The Flight Deck for August 2003, Issue 123
From the Bridge:
And a happy August to everyone! It is indeed a glorious August for
your Captain, for I have found a job that I love....and not just for
the employee discount!
Last month's firework bash went off wonderfully; many thanks to CMDR
Mark & Gloria Milhous for hosting us, especially under the full
moon! We had a lot of fun with the USS Bismarck contingent and
perhaps we will return the favor someday.
There will be an SFC General Meeting at the upcoming ConGlomeration
convention in Louisville, KY this weekend. It's slated to take place
on Saturday the 9th at 4pm. If you are coming to the con, please
attend the meeting if possible.
Since the Starbase 06 Picnic has been pushed back to September, the
August Halsey meeting will be at the abode of ADMs Paul & Sandy
Sundstrom for our annual pool party. The Water Wars will begin at 1
pm, with food at 5pm and meeting at 6pm. We'll be cooking out, and
the ship will provide the meat and buns. Everyone else, bring
munchies, drinks, raffle items, suits and sunscreen, as well as any
artillery you desire. **SEE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BELOW**
We'll be discussing possible dates for the September plane washing
and a tenative away mission to the Ren Fair in Ohio sometime that
same month. So bring those planners!
Hope to see everyone there!
FCAPT Cathy Dailey
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Upcoming Events:
August 9th--SFC General Meeting, ConGlomeration, Louisville, KY, 4pm
August 16th--Halsey Pool Party, 1pm (pool), 5pm (food/meeting)
September--Grissom Plane Wash Part II, TBA
October 18th--Bonfire & Weenie Roast, 5pm
November 15th--November meeting
December 13th--X-Mas Party & Gift Exchange
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Beamdown Coordinates:
ADM Paul & ADM Sandy Sundstrom
237 N. 18th Ave, Beech Grove
Directions:
1. Take I-65 to Keystone Ave Exit (#107).
2. Turn right if coming from the south, left if coming from the north
3. Turn right at light onto Troy Ave.
4. Turn left in between Walgreens' and Chinese takeout place.
5. Continue straight through stop sign (stop first!)
6. 237 on right side of street.
Hope to see everyone there!
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Special Announcement!!
--PLEASE READ READ THE FOLLOWING VERY CAREFULLY.--
Please bring your own swim suit, beach towel, any suntan lotion &
some clothes to change into after all the fun in the pool.
If you have little ones please be advised that you will have to
provide some float device for them if they can't swim. I have limited
number of pool toys so you might want to bring something for them to
play with that is pool safe.
Remember that there is a side of the pool that is open & you will
have to watch your little ones very closely to be sure that you are
in the pool with them. Remember this is a small pool & you can't have
too big a float or no one else will be able to move in the pool.
The hamburgers & hot dogs will be provided, and you will need to
bring a covered dish & drinks. (no booze unless you are planning to
stay the night & arrangements will have to be made before coming) If
you don't want the above meat you will have to bring the meat you
want cooked on the grill.
Hope to see you all at the pool party.
Paul & Sandy
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Birthdays & Anniversaries
August 8th--ADM Russell Simson
August 12th--ADM Rosann Packer
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>From the "Come Sail Away" Desk:
Riding the Sun: Maiden Flight Looms for Solar Sail Satellite
By Tariq Malik
Before the year's end, a team of civilians united by a passion for
space travel will launch a spacecraft into orbit to test a new space-
traveling technology.
The mission, which will use a solar sail to carry a spacecraft ever
farther from Earth, is the first use of a propulsion technology that
may pave the way for interstellar flights.
"Our job is just to prove this technology," project director Louis
Friedman told SPACE.com. "If our craft goes just 10 kilometers on the
solar sail, then it's a success." Friedman is also executive director
of the Pasadena-based Planetary Society.
The spacecraft, called Cosmos 1, is the product of three years of
cooperation between the Planetary Society, the American media company
Cosmos Studios and Russia's Babakin Space Center in Moscow. A launch
is expected sometime this fall, despite the failed test of a
suborbital version two years ago.
"I frankly don't know if this will work," said Friedman. "But our
spacecraft is really coming together."
Cosmos 1 is being built at the Babakin Space Center, where engineers
are incorporating the small, three-foot (one-meter) wide spacecraft
into the nosecone of a Volna rocket originally developed as a
submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missile.
Ann Druyan, Cosmos 1 program director and CEO of Cosmos Studios, said
the conversion of a weapon of mass destruction into a tool of science
is an added benefit of the solar sail mission.
"For us, the solar sail represents a baby step into the cosmic
community," she told SPACE.com. "This is an opportunity to stretch
the human horizon."
The Planetary Society, founded by Druyan's late-husband Carl Sagan,
Friedman and planetary scientist Bruce Murray, consists of about
100,000 members, many of whom helped contributed donations - ranging
from the $100,000s to just $5 - to raise the $4 million necessary for
Cosmos 1.
The Cosmos 1 rocket will be loaded into the Russian nuclear
submarine, transported out to the Barents Sea, where and launched
into a 497-mile (800-kilometer) Earth orbit. After a few days of
spacecraft checkout time, the eight-bladed solar sail will open up
like a giant space flower.
Each of the sail's petals is 47 feet (about 14 meters) long, composed
of thin mylar and rolled into a space the size of a coffee can before
launch. Cosmos 1 ground controllers plan to open the sail, four
blades at a time, by inflating hollow tubes that run along the sides
each blade with nitrogen gas. Each blade can also be rotated to
present either its full face or just an edge toward the Sun, allowing
researchers to control the amount of force striking the sail.
"So when you're in Earth orbit, it's kind of like you're tacking in a
harbor," said Jim Cantrell, a consultant for the Cosmos 1 mission. A
mechanical engineer by training, Cantrell added that if Cosmos 1
always presented a full face toward the Sun, it would never gain any
positive velocity.
For example, the kick Cosmos 1 would get as it orbited away from the
Sun, with photons pushing the sail from behind, would be cancelled
out as it rounded Earth and photons began to strike the front of
sail.
"It's an added complexity when you're in travelling in orbit," said
Cantrell. "In open space it wouldn't be a problem."
The propelling force behind solar sails stems from photons of light,
not the solar wind of charged particles blowing outward from the Sun.
"The sail is basically a giant mirror," said Friedman. The pressure
of sunlight bouncing off the sail adds momentum and pushes the
spacecraft.
The process is slow and may not be the right choice for jet setting
around the Solar System. Cosmos 1, for example, would take a year and
a half to reach the Moon, whereas a chemical rocket has done the job
in a few days.
"The amount of force on a solar sail is about the equivalent of the
weight of a postage stamp," said Hoppy Price, a senior engineer at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "But
it continues, day after day, month after month and year after year. A
chemical rocket lasts only a few minutes."
In a space trip out to about 50 astronomical units (AU), which is 50
times the distance between the Earth and the Sun, a solar sail craft
could reach speeds of about 100 kilometers a second. Lasers could
also be launched ahead of time along the spacecraft's flight path to
provide light boosts to the sail. Chemical rockets, on other hand,
results in speeds of up to 15 to 20 kilometers per second.
Price told SPACE.com that NASA researchers are also busy developing
their own solar sail methods, which should undergo deployment tests
in 2005 and a possible flight test in 2007. Meanwhile researchers
with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the German Aerospace Center
(DLR) have conducted ground tests of their own sail material.
The Cosmos 1 mission, however, will be the first solar sail to be
unfurled in space, allowing researchers to study the effectiveness of
the deployment process and ability to control the sail. The mission
should also demonstrate the sail's ability to withstand
micrometeorite impacts and other space hazards. Cosmos 1 scientists
plan to make their findings public in the hopes of boosting solar
sail research.
While the mylar material of Cosmos 1's sail isn't the best choice for
an interplanetary mission, it should work fine in a proof of concept
flight. "Mylar is a polyester," Price said. "It's lightweight, but it
doesn't take high temperatures well, or radiation."
NASA missions for solar sails are expected to be long-duration
flights requiring hardy material that can withstand intense heat as
well as high radiation doses, he added.
The upcoming launch won't be the first for Cosmos 1 planners, but it
will be the project's first complete flight.
In July 2001, project managers launched a suborbital version of
Cosmos 1 that never opened its two-bladed sail. "It launched okay,
went up just fine and we were all cheering," said Kent Gibson, Cosmos
Studios president. But the spacecraft failed to separate from its
third stage, but continued on its ballistic flight path toward the
Kamchatka peninsula. It has not been recovered.
"We've had some tough times, and we'll certainly have more tough
times," said Friedman. But Cosmos project designers are confident in
their complete, eight-bladed solar sail.
And even if Cosmos 1 fails, Druyan added, mission scientists will
still learn more from the launch than if they hadn't tried at all.
Cosmos 1 researchers said they hope to launch their spacecraft by
October, although there will be blackout period when the submarine
they plan to use will be unavailable due to the schedule of Russian
naval exercises.
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>From the "You Won't Find This in the Manual" Desk:
How NOT To Pass Your Driver's Test
1. Turn the radio on. When the tester goes to turn it off slap
his/her hand.
2. Rev the car really high, turn to the tester, and say with an evil
look, "Buckle up!"
3. Knock over every cone while doing maneuverability. In the middle
of it, get out and check to see if you have hit every one.
4. Come dressed in a suit. Before the examiner gets in the car, ask
him/her to put a piece of plastic wrap down so he doesn't dirty the
seat.
5. When the examiner tells you to stop, step on the gas. Tell him/her
that you thought it was the brake.
6. When the examiner tells you to stop, pop the hood latch and
say, "Oops."
7. Get in the car, look down at the pedals, and say, "Now which one
is the gas again?"
8. After the examiner gets in the car, pop the hood, and get out and
check the oil.
9. Fill your car with beer bottles.
10. The whole time driving, talk about how Aunt Charlotte smells like
mothballs.
11. Tell the registrar that you are taking the remedial test.
12. In the middle of driving, put your arm around the examiner.
13. Swear at everybody on the road.
14. When you stop at a light, start revving the engine while looking
back and forth between the person next to you and the light.
15. Beep your horn at everything.
16. Break off your rear-view mirror before the test, then when the
examiner gets in the car, ask the examiner to hold it up.
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end transmission
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