Odyssey November 2005

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Official Newsletter of OASIS: the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Space Society

LosCon Follows Turkey Day! November 25-27, 2005

November

2005

Pushing the Edges

By Steve Bartlett

ixing humor, wry asides,

and rocket science, Dr.Seth Potter described thewhys and wherefores ofobjects in space in h is lecture,"Orbital Mechanics for RealPeople," on October 15.Potter briefed an audience ofstudents, lay people, andspace enthusiasts at the LongBeach Public Library as part

of the OASIS lecture series onspace science and develop-ment.

Dr. Potter, an advanced pro-grams scientist for the BoeingCompany in HuntingtonBeach and Seal Beach, in-formed the audience by start-ing with the basics: what or-

bits were, their shapes, andwhy objects followed them.He gave definitions for theparameters that define wherean object is located withrespect to the sun or theEarth and what paths theobject could follow.

The paths depend on theorbiting objects velocity at agiven point and on the mass

of the object being orbited.These paths result from a bal-ancing act between the forceof gravity and the kineticenergy from the object'smotion.

The orbits Potter identifiedwere elliptical, circular, para-bolic, and hyperbo lic. Ellip-

tical orbits may be thought ofas "squashed circles" and arethe most common for objectsin space. Early astronomersplotted the paths of planetsthrough the sky; JohannesKepler used these data to deter-mine the "rules of the road" fororbiting objects. When theforce of gravity is equal to the

centripetal acceleration (some-times called the centrifugalforce), an object will follow anelliptical orbit. Circular orbitsare a special case of ellipticalorb i ts and are common to

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Inside ODYSSEY

2 Presidents Message

3 Lecture Review:

Joy Crisp, Spirit andOpportunity

4 Moving Day

8 SkyWatch

M

OASIS LECTURE SERIESSpace Researcher Explains "Orbital Mechanics for Real People"

But first, some physics fundamentals!Photo by Steve Bartlett


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2 Odyssey November 2005

By Craig E. Ward

he International Space

Development Conference(ISDC) is coming to Los Angelesnext year, May 4-7. It will beco-hosted by the NationalSpace Society and thePlanetary Society. The ISDC ismany things: the annual meet-ing of the National SpaceSociety, a technical conference,a career networking opportuni-

ty, and a general celebration ofspace exploration.

Planning for the ISDC is movinginto high gear. Volunteers fromall over the world are assem-bling to make it happen.Teleconfer-ences are happeningand the next local face-to-facemeeting is scheduled for

many Earth-orbiting artificialsatellites. The amount of anorbit's deviation from being cir-cular is referred to as its eccen-tricity.

Parabolic orbits are the pathsthat objects follow when theirkinetic energy is not enoughtobalance the force of gravity.A baseball thrown into the air,a ball shot from a cannon, or aballistic missile will follow aparabolic orbit.

In layman's terms, hyperbolicorbits occur when an object ismoving too fast to travel in anelliptical orbit. Some cometsfollow hyperbolic orbits. Theyfall into the inner solar systemfrom deep space at high

speed, swing past the sun, andgo back into deep space, per-haps never to return.

When a company launches acommunications satellite orwhen NASA sends a probe to

explore Mars, the Moon, orsome other object, they usethe balance of gravity andkinetic energy to send thespacecraft on its way andensure that it arrives intact.

Dr. Potter described some par-ticularly useful orbits aroundthe Earth, including:- Geostationary orbits above theequator, where a satellite circlesthe Earth at the same rate that

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Program Manager, Track Mana-gers, and Press Relations.)Many roles will take less

effort up front, but need timeduring the conference, suchas room monitor, tour guides,speaker A/V support, regis-tration, and general gopher. (Ihave performed many ofthese roles at past confer-ences and I can attest that thefeelings of satisfaction at asuccessful conference are

hard to beat.)

The ISDC will need many vol-unteers to make it a success. Ihope many of you will stepforward and offer your timeand energy at whatever levelyou can. Together we canmake this ISDC one toremember.

December 4, 2005. You cancontact me by email if you wantto be added to the list to be noti-

fied of planning meetings andgeneral information about theISDC.

The main theme of the confer-ence will be "Exploring Together."A website is up atisdc.nss.org/isdc2006/ with ini-tial information about tracks,tours, registration, and hotel

information.

Because most OASIS membersare located in the Los Angelesarea, there will be manyopportunities to get involved.Some roles that will require alot of time and effort are stillavailable as of this writing. (Forexample, Exhibitors' Hall manager,

PRESIDENTS MESSAGE ISDC 2006: Exploring Together

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Orbital Mechanics for Real People continued from page 1


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November 2005 Odyssey 3

as excited as a duffer scoring ahole-in-one. Eagle Crater exposedan outcropping of bedrock. Spirit

pounced on this feature likeChampollion deciphering theRosetta Stone.

After leaving Eagle CraterOpportunity encountered the lastthing wanted on a geologicaexpedition: the rover becamestuck. The otherwise cool JPLteam had a few scary moments

before extracting the rover, andwith a nod to our religious pastnicknamed the area Purgatory.

Spirit and Opportunity discoveredindications of past liquid water andthe possibility of past or presentlife forms nearly everywherethey went. Dr. Crisp carefullyexplained that bodies of water

formed hematite, peppercorn-sized sphericals, and rock layersThis water could have been themedium for simple, but self-repli-cating, cells.

The Herculean effort on thepart of many scientists world-wide to find life on Mars hasmany implications, some not soobvious. The great argumentthat began with Darwin in the19th Century between religionand science rages on. If lifearose on remote Mars, then itmay well could have come intobeing on Earth by itself.

By Grant Hovey

he exploration of Mars gained

a whole new dimensionNovember 2, 2005, when JetPropulsion Laboratory scientist JoyA. Crisp reviewed the accomplish-ments of the intrepid robots, Spiritand Opportunity, before an enthu-siastic audience at a packedBeckman auditorium, on theCaltech campus.

Although the rovers had a lifeexpectancy of 90 days, Dr. Crispannounced that Spirit now hasbeen operating for 652 days. Hereat last, after nearly two years ofbrief and occasional television clips,Internet visits, and newspaper arti-cles, the audience, vicariousMartian explorers all, had a focalpoint. And they broke into sponta-

neous applause.

Nearly one-half of the copiousnumber of slides were in 3-D. Tofacilitate viewing, a pair of the famil-iar blue/red glasses were enclosedin each program. Not only did theappreciative audience get to cheerthe longevity of the rovers, they gotto salute the fascinating images as

well.The Spirit rover traverses freely onMars. Upon arrival, its stereo-scopic cameras fixed on a featureon the distant horizon, ColumbiaHill. With only 90 days of life,such a journey was nearly impossible.

Despite the poor odds, theunstoppable Spirit headed for thehills, but never missed a chance to

burr into the innards of an inter-esting looking rock, or peer intoand crawl inside an inviting crater.

Eventually, Spirit reached the baseof Columbia Hill, which consistsof several peaks. One, HusbandHill, looked the most climbable.So up it went, and like any tourist,took pictures as it neared the

summit. At last, Spirit reached thetop of Husband Hill and lookeddown on the other side to see alarge unexplored area, TennesseeValley. The plain below revealeda white, roughly pentagonalshape soon given a folksy nick-name: home plate.

From this vantage point, Spiritbeheld something never beforeseen on any other planet: move-ment. Dust devils whisked theirway in unison across an openplain. But Martian winds didmore than create and move thesefunnel-shaped clouds of dust.The rover's months-old solar pan-els had been blown clean, andwere eagerly converting the dim

sunlight into electricity.Opportunity, Spirit's twin,took full advantage of the cir-cumstances. Fortuitously, thisrover bounced upon landinginto the middle of a crater. JPLscientists and engineers were

LECTURE REVIEWSpirit and Opportunity's Excellent Adventure in Mars Geology

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Moving Day by Anonymous

don't like movers."

That thought kept me goingwhile I hauled papers and per-sonal belongings to my newoffice. By moving everythingmyself, the 20-plus boxes werejust where I needed them tostart work on my new job. Allthe while, sweat trickled downmy temples - a reminder of justhow much paper weighs.

It's a good office - large andcentrally located. Many peo-ple I know and like are nearby.My new job places me amongsome of my employer's bestengineers. Moves like thatshould make me happy. But Iwasn't happy. It had nothing todo with my new job. Rather, it

was what happened to my oldjob.

We were told it must "standdown".

At first, I didn't know what thatmeant. Neither did my co-workers. The spacecraft we'dspent three years designing

and building was almost fullyassembled. We were beginningthe most complex phase oftesting to support our launchdate next year. Everyone wasworking at full steam, con-fronting and overcoming tech-

Star Trek's Scotty would beproud of. Surely, no one wastelling us to back off?

But that's exactly what wewere told. Our customer,thousands of miles away, feltunsure about going forward.Those building the spacecraftshould finish their work andstep away. Those about tosupport operations testing andpractice flying the spacecraft

should file away everythingthey'd been doing. Except fora small, core team, everyoneon the project would need tofind another job - perhapswhere they were currentlyworking, perhaps elsewhere.

The small, core team, workingamid newly vacant offices,

would need to assemble all thematerial required to provide adetailed status report to ourcustomer. Then, months fromnow, we'll learn our project'sfuture. Perhaps we'll be askedto slip launch for a year.Perhaps our postponementwill be indefinite.

I'll have little to do to supportthat decision. My job was onethat was set aside.

You may wonder what projectthis is. Who is our customer?Is there some inside informa-

tion I'll share? If so, I'm sorry todisappoint you. These areuncertain times and an ill-cho-

sen word may have undesiredconsequences. The story isbest told when the full story isover.

The particulars are unimpor-tant. In any given year, mystory will be repeated in dozensof places by thousands of engi-neers throughout the aero-

space industry.

All this is new to me. Whilemany projects I've worked onhad been threatened with can-cellation, none had gone so faras to let people go. I was lucky.My Group Supervisor found mea new position within a fewdays. It's on a project I'd want-

ed to join for some time.Moving offices was the onlyreal, albeit minor, inconven-ience. Meanwhile, good peopleare still looking for work severalweeks after their projects letthem go.

There's no way for an engineerto prepare for the letdown of

having a project stood-downor cancelled. Putting men andmachines into space demandsour full energies. It's an emo-tional rush to be part of it.

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Odyssey Copyright 2005by the Organization for the

Advancement of SpaceIndustrialization and Settlement

(OASIS)

Editor: Lisa Kaspin

310-598-4564

OASIS is a chapter of theNational Space Society (NSS), anon-profit organization dedicat-ed to promoting activities thatcontribute to the explorationand development of space. The

opinions expressed by theauthors herein are those of theauthor exclusively, and do notnecessarily reflect the views,beliefs, opinions, or policies ofthe authors employer, theOdyssey editor, OASIS, or NSS.

Permission is hereby granted toNSS chapters in good standing toreprint articles unedited provid-

ed credit is given. All others mustobtain writtten permission fromOASIS.

Submissions to the Odyssey ofletters, articles, announcements,and reviews are encouraged. E-mail submissions to

[email protected]

Contributions may also bemailed as .doc or .txt files on PC-formatted CDs, or as hard copyto:

OASIS, PO Box 1231Redondo Beach, CA 90278

COMES TO

Want to get people excited about space

and have fun at the same time?Come join us for LosCon:

the Los Angeles regional science fiction convention!

When: Thanksgiving Weekend (Nov. 25-27)

Where: LAX Marriott

5855 W. Century Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90045

We will have a booth, where we will be passing out

information about OASIS. We will also host a party

that Friday evening (Nov. 25) with fun raffle prizesand other events.

We may even get another impromptu concert from

our Artist-in-Residence, didgeridoo player Mitch

Walker!

If you are interested in volunteering, send an e-mail

to: [email protected].

Please note that if you wish to volunteer forthis

event, you MUST be a current OASIS member in

good standing and have a paid membership to theconvention itself.

For more information about LosCon, including prices

for either one-day or full-weekend memberships,

please visit: http://www.loscon.org/32/index.html.



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the Earth turns on its axis, mak-ing the satellite appear to sit in afixed position relative to anobserver on the ground. Thisfeature is particularly useful for

communications satellites.- Polar orbits, which allow asatellite to view the entire sur-face of the Earth.- Sun synchronous orbits, whichallow an imaging satellite toview locations on the surface atthe same time of day relative tothe sun.- Molniya orbits, which are high

Often the pace is grueling -- allthe way from the first scribbleon a cocktail napkin to theawards ceremony when themission is over. We complainabout the pace, and then we

jump to new projects thatdemand no less. The energyfeels like driving a racecar in atight formation at theIndianapolis 500. A stand-down or cancellation feels likethe aftermath of a tree sudden-ly falling across the raceway.

More than that, redirectionmeans breaking up a team. Inspace, as in sports, teams makethings happen. Many hours gointo creating working relationsthat get the job done evenwhen the other person is get-ting on your nerves.

inclination orbits used byRussian satellites to allow com-munication among people infar-northern latitudes, whichwould have a poor view of a

satellite over the Earth's equa-tor.

Potter commented that his per-sonal focus was to educate ourfuture space explorers and set-tlers. "The Real People are theones who're going to go intospace and those are mostlyyoung people," he said. As if

I've seen teambuilding producestrong bonds and create last-ing friendships. The impor-tance of teams is evident inthe offices of many of mycoworkers. They decorate

their desks with family pic-tures and decorate their wallswith group photos of projectteams they've belonged to.Their wardrobe reflects teamidentity as well. They adornthe neck lacing holding theirbadges with mission pins - anengineer's campaign ribbons.

My move brings these feel-ings into sharp focus. Ipacked quickly and didn'ttake time for houseclean-ing. Most boxes containdocuments and memosfrom past projects.

to emphasize this point, Pottegave the lecture twice, once fothe main audience, and anabbreviated version for a groupof high school students who

arrived near the end of the talk

Besides being a spaceresearcher with several published papers to his credit, SethPotter is the former president oOASIS and former head of theNew York chapter of theNational Space Society.

I may reread them somedaybut probably not. It 's t imeto throw them out. That'sespecia l ly true of papersfrom my last project --everything I'd want is stored

in my computer and can bereprinted (computer screensgive me eyestrain). Only asuperstit ious person wouldimagine that throwing themall away could jinx my oldproject and its chances ofrestart.

Will it launch someday? hope so. That's why I' l l keepa few key documents inhardcopy for easy referenceif the need arises.

Superstition has nothing todo with it.

Orbital Mechanics for Real People continued from p. 2

Moving Day continued from p. 4



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December 3-4. JPL Educator Conference: "Comets, Asteroids, and Much More - Small Bodies, The Solar System's New Zoo."

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena. The conference is open to all educators including museum staff.

High school students and above may attend. Anyone under sixteen years of age must be accompanied by an adult (parent

or teacher). Registration: $35. 818/354-0112 or http://education.jpl.nasa.gov/events/comets10-11-05.html .

December 8-9. Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "The Spitzer Space Telescope: Exploring the Infrared Universe", a FREE lecture by

Michael Werne -- JPL, Spitzer Space Telescope Project Scientist. 7 pm, von Krmn Auditorium, Jet Propulsion Laboratory,

4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA

Call (818) 354-0112 or visit http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/lectures/may05.cfm.

December10. Los Angeles Sidewalk Astronomers Star Party

Sunset until 10 pm. Autry Museum of Western Heritage, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles, CA 90027-1462. Call

(323) 664-1191 or see

http://www.sidewalkastronomers.com/chapters/laevents.html

December10. OASIS Board Meeting and Holiday Party.

Board Meeting @ 3:00 pm. Party @ 6 pm.

Home of Bob Gounley and Paula Delfosse, 1738 La Paz Road, Altadena, CA 91001

Organization for the Advancement of Space Industrialization and Settlement

A chapter of the National Space Society

Name:__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Interests:_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I wish to join as an:

______ $15 Individual

______ $25 Family*

______ $25 Supporter MMM yes/no**

______ $35 Family Supporter MMM yes/no** Rates listed are for yearly dues______ $50 Adventurer MMM yes/no** Mail check and completed form to:

______ $75 Pioneer MMM yes/no**

______ $150 Explorer MMM yes/no**

______ $12 Student/Senior

______ $12 Child (no Odyssey, only childrens edition)*Family rates include the childrens edition. Please specify names of children.

**Supporter level or higher: you can choose to subscribe to the Moon Miners Manifesto (MMM)

Membership Dues: $_____________

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OASIS MembershipsPO Box 1231Redondo Beach, CA 90278

OASIS Space Calendar and Sky Watch (continued from page 8)



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Los Angeles Chapter of the National Space SocietyP.O. Box 1231

Redondo Beach, CA 90278

310-364-2290

OASIS Space Calendar and Sky Watch November/December 2005

November 30.. California Space Authority / California Space Education & Workforce Institute Annual Membership Meeting.

6:00 pm - 6:30 pm Networking/Reception: 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm Membership Meeting; 7:30 pm - 8:00 pm Networking.

Sheraton Gateway Hotel 6101 West Century Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA

RSVP Required: Please contact Patti Ruiz,[email protected] 805/349-2633

December 1-2. Conference: "Transforming Space: Innovation, Infrastructure, and Intellectual Capital." Guests include Brian

Binnie (SpaceShipOne X2), Buzz Aldrin, and other astronauts.

Sheraton Gateway Hotel, 6101 W Century Blvd, Los Angeles. Sponsored by California Space Authority (CSA) and California

Space Education and Workforce Institute (CSEWI). Registration: $495 CSA members; $595 non-members; $245

student/government.

805/349-2633 or http://www.californiaspaceauthority.org/html/spotbeam_conf_2005/index.html .

December 3. Science of the Dark Side of the Universe. Reuben H. Fleet Science Center.

Lecture admission free with Exhibit Gallery or IMAX theater ticket, but a separate (complimentary) ticket is required for lec-

ture admission. These may be obtained at our Ticket Counter. Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-servedbasis; one ticket per person please.

1:00 - 2:00 pm Lecture Hall, Reuben H. Fleet Space Center,1875 El Prado ,-Balboa Park, San Diego, CA 92101

Information: Call 619/238-1233 for the daily schedule or (TDD)

619/685-5744 or visit our website at www.rhfleet.org.

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Documents

Odyssey November 2005