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AIAA TUCSON SECTION NEWSLETTER
May 2000
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Calendar of Events 2000
o 25-29 May (Memorial Day Weekend) - International
Space Development Conference, details below
o 3 June - Education Outreach Meeting at Pima Air &
Space Museum, 9 AM to 12 Noon (details on last page)
o Date TBA - Tucson Industry Forum, details TBA
o Date TBA - 2000-2001 Kickoff Meeting, awards
ceremony, details TBA
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International Space Development Conference
by Tom Jaquish
Apollo 11 Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, second man to walk on the Moon, will
welcome all to the 19th Annual International Space Development
Conference, with "The Return: Your Space Vision." Hugh Downs, former
host of ABC's 20/20 program will give awards. The conference is hosted
by the Tucson Space Society, and is being supported by the Tucson and
Phoenix AIAA Sections. The conference will land in Tucson, May 25 - 29
at the Holiday Inn City Center, at Broadway and Granada, downtown.
Speakers and events will focus on human habitation and development of
space including propulsion, launch technologies, orbital transfer,
harvesting asteroids and use of other space materials, bio-
engineering, solar energy, terra-forming planets, space tourism,
medicine, piracy, social, political and economic aspects. A full
schedule of child care, family events and bus tours are planned.
One may register for the entire conference or for each day. For
information see www.tucson2000.org or call 797-3834 or 622-7856.
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Chair's Corner
by Kevin Kremeyer
WOW!!!
The dinner meeting was a smashing success, and already, elections are
upon us!
This year-end meeting (centered around Jim Harford's talk) was our
most encouraging event to date. It really showed us that some life is
being breathed into Tucson's aerospace community, and especially into
our local section.
One area of especially strong interest to our aerospace community will
be addressed by the business forum we're organizing with several
economic development offices in town. Our collective goal is to
strengthen the collaborative industrial base here in Tucson, and help
make this a more competitive location for aerospace-related work. It's
amazing to see the strong emphasis our city government is putting on
the invigoration of Tucson's technology base.
The second emphasis of our section is the K-12 outreach and continuing
education. We are currently planning collaborations with several
organizations to help leverage our investments of time and money to
make the strongest impact on developing our children as well as our
existing workforce.
We'll have more details on both of these efforts in future
newsletters. In the mean time, please come forth, if you or your
company has any interest in participating in either of these exciting
programs. We're looking for interest and participation not only in
collaborations and economic development, but also in developing K-12
classroom projects, or in simply visiting a classroom once a year.
Participation is welcome at any level, and it's your participation
that makes this organization healthier, more stable, and so very
enriching.
Thank you again for the wonderful turnout at the last meeting, and
we're looking forward to seeing even more of you! Keep your eyes on
the schedule of upcoming events.
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An Evening of Russian Space History
by Jerry Felmley
The dinner meeting on 27 April was great fun for a wide range of
Tucson Section AIAA members and their guests. Jim Harford's
presentation was a solid history lesson on what-might-have-been vs.
what-really-was. All of us who attended were treated to vivid
descriptions and photos of, and anecdotes about, numerous Russian
space program participants -- from design bureau engineers to
Politburo budgeteers.
We heard again of numerous Russian "firsts" across a wide spectrum of
space activity that preceded NASA's accomplishments. We "met" Sergei
Korolev's comrades who achieved so much with sparse government support
and funding and we learned details of austere command module design
that were scary just in the listening. The desire to learn more after
Jim's presentation resulted in sales of 13 copies of his biography of
Korolev...even the author had a good evening!
Three AIAA members who are old friends and former co-workers of Jim
Harford showed up to add a little "once-upon-a-time" flavor to the
evening.
There is absolutely no doubt the 50 members, guests and Student Branch
members who attended our 27 April Meeting had a thoroughly enjoyable
evening. We hope YOU and YOUR guests will be at our next event...
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Design/Build/Fly Competition
by Frank Manning
It's easy to design a flying machine that looks good on paper.
It's not quite so easy to physically implement a design and demon-
strate that it works. That's the value of an activity like the AIAA
Student Design/Build/Fly (DBF) Competition, in my humble opinion (see
next article).
Traditionally, college students in engineering get plenty of
experience in two activities -- (1) listening to professors lecture in
front of classrooms, and (2) solving problems with pencil and paper.
The DBF contest makes things a bit more interesting. As the name
implies, paper design is still important, but it's not enough. As
Dwight Eisenhower once said, "farming looks mighty easy when your
plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the cornfield."
Prior to the inaugural DBF contest in 1997, UA students participated
from time to time in an earlier cargo lifting competition involving
air vehicles powered by piston engines.
I think the DBF's key innovation -- to AIAA's credit -- has been the
use of electric motors instead of piston engines. Granted, compared to
typical fuels like gasoline or methanol, batteries have the well-known
problem of low specific energy (energy divided by mass).
But it's also true that batteries have more than enough specific power
(power divided by mass) to power an air vehicle, the benefit being
that electric systems tend to be easier to manage and have a better
fit with academic lab environments. For example, it's easy to test
motors indoors without requiring special ventilation for exhaust
products.
Not that electric power is without challenges when you're stressing
components to their limits. The UA student team found that out the
hard way the week before the contest -- they accidentally vented a
battery, and later burned out an expensive brushless motor controller.
And the MIT team managed to go through not one but five controllers,
according to Matt Angiulo, our Student Branch President.
Fortunately, the UA team had spare cells and was able to borrow a
controller from Robert Wagoner, our webmaster, who cannibalized a
controller from one of his own airplanes. Robert also generously
supported the team with substantial discounts on hardware. The team
was at least able to make takeoff attempts at the contest, although
they didn't make qualifying flights.
All in all, I think the DBF contest is a good experience for students,
and one I hope the Section will continue to support. Certainly
fundraising for next year's contest has started off with a bang. As of
T minus 12 months, the Section has raised $2000 from an anonymous
donor. Last year the Section hadn't reached the $2K point until T
minus 5 months.
Competition web site:
http://amber.aae.uiuc.edu/~aiaadbf/
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Tucson Section Officer Roster 1999-2000
Chair: Kevin Kremeyer
Secretary/Treasurer: Kelly Sinnock
Membership: Rina Shivashankara
Webmaster: Robert Wagoner
UA Faculty Advisor: Larry Scott
Education Chair: Rajka Corder
Military Liaison: Ed Palanek
Newsletter Editor: Frank Manning
Support Staff: Jason Blauert
Web site: http://www.aiaa.org/sections/ts/
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Aircat2000 Project
by Matthew Angiulo
Now that the 1999/2000 AIAA Student Design/Build/Fly competition is
completed, the student group is taking some well deserved time off.
Until the 2001 competition rules are posted in about a little over a
month, it seems most of our members are struggling to find what they
used to do with free time. After dedicating so much time and effort
into the Aircat2000 project, it's difficult to move on. Nonetheless,
we are very excited to start work on next year's competition.
This coming year, we are going to make an effort to get more students
involved with our project. Currently, we appeal to a small group of
about ten to fourteen Aerospace Engineering students. Ultimately, I
hope to see the organization grow in membership with engineering
students from various departments and disciplines.
With the experiences and lessons learned over this past year, I expect
the new plane to show a great improvement over Aircat2000. We are very
excited to get started, and we appreciate your continued support.
Thank you very much.
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Survey Results
by Kelly Sinnock
Here are the statistics I'm sure you all have been waiting for: the
results from the interest survey we sent out in your November 1999
newsletter. Out of nearly 200 surveys mailed to members, 49 surveys
were returned. In addition, we received 15 surveys from non-members
who attended some of our recent events. After compiling the results,
we've tried to gear things toward your interests. Following is a
synopsis of the top winners of each category based on member
responses. (In addition, one plot has been included to satisfy your
analytical cravings.)
In addition to the ranked categories, we also received some write-in
suggestions that will be used for near-future activities.
Sample of write-in Suggestions
Events: - Working with kids & schools - Group travel to airshows & AIAA meetings
- Technical Training - Co-meetings with other societies
- Design Projects - Plane Restoration
Topics: - Tech Management - Guidance, Navigation & Control
- JPL/NASA activities - Space Biology
- Missiles - Avionics
- Aero History - Flight simulation
- Wind tunnel testing - Strategy & tactics in recent conflicts
- Manned Space Mission Planning - Aviation & Pilots
Tours: - U of A labs - R/C fields
- ATC at DMAFB - Tower at Tucson International Airport
- Ft. Huachuca - Raytheon
- JPL & NASA & Edwards AFB - Evergreen or Bombardier facilities
Activities: - Joint meetings w/Phoenix Section - Engineering student support/recognition
Thank you to everyone who returned his or her survey! We will try and
gear future activities toward what you voted on or suggested. If you
have any other suggestions or comments, please feel free to email us
at tucson_aiaa@yahoo.com or call Kevin at 882-7349.
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Educational Outreach
by Rajka Corder
On June 3rd, we'll be meeting with the Pima Air and Space Museum
(PASM) to delineate our joint approach to K-12 outreach. Anyone
interested in listening or participating is welcome to attend. Any
ideas for little demonstration kits will be extremely welcome. These
kits will either travel to schools, or reside permanently at the
Museum. We are looking for something that lasts about 8 minutes and
demonstrates some scientific phenomenon.
Despite our obvious aerospace tendencies, demonstrations of anything
related to science, math, or engineering will serve this program well.
The meeting will be held at the Pima Air and Space Museum on Saturday,
June 3rd from 9AM until noon (they'll direct you at the front desk).
We may also be appending a short meeting at the end for continuing
education and technical workforce development. Again, everyone is
welcome to join, and if you'd like to make some suggestions via email,
please send your comments to tucson_aiaa@yahoo.com.
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National Position in Student Programs
by Kevin Kremeyer
The AIAA National Headquarters are looking for a full-time staff
member to coordinate their student programs. Recent involvement in an
AIAA student section is required, as well as a degree in aerospace or
aeronautical engineering.
Immediate relocation to Virginia will be necessary, and the position
will involve a great deal of travel. Interested parties should be
referred to Karen Thomas at karent@aiaa.org or (703)264-7520.
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