80th Anniversary RRS Symposium on April 15, 2023

by Dave Nordling, President, RRS.ORG


The Reaction Research Society is proud to announce our 80th anniversary symposium to be held at the Mary Star of the Sea High School in San Pedro on Saturday, April 15, 2023, from 8am to 5pm. We have 15 speakers and over 20 exhibitions which is on par with our last symposium four years ago before the pandemic.

Mary Star of the Sea High School is at 2500 N. Taper Avenue in San Pedro, California, 90731.

Gates will be open at 7:15AM for exhibitors to set up. The event will start at 8:00AM sharp.

The gymnasium will hold our exhibitors. Room 108 will have the presentations. Seating is limited. All speakers must be present at least 15 minutes ahead of their speaking time.

Below is a tentative list of our speakers. The list is subject to change without notice.

  • Opening and first session, 8:00-8:30am, Dave Nordling, President, RRS.ORG
  • 8:30-9:00am, by remote, Ichiro Ausin, et al, University of Michigan
  • 9:00-9:30am, Dr. Steven Chambreau, Air Force Research Laboratory, Edwards AFB
  • 9:30-10:00am, Eric Schmidt, Exquadrum Inc.
  • 10:00-10:30am, Mark Ventura, Ventura Energy Systems
  • 10:30-11:00am, Dean Theodor, Federal Aviation Administration
  • 11:00-11:30am, Julia Woomer et al, USC Rocket Propulsion Laboratory
  • 11:30-12noon, Blake Spahr et al., UCLA Rocket Project
  • Lunch Break 12:00-1:00pm
  • 1:00-1:30pm, Dr. Frank Chandler, California Polytechnic Pomona
  • 1:30-2:00pm, Dr. Jerry Fuller, Aerospace Corporation
  • 2:00-2:30pm, Tre Willingham et al, Compton Comet
  • 2:30-3:00pm, Caleb Phillips and Vijay Mepani, CALFIRE
  • 3:00-3:30pm, Jack Caldwell et al, Caltech
  • 3:30-4:00pm, Darrell Chua et al, UC San Diego SEDS
  • 4:00-4:30pm, Patrick Finley, Lander Challenge
  • Closing and thanks, Dave Nordling, President, RRS.ORG

Free tickets on Eventbrite are still available. Many thanks again to Peter Thorpe for his background artwork and to Mary Star of the Sea High School in San Pedro, California, for graciously hosting this event. Food/drinks/snacks will be provided by Mary Star High School.

For questions, please contact our vice president, Frank Miuccio.

vicepresident@rrs.org

Our April 14th monthly meeting will be also held at the Mary Star High School auditorium at 7:30pm. We will discuss a few items of business but largely we will be preparing the site for the next day.

Our latest flyer design for the 80th anniversary RRS symposium
Rough floor plan of the exhibition in the Mary Star High School gymnasium
Laminated impulse scale charts from the RRS will be available for purchase at the symposium for $10 each. Proceeds go to the society general fund.
Membership applications will be available at the symposium for those wishing to apply for associate membership. $20 per year for students. $40 per year for all others.

We look forward to celebrating amateur rocketry with the community.


RRS attended the 1st annual FAR Liquid Rocket Symposium

by Dave Nordling, President, RRS.ORG


Representatives of the Reaction Research Society were invited to attend the 1st annual Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) liquid propellant rocket symposium at the EAA Chapter 1 headquarters at the Flabob Airport in Riverside, California, on January 28, 2023. Dimitri Timohovich and I came to observe and participate in the all-day event including a range of topics related to safe design and operations with liquid rockets. There were hardware demonstrations giving attendees a direct appreciation for the importance of safety and careful planning with their system designs.

The intended audience was university rocket teams looking for best practices and expert advice. Mark Holthaus (president of FAR), Mark Ventura (RRS member and owner of Ventura Energy Systems) and Derek Honkawa (FAR member and private business owner) all gave excellent presentations covering igniters, propellant handling, part cleaning, and pressure system safety with a generous amount of examples of successful and unsuccessful projects at FAR.

FAR will soon make their presentation files available on their website for download. The RRS was glad to be there for this first of its kind event.

The RRS similarly has experts that have supported liquid rocket projects for decades at the Mojave Test Area. Contact the RRS president for requests and scheduling.

Also, the RRS will be holding our 80th anniversary symposium on April 15th at a venue location to be announced soon. This will be our first symposium since the pandemic and we look forward to having many speakers from industry, government, academia and the hobbyist community on topics related to liquid propellant rockets and many other subjects of interest to our public audience.

Sunrise at the Flabob Airport in Riverside, California.
For early cold mornings, coffee helps.
Pressurized water flow testing rig on display.
A full day of presentations on topics related to liquid rockets.

January 2023 meeting

by Joel Cool-Panama, Secretary, RRS.ORG


The Reaction Research Society held its monthly meeting at the front office of the Compton/Woodley Airport, 7:30 PM PST. on Friday, January 13, 2023.

Agenda topics of the meeting were:

  1. Welding helmets (Mohammed)
  2. Gas Guzzler progress (Wolfram)
  3. 1/14/2023 launch event
  4. * ROC high-power launches, terms of granting membership
  5. * American Artist – LACMA
  6. Work event 1/22-1/25/23
  7. launch event on 1/28/2023?
  8. 2023 symposium on April 8 (Frank)
  9. FAR liquid rocket symposium 1/28/23 at Flabob Airport (Dave)
  10. Restroom progress (Dimitri)
  11. Compton Comet work at MTA (Jamie)
  12. Launch rail designs (Jackson)
  13. Visit to Ventura Energy LLC, 1/12/23
  14. micrograin resources, alpha (Jim Gross)

Past Events

Another update which we were pleased to announce is that the President of the society has been formally admitted to the CALFIRE subcommittee on Fireworks, under which rocketry is governed, and which will be rewriting the existing regulations.

The Compton Comet project also had its first low pressure test earlier this month. There were many leaks, but the team is now nearing the point that they will need to carry on their testing at the Mojave Test Area (MTA).

A new member to the society, Abdullah Daya, also asked if there was any certificate available for those members who attended the society welding class in Vista. It was decided that the society would ask the instructors at a later time.

Current Events

The society is pleased to announce that member, Wolfram Blume, is currently seeking his pyro-op license. He currently only plans to obtain a Class 3 Rockets license, but the society currently seeks to expand its license holder count which will ease the planning of future MTA events requiring the presence of the same.

There was also a fairly lengthy discussion regarding society owned tools. Society member Mohammed Daya researched welding helmets on behalf of the society, giving a recommendation for a particular brand out of a few. There was also a recommendation for individuals to use prescription lenses, and helmets with small viewports should be used to prevent ones vision from wandering.

There was also discussion of a new requirement that individuals using society equipment sign waivers to reduce our liability, similar to the waiver required for MTA use.

Unfortunately, due to the recent weather in California, the launch event on January 14th for a project by American Artist has been cancelled. Dave still wishes to meet with him at another time, and hopefully schedule another date for his project at the MTA.

Another unfortunate situation has occurred, in that the FAA has reduced ROC’s height waiver by a substantial amount (7,000 feet). This will make the larger high-power launches impossible from their Lucerne Valley location. However, it was suggested that the society could reach out to ROC, and offer them use of the RRS MTA for their launch events. Keith Yoerg said he’d reach out to start a conversation.

In regards to the RRS MTA site improvements, the creation of more launch rails therefore was discussed. Materials for the construction of the same have been bought, and their design was briefly debated, with radio towers being mentioned as a frequent base. It was also mentioned that CAD software would be useful in our construction of any of the larger rail designs. A 60-foot launch rail for liquid-fuelled rockets is a top priority at the society this year.

An update on USPS protocols has been announced, that all mail addressed to a PO box must now also give the street address of the Post Office it is located at. Any such mail without an address will be returned to sender, so mail to the society should have the address written as such.

Reaction Research Society

8821 Aviation Blvd.

P.O. Box 90933

Los Angeles, CA, 90009-0933

An unexpected but minor blow to the society’s fundraising was delivered recently when Amazon announced that the AmazonSmile program will be discontinued in February this year. The money earned by the society therefrom was not a vast sum, but per our treasurer, Larry Hoffing, the loss of this small revenue stream means that pizza parties will be cancelled indefinitely. The society has yet to hold one of these events but the loss will still be felt.

Future Events

Starting on Sunday the 22nd, we are planning to have a multi-day work event at the MTA. This will do work on lighting and other electrical work on the site. Handicap rails and an access ramp also need to be installed soon. Dimitri will be present, and other volunteers are encouraged to participate as well.

On January 28th, there is another planned launch event for those wanting training in micrograin loading amoxil and launching. Jim Gross will be the pyro-op in charge.

Also on the same day, FAR will be holding a liquid rocket symposium at the Flabob Airport in Riverside. The RRS has been invited, but due to the limited gathering size only a couple individuals from the society will attend.

This April, Bill Claybaugh is planning to launch from the MTA. Likewise, the RRS symposium is planned to take place some time in April. Frank is currently in contact with the Gardena Community Center to see if we can hold the event there again this year on our 80th anniversary.

In regards to the symposium, there is currently no set budget, but it has been suggested that some of the society’s generous benefactors might be contacted to help cover costs.

Jim is currently in possession of zinc that might be used for sulfur micrograin. Some, contained in pales, are known to be good, but some received by mail are of unknown condition. It’s expected that the latter will be tested order phentermine soon so as to determine its use.

Next meeting will be February 10th. Contact the secretary for details.