group of people that might be able to take that experience and share it in such a way that the billions back here can feel like they were on it too.

More details about the current iteration of the BFR/BFS system can be seen at the announcement:

We seem to be getting BFR/BFS announcements about once a year.  Sept 29, 2017 at  IAC in Adelaide, Australia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj3OgrvvBpE

And then the original announcement Sept 27, 2016 at IAC in Guadalajara, Mexico:

My younger son, wife, and I attend this.  We were able to sit in the VIP section because the efforts of the great people over at the reddit SpaceX group

You can see that we are about 4-5 rows from Elon presenting on the stage.  And had a phenomenal view:

The BFR/BFS will open up space in amazing ways:

But how to pay for it?  Use it for point to point transportation here on earth:

Next Meeting:

Focus of the meeting will be SpaceX’s BFR

SpaceX has announced the latest design for their BFR Rocket which will allow for global travel to be completed in 30 minutes instead of 12 hours on a plane. It will have the greatest capability and the lowest operational cost of any rocket ever produced. And in 2023 it is planned to send a group of artists around the moon. (The first time that humans have left low earth orbit this century.)
See more:
https://www.spacex.com/mars

Check out: http://dearMoon.earth

6:00 – Work in small teams to learn about Lunar Exploration and to put together a small presentation
7:00 – Each team gives a 10-minute presentation with 5 minutes QA
8:00 – Space Exploration Jeopardy
8:30 – End of meeting

It would be great if you brought a computer, tablet, or cell phone to do some research on.  Also, if you have some books on Lunar exploration that you think would make good source materials, then bring them along.  I am working on recruiting some team leaders.  But if you have an interest in leading a team, then email me (nathan.price@gmail.com).  Please let me know if there is a particular aspect of Lunar exploration that interests you.

A few resources that would be worth exploring:
Spudis Lunar Resource: http://www.spudislunarresources.com/
Wikipedia article on Exploration of the Moon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_of_the_Moon
Moon Village Association: https://moonvillageassociation.org/
Moon Express: http://www.moonexpress.com/
Team Indus: https://www.teamindus.in/
Astrobotics: https://www.astrobotic.com/
Wikipedia article on Chinese Lunar Exploration: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Lunar_Exploration_Program

I look forward to seeing you on Saturday.

6:00 – Gathering activity
6:30 – Everything you Wanted to Know about Spaceports and Space Tenants (John Diiorio)
6:50 – Open discussion
7:00 – Proposal for Laboratory Generated Gravitomagnetic Field Measurement (Gary Stephenson)
7:20 – Open discussion
7:30 – Space Exploration Jeopardy
8:00 – End of meeting

About our speakers:
John Diiorio:
Mr. DiIorio graduated from the University of Minnesota, College of Science & Technology in 1974 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, power and propulsion. He graduated from the United States Army Management Engineering College in 1975 with a diploma in Quality and Reliability Engineering. In 1971, his first college project was a team effort titled: Project BCD. This was a computer program of one parameter (i.e., overkill) to simulate a full-scale thermal nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Mr. DiIorio went on to serve with several accommodations as a General Engineer specializing in the field of ‘the state of the art’ or the leading edge of technology. His voracity lead him to be chosen as an investigator in seven criminal actions with Defense and NASA contractors, as well as, several other special investigations. His dedication to national security issues lead to become a chief instructor of technical subjects and a liaison to other agencies within DOD. He participates in technology innovation and concept contests; the Conoco-Phillips Energy Prize, and others. He develops new analytical tools for the quality, reliability, and safety fields. With emphasis on STEM, STEAM, STREAM, physics, and astronomy, he derived a formula to replace the conjecture burden Frank Drake equation. Today, he is a technical writer on national security issues and a presenter of science and space technology.

Gary Stephenson:
Gary Stephenson is a Lead Systems Engineer at United Technologies Aerospace Systems (UTAS) providing systems engineering support for EVA Mobility Unit (EMU) on ESOC program, spacesuit upgrades, new spacesuit product development, and other life support systems development (ECLSS) for NASA, NASA prime contractors, and commercial customers. Duties include certification of spaceflight hardware, including airlock equipment such as UIAs, FPUs, and IEUs (umbilicals).

At our June 2, 2018 meeting, we will have Dr. David Jarvis visit us to discuss Orion Span which aims to build a private space station.

The meeting will be from 6Pm-8PM at Nathan’s house (9327 Swansea Bay Dr., Spring, TX 77379).  Hope to see you there!

https://www.meetup.com/Future-North-Houston-National-Space-Society-Chapter/events/xmckdpyxjbdb/

Background

David Jarvis is the CTO for Orion Span and has extensive experience in human spaceflight, having spent 13 years at Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas providing operations support to the Japanese Space Agency, a key International Space Station partner. David’s work included inter-agency coordination to facilitate technical and programmatic solutions to issues related to the ISS, as well as real-time console support during Space Shuttle missions. In 2014, David co-founded a four-person team that designed a unique remote sensor system to monitor maritime vessel traffic around the world. This demonstration technology, called Maritime Awareness, was launched and successfully installed on the International Space Station in 2016.

David is a veteran of the United States Coast Guard and holds a BS in Physics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a MBA from University of Texas Austin Mccombs School of Business.

About Orion Span

Orion Span is a private commercial space company with the goal of providing affordable human-rated facilities in space for governments, industry, and private citizens. Orion Span has offices in Silicon Valley and plans to open a manufacturing and operations facility in Houston, TX.

Topics for Discussion

David will discuss an overview of Orion Span and Aurora Station, as well as the company’s development schedule and future plans. David will also be speaking about the ecosystems of commercial space and how the industry can attain large scale growth for commercial human space flight. A Q&A session will follow the presentation.

Our May meeting went well.  Dr. Greg Stanley presented a talk entitled “Biosphere 2 and Closed Ecological Systems”

A biosphere is the worldwide sum of all ecosystems.  It is materially closed but open for energy and information.  The word “biosphere” was coined by geologist Eduard Suess in 1875 (no relation to Dr. Suess 🙂 ).  The word meant “geology of the place that life dwells”.  The Geochemist Vladimir Vernadsky developed the concept further in his 1926 book entitled “The Biosphere”.  In it, he argues that life is a geological force.

How small can a biosphere be?  Biosphere 1 is the earth.  Biosphere 2 was created to help answer the question if it is possible to create a miniature version.  This is important because when we travel out into space, we will need to bring our Biosphere with us.

We had 10 people attend the meeting.

We finished up by playing Space Exploration Jeopardy.

We look forward to seeing you at our June 2nd meeting.

Join us on Saturday, May 12, 2018 at 6PM for our monthly NSS North Houston Space Society Meeting at Nathan’s house (9327 Swansea Bay Dr.; Spring, TX 77379).

6:00 – Gathering/Pizza
6:30 – Dr. Greg Stanley will present a talk entitled: “Biosphere 2 and Closed Ecological Systems:   Systems biology for sustainable life outside earth.” (details below)
7:30 – Open Discussion
7:45 – Space Exploration Jeopardy

Biosphere 2 and Closed Ecological Systems:   Systems biology for sustainable life outside earth.

Dr. Greg Stanley creates, develops, and manages innovative technology.  He created computer applications for users as diverse as ExxonMobil, AT&T, the Japanese nuclear industry, and Motorola Iridium, for use in process automation and control, fault diagnosis, dynamic simulation, and network management.  He worked at Exxon in technical and management roles in process control, engineering, IT, artificial intelligence, and dynamic simulation.  He built products and managed product development at Gensym, the leading provider of real-time expert systems.  He helped product development for software and engineering companies such as SAT, BMC, SmartSignal, and Integration Objects. Technical specialties include chemical engineering, artificial intelligence, fault diagnosis, process control, dynamic simulation, network management, and data reconciliation, as well as product architecture to support these applications.  Greg has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University, and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University.  He has published over 25 technical papers.

More About the Biosphere 2 Project:

• Official Biosphere 2 website
• Wikipedia 
• Coursera: Biosphere 2 Science for the Future of Our Planet
• Short Documentary: Sally Silverston & Linda Leigh – Biosphere 2
  
• Jane Poynter: Life in Biosphere 2 | TED Talk
• New York Time: A Second Act for Biosphere 2
  

We had a fantastic April 2018 meeting of the NSS North Houston Space Society.  We started out with a mixer activity.  Each person was handed a set of 12 cards all describing a space first.  The attendees had to exchange their cards with others to get a complete set.  The entire set was posted for reference. 

I gave a presentation on Yuri Gagarin since April 12 is Yuri’s night.  Yuri’s night is a celebration of April 12, 1961 when Yuri Gagarin achieved the feat of being the first man to circle the earth.  I tried to put the event into the context of world history.  World war 2 had just finished.  The cold war and the 3 world state of global politics, and the competition between the USSR and the West represented by the USA.  I ran through the list of firsts.  And it amazing how quickly we were making progress in space in the 50s and 60s.  (Take a look at the Time of the Space Race on Wikipedia).  Some of the high school students mentioned they were just talking about Sputnik in class.  And some of the older members relayed their memories from those days.  The radio announcements that would tell you when it was flying overhead and ham radio operators were able to hear the “beep….beep…” of Sputnik directly.  And apparently, the second stage was trailing behind it and was big enough to be spotted from earth.    We talked about the enthusiasm in space unto the moon landing when it sort of petered out.  One observation was that since the US did not claim the moon that a lot of people in the US thought what was the point.  I wonder where we would be if we did claim the moon and kept the fires of the space race going.

Doug gave a great presentation on Skylon and Sabre.  It was interesting to learn about the advances

and history with air-breathing rockets.    And the challenges of cooling the compressed air fast enough to keep the system working.

 We played “Space Exploration” jeopardy which was a big hit.  We had categories for “Space Firsts”, “Moonwalkers”, “Private Space Explorers” and “Yuri”.  We, of course, had pizza.    And I passed out an agenda with upcoming space events in the area.

Our next meeting is going to be the second Saturday in May (which is not our normal meeting day).  Be sure and join us on May 12, 2018.

Upcoming Events

Planned Falcon 9 SpaceX launches: 4/16 – TESS; 4/24 -Bangadbandhu-1; 5/10 (w/reused 1^st stage): Iridium NEXT 6 (5x) / GRACE-FO (2X)

April meeting of the Clear Lake Area National Space Society & Moon Society Chapter – keep an eye on http://nss-houston-moon.org/ for details

April 12, 2018 6:30 PM – Burke Baker Planetarium – Houston Museum of Natural Science as part of the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) Distinguished Lecture Series Dr. David Kring presents “From the Earth to the Moon – What Does It Take?” This evening’s presentation will celebrate the launch of the first human in space, the flight of Yuri Gagarin on this day in 1961. Dr.

David Kring will recount the history of human travel to the Moon and discuss our future travel. What will it take to return to the Moon? Kring will address the interfaces between science, exploration and operations that are required to ensure our nation’s return to the Moon maximizes productivity while enhancing safety and efficiencies during robotic and crew operations.  Dr. David A. Kring is the head of the Center for Lunar Science and Exploration at the Lunar and Planetary Institute. Dr. Kring is instrumental in academic-industry-NASA joint projects working on robotic lunar lander and rover systems that can be deployed anywhere on the lunar surface – http://store.hmns.org/DateSelection.aspx?item=3925

April 19, 2018 (7-8:15PM) (Space Center Houston) – Thought Leader Series: ESA Director General Johann-Dietrich Woerner – How are NASA and the European Space Agency working together? Learn all about this partnership and more at the next installment of Space Center Houston’s Thought Leader Series featuring ESA Director General – https://spacecenter.org/special-events/

April 19, 2018 (Reception: 6:30PM; Lecture: 7PM) (Rice University – Keck Hall – 100) “Inside the Bubble: Earthly Lessons from Life in a Martian Analog” – Brian Ramos, NASA Johnson Space Center, HI-SEAS (Hawaiʻi Space Exploration Analog and Simulation) mission crewmember – http://rsi.rice.edu/

May 4, 2018 – (Novice: 7PM; General Meeting: 8PM – University of Houston) – Houston Astronomical Society – Monthly meeting https://www.astronomyhouston.org

May 12, 2018 (6-8PM) – Monthly NSS North Houston Space Society meeting (Will be the second Saturday in May) (9327 Swansea Bay Dr. Spring, TX 77379) – http://www.NssNorthHoustonSpaceSociety.org

May 24-27, 2018 (Los Angeles, CA) – National Space Society (NSS) 

International Space Development Conference (ISDC) – http://isdc2018.nss.org/

May 25-27, 2018 (George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, TX) – Comicpalooza – NASA usually has a big presence, and we might do a panel on the High School Astronaut program – https://www.comicpalooza.com/

The March NSS North Houston Space Society meeting covered the Humans to Mars conference, several members shared their ZERO-G Experience® (two from this past weekend, and one from the first flight in 2004.  There was much discussion before and after the presentation about the Falcon Heavy Launch, Sabre Rocket engines, the idea of shooting a nanosat out of a tube, and much more.

The replay of the Falcon Heavy Launch was playing on a TV.

The Falcon Heavy Launch continues to make me believe that we are really on the cusp of opening up the rest of the solar system.  We have felt that we were on the cusp of this for the past 50 years.  But with the private development, it feels more real than ever before.

We had pizza.

Gary Stephenson spoke about his visit to the first Humans to Mars summit back in 2013.  And we discussed what has changed since then.  And what we have to look forward to.

201305-24 ISDC H2M Recap

Gary Stephenson is a Lead Systems Engineer at United Technologies Aerospace Systems (UTAS) providing systems engineering support for EVA Mobility Unit (EMU) on ESOC program, spacesuit upgrades, new spacesuit product development, and other life support systems development (ECLSS) for NASA, NASA prime contractors, and commercial customers.  Duties include certification of spaceflight hardware, including airlock equipment such as UIAs, FPUs, and IEUs (umbilicals).

The Humans to Mars Summit (H2M) is the most comprehensive Mars exploration conference to address the major technical, scientific, and policy challenges of getting humans to Mars, as well as how such missions can have positive impacts on STEM education, American competitiveness and other important collateral issues. This conference serves as the authoritative and diverse Mars exploration event, involving leading technical and policy experts from NASA, industry, the science community, and academia. There is now a clear consensus among NASA, the aerospace industry and policymakers that a human mission to Mars by the 2030s is not just feasible, but achievable as well, once the proper measures are taken. H2M is an important part of Explore Mars’s ongoing programming to help advance policy and excite the public regarding human Mars missions.

http://www.ExploreMars.org May 8-10, 2018 – George Washington University, Washington D.C.

Nathan & Christopher shared a little of their ZERO-G Experience® last weekend out of Houston Hobby.  ZERO-G will be returning to Houston on September 22, 2018.

Our next meeting will be Saturday, April 7, 2018.  We are planning to talk about Asteroid mining.   Sign up on our meetup site if you can come:  https://www.meetup.com/Future-North-Houston-National-Space-Society-Chapter/

Here are a few key resources to check out ahead of the next meeting:

Database of asteroids:

http://www.Asterank.com

Space Mining Companies:

http://www.PlanetaryResources.com

http://www.DeepSpaceIndustries.com