Space Frontier News

Welcome to our biggest issue yet! I hope you find this one as interesting to read as I did putting it together. We start off with a lok back at NSDC ’94 by our own Seth Potter, who not only was present as an attendee, but presented his work on thin-film solar power satellites as well.

For those of you who didn’t make it to our first Space Science Technology Opportunities conference for teachers, you really missed out! we, and the teachers, built model rockets, rod on demonstration hovercraft (and come to think of it, built some of those too), practiced planetary surface mapping, learned about local astronomy opportunities, growing crystals, and even created our own First Contact with an alien race that some of us got to design! I wouldn’t miss this one next time around.

Carolyn Josephs updates us on what’s coming up in the world of education, and Robin Vernuccio brings us a book review for teachers. I’ve also included a copy of the entry form for our upcoming student space art contest. Having mentioned a book review, I of course must plug my own promised one – I hope I’ve done justice to Marshall Savage’s The Millennial Project.

Craig Ward, the NSS Chapters Coordinator sent around by e-mail a survey for planning the future of NSS. Larry Roberts joins us again with a colleague and a press release on their recent article touting ST:TNG as a teaching tool for law schools. We have an announcement about the upcoming Satellites and Education Conference in Pennsylvania, and, speaking of the Keystone State, Greg Zsidisin passes on word that our planned joint field trip with the Philadelphia chapter of NSS is on for the first weekend of next month.

Finally, on a sad note, for those who hadn’t heard, Dr. Myron S. Malkin, nuclear physicist and the first director of the space shuttle program (1973-1980), passed away at age 70 in late October. Ad Astra…

This issue, I have to say, is one of the more exciting I’ve gotten to put together. As you probably saw on the cover, we start off with Darrell Coles’ look at the world of finance in the space industry. This is the first of what Darrell promises will be an in-depth look at the field in a series of articles.

Seth Potter returns to the pages of SFN with his much awaited primer on solar power satellites. For anyone who is confused or curious about the subject, I found this to be an excellent basic text.

Several weeks back, Alan Wasser approached me with a fax that he had received from Jeffrey Liss out in Chicago. The fax was a copy of a proposal that Jeffrey put together for The Earthguard Project, following up on the speculation that Earth could one day (soon?) find itself in the path of an oncoming spatial body – like Shoemaker-Levy 9. I followed up with a couple conversations with Jeff, and hope I’ve done his proposal justice in the space allotted.

Our regular contributors, of course, are with us – Robin Vernuccio with her usual witty review style, Carolyn Jospehs and her 11th hour column on the upcoming Space Science Technologies Opportunities conference – I add to her exhortations – let’s all pitch in and be there this coming weekend! And Greg Zsidisin catches us up on what’s happening with ISDC ’96 here in New York.

From this end, I’m looking for a volunteer or volunteers to write a series of articles on space advocacy in the online world. If you’re active out there on the Internet, or elsewhere, and have some aspect that you’d like to cover for us, or just an opinion you want to express, let me know. On other promised topics, I’m in mid-read on Marshall Savage’s The Millennial Project, so far, I can say it’s a “must read”. More next month.

First, my apologies that this issue is arriving a bit later than the last few. Between trips to California and Chicago and the holidays, my time has been a bit tighter scheduled than usual. I’d like to welcome board member and new contributor Steve Wolfe to the pages of the new SFN. Steve assures me in a faxed note that he plans to become a regular contributor. We, of course, will hold him to it.

Greg Zsidisin has managed his usual comprehensive roundup of the latest in space news, despite battling one of those delightful end-of-summer colds. Robin Venuccio gives us another of her fun book reviews, this time for the preschool set. And Carolyn Josephs catches us up on the last minute details of the upcoming teacher’s conference. I add to her request for volunteers – the tables at this conference need manning (or is that “personning” these days?), and we need cars to help transport materials and equipment.

Speaking of conferences, though I was out of town and unable to attend the Practical Robotic Interstellar Flight conference at the end of August, I understand it went quite well. We can all, I’m sure, look forward to a forthcoming report from at least one of the attendees (hint, hint). Darrell Coles also promises an upcoming article on financing space exploration. Other future articles in the works that look promising cover the areas of online space advocacy, more on solar-powered satellites, and Mashall Savage’s Millennial Project.

George Lewycky has agreed to speak again at our upcoming meeting, Sunday, September 18. George is an amateur astronomer, and a professional financial systems programmer, who got observing time on the Hubble Space Telescope last year (along with a number of other amateurs). George used Hubble’s spectrometer to scan Saturn’s moon Titan for signs of formaldehyde, a complex molecule thought to be the early basis of the development of life

George will speak about his findings, the ongoing effort to interpret his data, and other recent Hubble findings. He will be showing slides of Hubble views of the Jupiter comet impacts last July.

The month of July passed, with much space related fanfare. Yet, in some ways, it passed uneventfully. True, Shoemaker-Levy 9 did its dive into our Jovian neighbor. But Jupiter didn’t blow up, go reeling of course, or suddenly have its atmosphere peeled off to head out into the Oort cloud. And there were folk out there predicting such excitement. I even picked up a little sidebar in a local religious paper which quotes one Rabbi Shmuel Butman, a local Lubavitch Hasidic rabbi, who says the whole comet thing was predicted in the 13th century in one of the ancient Jewish mystical texts, the Zohar. The fulfillment of this prophecy, he apparently claims, means that redemption is near. Perhaps.

The Apollo program was duly commemorated, with interviews of former astronauts, pieces in local papers giving so-called expert opinions about those same astronauts, quotes from various scientists and political figures about what they think about where the space program has gone, and some wretchedly inaccurate TV productions (Moon Shot, For All Mankind, for example). Most seemed to feel that while much is happening, the public not only doesn’t know, but doesn’t care. They may be right, and that’s where SFS comes in. It is, I think, time that we (once again?) go for a major membership boost. One on one recruitment is fine to a point, but at times it seems we are losing as many old members as we are gaining new. If you’ve been following Carolyn Josephs’ update on the Education Committee, you know that big doings are afoot to engage teachers and through them, students, in our future in space.

None of this is to suggest that things are gloomy. If you check out the current space news, you’ll see we have good news on the Delta Clipper, the Space Station, and a couple other goodies. David Anderman contacted me last minute to let me know that the “Back to the Moon”ill has been accepted by the House Committee on Space & Science…

The Lunar Resources Data Purchase Act is a bill to encourage the development of a commercial space industry in the United States, and to regain the leadership of the United States in the field of lunar science. The bill has been incorporated in the House of Representatives version of the NASA Authorization for Fiscal Year 1995. If the U.S. Senate passes a NASA Authorization for Fiscal Year 1995, then a congresional committee to reconcile the two versions of the NASA Authorization is expected to keep the Back to the Moon bill in the final law. Space activists are requested to send a letter to their Senators asking them to pass a NASA Authorization for Fiscal Year 195 that includes the Lunar Resources Data Purchase Act.

I’ve just returned from watching the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, and all that, as the city and Macy’s put on their annual firework show. After watching how excited people get over little teeny rockets that blow up into bright colors and make noise, it occurred to me that that’s the way the American public used to be about the space program. (Well, we didn’t want the rockets blowing up in technicolor, but you get the idea.) Darrell Coles contributes to the newsletter this month with some ideas of his own on how we might be able to wake up our friends and neighbors to the wonders of space, far beyond the East River.

We also have our first installment in a series of essays collected in SFS’ recent essay contest – and with the dozens and dozens of entries we got, we know there’s some inspiration out there in a new generation. Robin CP Vermuccio of our own Education Committee joins us with a short review of a book that makes great reading for the younger set. (Sorry Robin, I just didn’t have room for all three.)

As might be expected, given the elections at the last meeting, our President’s Message is delivered this month by Greg Zsidisin. Congratulations Greg on your landslide victory! It was almost as if you ran unopposed….

And congratulations to our other winners: Sam Liebowitz is (still) vice president and treasurer; Linda DeLaurentis takes over as secretary; and the entire slate of eight board candidates became the board – Darrell Coles, Bill Engfer, Carolyn Josephs, Seth Potter, Paul Roseman, Alan Wasser, Steven Wolfe and yours truly.

Greg advises us that the dealine for the early registration price on our own ISDC ’96 has been extended to September 15th. JPL has published a predicted schedule for the best viewing of the Shoemaker-Levy comet collision with Jupiter – for Easter North America, they’re placing bets on 7:34 p.m. on Saturday, July 16th. Let’s hope for an early sundown.

A Happy Spaceweek and Moon Day to all of you, see you at the picnic!

We’ve entered upon interesting times this summer. The newspapers are full of news about the Clipper – not the Delta, but a silly little scrambling chip for telephonic communications. By the time most of you read this, you’ll already know that not only is it designed to allow government wiretapping, but it has a built-in design flaw that allows other folk to do the same. Yet, the funding is there for this Clipper – design flaws and all. Governmental priorities at work, I suppose.

ISDC 1994 has come and gone. The Space Frontier Society was well represented by Seth Potter, David Millman, Robert DeBiase, Allan Wasser and Ray Noonan. Our cover article this month is David’s report on the conference – and hopefully next month we’ll have a write-up from Seth on the Solar Power Satellite Working Group.

Greg Zsidisin reminds everyone that the deadline for registering for ISDC 1996 at the advance rate of $45 is coming up fast – June 15! If you’re planning to take advantage of this reduced price, get your check in to: Space Expos of America, Inc., P.O. Box 71, Maplewood, NJ 07040.

On other fronts, as reported by Greg in his monthly news coverage, our distant neighbor, Jupiter, is due to receive an uninvited party-crasher – the Shoemaker-Levy comet. The Clementine mission completed its moon mapping and now has gone off on what the Australians might call a walkabout. And the Hubble Space Telescope has gone and found itself a black hole and some rings around a supernova.

In June, NASA has a scheduled Pegasus launch into low earth orbit for further stratospheric ozone study, and in July, a planned launch of the shuttle Columbia will carry a payload that includes microgravity, acceleration, amateur radio, and crystal growth experiments.

Carolyn Josephs reports on the results of our first essay contest and the upcoming teachers’ conference. She has also graciously worked up a list of the participants in the contest, and is busy putting together a presernationa of some of the best work submitted for next month’s issue.

Finally, Linda DeLaurentis has written what she claims is her last President’s Message, as she steps down from her term in office. Linda is the one who signed me up, not only for SFS, but also to edit this newsletter – which was no easy task on her part. A big thank you for a job well done!

Well, my first issue is behind me, or so I thought. Imagine my surprise at the controversy stirred up by our page 6 article by Jim Melloan. I cant say that I have a representative sampling of the membership’s response, but I did hear from four of you on your views. Linda DeLaurentis, our president, who givers her response in her President’s Message following, found the article intriguing, though felt that Jim could have delved a bit deeper into what SFS has already done in the business world. Two members who wish to remain anonymous congratulated Jim for proposing something they thing would make an interesting project for the organization – now whenever the two of you wish to stop remaining anonymous, perhaps you’d like to, dare I say it, volunteer, to work on the idea? The most extensive response came from Greg Zsidisin, who felt that Jim needs to do some far broader research into the area of private enterprise and space exploration, as well as SFS’s involvement in the area, in order to understand just what it would take to really do what he proposes. He further comments:

“NSS and SFS are grassroots advocacy groups, in which members from all walks of life promote their cause, just like PETA or Sierra Club or NRA members do. It’s a niche we’ve choen, and something we’ve done damn well with – the Blueprint for Space seminar and our nationally covered pro-space rallies are just a few of our more recent successes….

Melloan urges us to abandon America’s $30 billion public space effort for such blazing new space ventures as LunaCorp – which, for all its novelty, is hardly guaranteed the $120 million it needs to set a rover down on the moon for the entertainment industry….

I’m sorry, but a fully private space enterprise is still a ways off. One SFS member who attended a recent space financing conference said the audience’s eyes glazed over during the American Rocket Company’s pitch on hybrid rockets. Next to Delta Clippers and SSTOs, hybrid rocketry is tremendously conservative stuff. The funding Amroc needs to finish its modest research work is in the tens of millions of dollars – hundreds of times less investment than even the lowest Clipper estimates. Yet they’ve been at it for years now – and it’s reusable Clipperships, not expendable hybrids, that everyone now looks to for opening the frontier.

For all the current turmoil, the space technology that will get you and me into space on vacation is far more likely to come out of the government than private industry. That fact alone leaves a big role for grassroots activists and groups like SFS and NSS.”

Greg himself takes another look at LunaCorp and International Space Enterprises ventures in this issue of SFN, along with our cover piece on ISDC ’94, and his usual valued contributions of space news. Linda DeLaurentis discusses the upcoming board elections and Carolyn Josephs catches up on the doings of the Education Committee. Sam Liebowitz proposes an interesting project for a couple of, here we go again, volunteers. Personally, I felt compelled to pen a review of Michio Kaku’s new book, Hyperspace.

Again, your contributions and input are not only welcome, but requested. I’d like to see the author base of this newsletter expand rapidly, not only for the variation in talent, but also to make sure we include a wide range of interests for all members.