TechTalk: Delaying the Inevitable by 10 Seconds...

[Note: This program takes place tonight, 10/29.  While attendance is free, please using the "Let us know" button on the "Details + RSVP" page to help us prepare our munchies.]

AIAA SF/SVSC TechTalk

Delaying the Inevitable by 10 Seconds...

Tuesday, October 29, 2013; 6:30pm-8:00pm

Hacker Dojo, Mountain View, CA

The vast majority of contraptions in the Red Bull Flugtag competition find creative ways to leap off the pier and plunge into the water. However, an occasional design seems to just float across the waters. Such was the case on September 21, when a Mountain View-based team, the Chicken Whisperers, set a Flugtag world record of 258 feet.

It helps that they are a team of engineers devoted to a new generation of aircraft design. But in this case, they do it in such an entertaining way. Aside from the frivolity, the lead designers Bob Parks and Zach Hazen of the record setting glider offer insight into the design and testing of their aircraft. [ Details + RSVP ]

Conrad Foundation looking for on-line judges

[This note comes to us from AIAA HQ.  The Conrad Foundation, named for late astronaut Pete Conrad, is a STEM partner of AIAA.]

Do you want to help foster the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs? Interested in motivating today's youth to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math?

The Conrad Foundation is currently recruiting online judges for the 2013-2014 Spirit of Innovation Challenge. The program invites teams of high school students to use their science and engineering skills to create innovative products and services that benefit humanity. (www.conradawards.org) They need experts like you  in the areas of aerospace and aviation, cybertechnology and security, energy and environment, and health and nutrition to review general entry submissions. Judging takes place entirely online and begins Oct. 25. 

Serving as a judge will take approximately 3 hours of your time.

If you are interested in participating as a judge, please send an email with background information on your area of expertise or CV, and the category you would like to judge to info@conradawards.org.

Detailed Version:

The Conrad Foundation is currently recruiting judges for the 2013-2014 Spirit of Innovation Challenge. The program invites teams of high school students to create innovative products and services that benefit humanity within one of four challenge categories. During this stage of the competition teams enter with a one-page abstract.
We need judges for each category, which consists of:

·       Aerospace & Aviation

·       Cybertechnology & Security

·       Energy & Environment

·       Health & Nutrition

General Entry Judging: Oct. 25. - Nov. 8
A Judge’s Responsibility

·  Commit to judge the minimum of 10 projects in your area of expertise (estimated 3 hours)

·  Provide thoughtful, constructive and age-appropriate feedback for each submitted project

·  Complete submission review and comments prior to the judging deadline

·   Agree to confidentiality terms that protect the intellectual property of our students

Time Commitment

·  All judging takes place electronically through a secure online judging portal.

·  We ask that you commit to reviewing a minimum of 10 entries in your area of expertise; on average, each entry should take 15-20 minutes to review and provide comments. If you are able and interested, you are invited to review additional abstracts.

The judging phase for the General Entry (abstract round) starts Oct. 25 and is approximately two weeks long.  We already have teams submitting their abstracts, so it is important that we get qualified experts such as yourself in place to help provide quality scoring and feedback to the students.
If you are interested in participating as a judge, please send an email with background information on your area of expertise or CV, and the category you would like to judge to info@conradawards.org . The Conrad Foundation will send you an invitation with a unique link to register your judge account.
Many thanks to you for your support of innovation, education and entrepreneurship! Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact Carrie Taylor at info@conradawards.org.

Join us tomorrow Tuesday August 13th for our monthly Dinner Meeting with SSL VP Mr. Chris Hoeber

AIAA Public Policy Committee Solicits Input for 2014 CVD Key Issues

The AIAA Public Policy Committee (PPC) is now soliciting your input for its 2014 Congressional Visits Day (CVD) key issues under the themes/subcommittee focus of: Space, Aeronautics, STEM Education & Workforce Development, and National Security.  This opportunity is available to all members within AIAA.  If you’ve ever wondered if AIAA is addressing the most pressing and relevant issues within the industry, now is your chance to contribute and participate in the process.  Input should consist of issue title/name, brief background, and at least one proposed recommendation.  Also, the issues must avoid focusing on specific local or corporate concerns and instead should reflect a consensus of the entire Institute.  Please send your input to AIAA Region VI Deputy Director for Public Policy, John Rose (john.c.rose@boeing.com) for submission to the PPC.  Deadline for input is August 1, 2013.

NASA Research Announcement (NRA) for Leading Edge Aeronautics Research for NASA (LEARN)

(Ed. note: Posting on behalf of ARMD NARI.)

The Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate’s (ARMD’s) NASA Aeronautics Research Institute (NARI) has released a solicitation for multi-institutional, team-based proposals for research as participating members of LEARN.  Proposals must clearly articulate an innovative, broadly based research topic addressing strategically important aeronautics technical challenges that have the potential to mature into technologies of interest to ARMD or commercial aerospace companies.

The schedule for the LEARN NRA is:

Release of NRA at https://nspires.nasaprs.com	May 28, 2013
Notice of intent to propose due	June 14, 2013
Pre-proposal briefing	June 25, 2013
Proposals due	July 30, 2013
Selection of teams	September 2013
Period of performance start	October 1, 2013

Please see NSPIRES website for specific information relative to this solicitation.   If you are not a registered NSPIRES account holder, you can register at https://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/aboutRegistration.do

Students and Space Hacker Workshop

There is still room to attend the Space Hacker Workshop, May 4-5, at the Hacker Dojo, in Mountain View.  Registration is at:  http://spacehacker.eventbrite.com.

IF YOU ARE A STUDENT, you can enter the promotional code "studentinspace" and get a 50% discount.  HOWEVER, you must be prepared to show your current valid student ID card when you show up.

The early bird discount is no longer in effect.  Until May 1, the registration fee is $125 + $7.87 processing fee.  For students, this means the current rate for the two days is something like $66.93.  (It didn't just divide by 2.  There must be a base credit card fee.)  This includes coffee, snacks, and lunch on both days.

In addition to the hands-on sessions using the Ardulab module, here is the current list of speakers:

• Entrepreneurial spaceflight start-ups

Sean Casey, Silicon Valley Space Center

• Citizen astronauts, flight selection and training

Edward Wright, Citizen Science

• The XCOR Lynx vehicle

Khaki Rodway, XCOR

• Microgravity and biological experiments

Oana Marcu, NASA ARC/SETI

• Protein crystal growth in a micro-gravity environment

Carl Carruthers, NanoRacks

• Lunar Mining

Jim Kerevala, Shackleton Energy

• 3D Printing

Jason Dunn,  MadeInSpace

• Open Sourcing Space Technologies

Darlene Damm, Open Space University

• Mesospheric Science

Jason Reimuller, Astronauts4Hire

• New Space and Synthetic Biology

John Cumbers, NASA/USRA

PoSSUM - TechTalk - Apr 22

How can manned suborbital vehicles support science in the upper atmosphere?  We will get an example of this in our next TechTalk, on Monday, April 22.  Jason Reimuller, prinicipal investigator on PoSSUM, will describe the project.  Below is the first part of the abstract on the TechTalks webpage for the talk.

The Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere (PoSSUM) campaign will employ a manned reusable suborbital vehicle that will launch from a high-latitude spaceport (e.g. Alaska or Kiruna, Sweden) during a weeklong deployment scheduled for July 2014 to study numerous aspects of Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMCs).  PoSSUM will optimize the opportunity created by the “PMC  Imagery and Tomography Experiment”, a high-latitude campaign selected by the NASA Flight Opportunities Program (Experiment 46-S) to study the small-scale dynamics of PMCs.  The PoSSUM Project will make full use of the 46-S opportunity by fully utilizing all available payload space and campaign deployment time to optimize technology maturation and science return while validating a repeatable, low-cost means to study seasonal trends of PMCs.

The manned suborbital spacecraft referenced is the XCOR Lynx, which is currently being completed in Mojave, California.  This is a chance to learn about this PMC phenomena as well as what it's like to work with the NASA Flight Opportunities Program.  The TechTalks webpage lists some additional links to resources, including a 2-page summary PDF of the project.