September 2016 meeting

The September meeting of the RRS took place last night, Friday the 9th, at 7:39pm in Gardena.  Meeting was called to order by Chris and Osvaldo.

Frank submitted a presentation for the RRS meeting as he couldn’t attend.  Chris displayed Frank’s presentation for us.

(1)  Frank said that the Symposium has been rescheduled to February 11, 2017 at the Gardena Community Center.  The new date is not yet confirmed but should be soon.  (I’ll post an official notice on the RRS website)  Many of the interested parties expressed that February would be a better time for them to participate.  Also, this gives us more time to make a better symposium.

(2) Frank said that the October 14th RRS meeting may be held at USC, likely at the USC RPL.

http://www.uscrpl.com/

The two potential topics at next month’s meeting will be:

(A) the SuperDosa project.  Osvaldo, Richard and I will meet beforehand and work out some details and present them at the meeting in October.

(B) USC RPL will have a presentation to give the RRS a status on their latest builds and launch goals.

(3) Frank mentioned the “Mars City Design” organization that has expressed interest in building a structure at or near the RRS MTA.   There was a lot of information presented and a design competition.  I didn’t get much of the details, but the website is linked below.  The RRS is glad to lend our support.

http://www.marscitydesign.com/

In other topics,

The flyers for John Mariano haven’t been made yet, but I think the flyer design is ready to go.   Chris said he’d get some made so John can start passing them out.  The RRS flyer is just to introduce people to our organization.   It should help us bring in new members as John works at the California Science Center.

Chris talked about the California Science Center having a great 40 minute movie presentation titled “Journey to Space” which was produced by Boeing and Toyota.  It may not be running much longer so everyone should try to make it to the California Science Center soon.

Larry Hoffing wasn’t able to attend, but he had said that the Compton Charter school had indicated interest in having an RRS alpha build event.   It’s great to have another opportunity to share with more schools.   I need to meet with Larry to discuss the educational materials we were working on.

Osvaldo talked about the magazine storage requirements for AP (ammonium perchlorate) at the RRS MTA.  We need to find out more details on the quantities and storage requirements that we’ll need to follow.  Safety first!

Richard had asked a general question about when is a pyrotechnical operator (pyro-op) necessary and what kinds of work can be done at the RRS MTA without a pyro-op.   It was agreed that the rules regarding pyro-op’s should be reviewed.  The RRS has pyro-op people available and sometime can call upon the FAR group if necessary.  The RRS has been wanting to add pyro-op’s to our roster to allow us to work more easily.

Steve Majdali brought some of his best chlorate crystals to show.  Steve also cleared up a question that I thought I had about the “Galcit” propellant and the potassium perchlorate oxidizer it uses (K CL O4 versus a mistyped “KC104”)   Steve recounted the details of his electrolysis experiments to cheaply generate chlorates and later make perchlorates starting with table salt, water and other low cost chemicals.  He’s written several papers and many of them are being published.

USC had talked about testing at the MTA sometime this month, I believe.  Dave Crisalli and his team are still working out at the MTA for this month and the next.   Next launch event for the RRS is still to be in November (November 19th is our standard launch date for that month).

Meeting was adjourned at 9:08pm.  Next meeting will be October 14th.  If confirmed, this meeting will be at the USC RPL.   More details will be forthcoming.

As always, contact me if I have missed anything, if there’s something to be added or if any is not accurate.  I can also expand upon past topics if there’s more to say.  Thanks!