Minutes of ERPS General Meeting #278
04 March 2004
The President called the meeting to order at 8:00 PM. Members present were
Rick Eversole, Dave Masten, Pierce Nichols, Gerald Nordley, Julie Porter,
Adrian Tymes, Michael Wallis, and Chris Winter.
Reports and discussion on agenda items were as follows:
DOCUMENTATION
-------------
Chris Winter
In the interest of getting more publicity for ERPS, Chris suggested that
meeting notices be posted on WorkIt.com. This is a site that carries
notices of events of interest to Silicon Valley techies and entrepreneurs.
Our meetings would fit well in the "engineering and tech" category.
However, there was some concern about the potential for WorkIt's e-mail
blasts to cause bad feeling. The consensus was that more research is
needed. Chris agreed to undertake that. He will also investigate the other
two sites suggested, Meetup and Craigslist.
Chris has updated the ERPS brochure to show our new meeting location,
including a map. He provided PDF copies to Pierce and Michael.
For the 2004 CD-ROM, Chris has collected 72 items totalling about 31 MB.
Along with the Valentine video (its title is "...and for other purposes")
and related items, this would fill up the better part of a CD-ROM. Still,
suggestions for new material are welcome.
INFOTECH
--------
Sean Lynch
Michael reported an interruption in service for the ERPS Web site. It
seems NI was dragging their feet on letting him transfer the domain to
another registrar. Then it expired and disappeared from the nameservers.
The resulting outage was brief, since Michael renewed it through NI again.
LIAISONS
--------
Michael Wallis
Michael reminded the group of upcoming meetings: Contact (NASA Ames, 12-14
March), Space Access '04 (Phoenix, 22-24 April) and COMSTAC (Washington,
DC, 19-20 May).
He showed a Sacramento paper with a cover story about JP Aerospace.
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
--------------
Michael Wallis
The dates for the next COMSTAC meeting have been posted on the AST Web
site. Michael and Dave M are planning to attend.
TREASURER
---------
Rick Eversole
Rick reimbursed Pierce for some more purchases, and reported that we still
have money.
He is still working on getting the robot arm into a DoveBid auction. They
are wanting a fee they previously neglected to mention, of about $1,000.
CHIEF SCIENTIST
---------------
Kevin Bollinger
Nothing to report
FLIGHT CONTROLS
---------------
Dave Masten
See the entry for Gizmocopter.
PROPELLANTS/SPARGER/FF
----------------------
Pierce Nichols
The parts for Freezewheel Mark 1 are on hand; machining on it should be
finished this weekend.
Pierce has finished a new condenser tower for his sparger, and is working
on a new heat exchanger coil assembly. He plans to install both these items
at the Ranch at the first opportunity.
REGULATORY
AFFAIRS
-------
Dave Weinshenker
Chris reported that H.R. 3752 passed the House that day (March 4th). This
bill, sponsored by Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Chairman Dana
Rohrabacher (R-CA), is The Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004.
According to a press release from the House, it is "designed to promote the
development of the emerging commercial human space flight industry." The
legislation now heads to the U.S. Senate.
The press release says that major provisions of the legislation are
designed to:
"* eliminate any confusion about who should regulate flights of
suborbital rockets carrying human beings by explicitly locating all
commercial space flight authority under the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST);
* make it easier to launch new types of reusable suborbital rockets by
allowing AST to issue experimental permits that can be granted more quickly
and with fewer requirements than licenses;
* extend government indemnification for the entire commercial space
transportation industry (including licensed, non-experimental commercial
human space launches) for a period of three years, but the bill will not
grant indemnification for flights conducted under experimental permits,
which will be more lightly regulated; and
* require a study on how best to gradually eliminate indemnification
for the commercial space transportation industry by 2008 or as soon as
possible thereafter."
SAFETY
------
Dave Masten
Safety is AOK.
TESTING
-------
Dave Masten
Pierce reported good news and bad news about our acivities at the Ranch.
The good news is that we got glowing reviews from everyone in the
inspection a few months back. The bad news is that Chuck has been served a
cease-and-desist order from the county planning agency. Some details are
unclear; but apparently the county lost his use permits. This action
effectively kills our activities there, until it is resolved.
**** PROJECTS
Composites
----------
Kevin Bollinger
Nothing to report
Gizmocopter
-----------
Dave Masten
In order to cut through the bottlenecks that have impeded progress on
Gizmocopter, Dave M will order a full PC-104 development kit.
KISS
----
Dan Solvin
Nothing to report
POGO
----
Dave Masten
A jig for welding POGO's tank to the frame is almost ready.
Pierce's simulation requires the full version of MatLab to function. The
price of the software is an obstacle, but some ERPS members may be able to
work around that barrier.
SMARTFLIGHT
-----------
Dave Weinshenker
Dave W and Sean will travel to Snow Ranch this weekend for Livermore club
launches.
Spike
-----
Sean Lynch
Nothing to report
NEW BUSINESS
============
Rick has not been able to get the CD-ROMs sent off to John Carmack. Also,
he is still working out a way to get payment from a Serbian fellow who
wants to purchase one.
Meeting #278 adjourned at 8:55 PM. The next meeting will take place on 18
March at the Denny's on Bowers Avenue in Santa Clara. Watch the list for
full driving directions.
Respectfully submitted,
Chris Winter
Secretary, ERPS
+++ PLEASE ADVISE THE SECRETARY OF ANY ADDITIONS OR CORRECTIONS TO THESE
MINUTES +++
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