UAF Space Club Homepage

September 25, 7pm, Wood Center Memorial Conference Room
- An Evening of Mars -

Ray & Frankie Collins will ga presentation on running an experimental Closed Ecological Life Support System (a.k.a. CELSS). Mars Base Zero is their flagship CELSS prototype, based locally in Ester. Also, Debi-Lee Wilkinson talked about what she learned at this summer's Mars Society Conference. Thamks for all who showed up, we had a great time!

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This Summer we gathered at Gulliver's Books' conference room to discuss potential upcoming projects for this fall and spring.

Please send any ideas you have for speakers or members of forums to spaceclub@uaf.edu. One of the topics we discussed was the directions that UAF, Alaska, and other interests were taking in terms of strategy and funding in the near and long term. For the military strategy check here: http://www.spacecom.mil/_private/about_space.htm
You will find both the "long range plan" as well as "vision 2020" among other documents.

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Friday April 5th, 2002

7pm in the Globe Room, Geophysical Institute (room 215 Elvey). Pizza and veggie snacks were provided.

This Space Club meeting featured Scott Bailey of the Geophysical Institute, and Thom DePace Wylie Gruenig, Space Club's webmaster. Scott talked about student involvement in the Student Nitric Oxide Explorer (SNOE), a research satellite built and operated by the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU). This satellite was designed to measure nitric oxide density in the thermosphere, and analyze energy inputs to that region from auroras and the sun. Funded by NASA, SNOE was built as part of the "Student Explorer Demonstration Initiative," a program that encouraged strong student participation in NASA research missions. Launched in 1998, SNOE is currently operated by a team of students at CU. Students and professionals at UAFs Geophysical Institute will soon participate in the project by analyzing data collected by SNOE.

Webmaster Thom showcased his creations in web design, and solicited feedback and ideas for the Club's webpage prior to its grand debut online. This page is a direct result of all your suggestions that day. Thanks for your help!

Just want to thank those of you who were able to attend last Friday's meeting- between our visitors from Japan and space club members, there were close to 30 people at the meeting. A special thanks to Joe Hawkins & Debi-Lee Wilkinson for their fine presentations. And a very special thanks to all for the general discussion about space issues that followed the presentations. Having discussions like those is the real reason for a club like this.

As to stargazing, please read the following message from Debi-Lee:" . . . the local astronomy club president and I are leading a star party at Creamer's field this Saturday at 8PM. Probably until about 10:00 We have 3 8"+ diameter scopes intended to be there. I thought you might want to pass that on the the club members. It will be/is being announce to the general public but not everyone may hear about it. Debi-Lee"

1. Debi-Lee Wilkinson, Geophysical Institute: "STAR - Surveyor Telescope for Atmospheric Research" This is an introduction to STAR, a programmable telescope which is now in its prototype stage, and should be fully operational by next fall. Debi-Lee will describe the apparatus, and discuss preliminary results.

2. Joe Hawkins, Alaska Space Grant Program: "SRP-4 / DIONISYS (student-designed sounding rocket payload)" Intense student activity is currently underway to prepare the SRP-4 / Dionisys payload for launch from Poker Flat on March 3, 2002. A NASA Orion rocket motor will accelerate this 150-pound payload to reach an altitude of 60 miles in order to take measurements of the ionosphere. An international collaboration, this project includes instruments built by students from Toyama Prefectural University and Tokai University in Japan.