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Check Out LACMA American Artist Exhibit this Weekend

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The Monophobic Response by American Artist is an art installation and film-based project displayed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) from November 1–4, 2024 ( LACMA ticket(s) link). Note: Check times if you are planning to go since LACMA is closing early on Saturday.

This artwork, created through LACMA’s Art + Technology Lab, reimagines a historic 1936 rocket engine test central to early American space exploration. The installation takes inspiration from Octavia E. Butler’s novel Parable of the Sower, which explores a dystopian future set in 2024, drawing parallels between Butler’s fictional narrative and present-day sociopolitical issues.

Central to the installation is a live performance and filmed re-creation conducted by American Artist in the Mojave Desert at the Reaction Research Society’s Mojave Test Area (MTA), where the test is portrayed within a barren, haunting landscape. The project examines societal ideals of “destiny” and human survival amid technological upheaval, as echoed in Butler’s narrative of Earthseed, a fictional religious community aspiring for interstellar migration as a means of survival. 

The installation features artifacts from the rocket test, including a replica of the original engine.  Founded in 1943, the Reaction Research Society (RRS) is the oldest continuously operating amateur rocketry group in the world conducting its events and outreach around the Los Angeles area and at their private testing site, the Mojave Test Area. Based on archival drawings provided by JPL, RRS members were able to faithfully reproduce a full-scale, fully firing prototype of the 1936 Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT) liquid methanol/gaseous oxygen bi-propellant engine and static fire thrust stand designed by pioneers Jack Parsons and Frank Malina representing one of the very first liquid rocket engines made in the United States.

Obituary: Gerald Andrew Irvine (1958 – 2023)

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Osvaldo Tarditti, George James, George Dosa, and Jerry Irvine at the RRS symposium

Jerry Irvine passed away October 17, 2023 in Nashville, TN. Jerry was a long-time presence in the field of rocketry. He was a successful salesman for Composite Dynamics often appearing at Lucerne Dry Lake with a briefcase with a mess of rocket engines inside. Often associated with Larry Teebken, John Davis, Dave Griffith, and Gary Rosenfield, Jerry could get those composite motor orders in and sell them to rocket people whom you could say weren’t ordinary stiffs. People came from all over the USA who wanted to rummage through Jerry’s briefcase. He knew the psyche of rocket peeps and they knew his. It was related to me that Jerry was an amazing salesman, he seems to have been a natural wonder. Korey Kline, of K2Hybrids, reflected that Jerry had lots of crazy ideas, but helped the rocket community, and possessed an R&D heart.

It has been reported that in the early 70’s he was a member of the Claremont Rocket Society and the NAR Polaris Section headquartered in Claremont, California. He made the occasional appearance at Reaction Research Society’s 40 acre Mojave Test Area in Cantil, CA according to Dave Crisalli. It’s also been documented that Jerry reached out privately to those who needed money to pursue their dreams. May he rest in peace.

Larry Hoffing/Treasurer/RRS.ORG (Est ‘43)

11/29/23

November 2023 Meeting

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by Joel Cool-Panama, Secretary, RRS.ORG

The Reaction Research Society held its monthly meeting at the Compton/Woodley Airport location,
7:30 PM PST.

Slideshow

Agenda

  • Nominations
  • Constitutional amendments
  • 60’ Launch Rail Status
  • Surplus generator purchased
  • Website development
  • MailChimp membership application form
  • Cash dues payment protocol
  • Social Media Accounts Status
  • Executive Council VoiP
  • 2024 Symposium
  • Tabs for a Cause Update
  • William Claybaugh Launch Rail Donation
  • Office and Crew Cabin Furnishings
  • Dues, Donations Email for 2024
  • Electric Drill Purchase for MTA
  • Project Proposal: Frame, Insulate, Finish Dosa Building Interior
  • USC RPL 10/21 Static Fire
  • Hot Nozzle Society Event at FAR 10/28
  • Possible UCLA MTA Event, Mid-November
  • Jerry Irvine Obituary
  • New Members: Anthony Padilla, Zach Lesan

Nominations

At this meeting we held nominations for our annual Executive Council elections. We started with nominations for lower offices, ending in nominations for the President.

The first office we held nominations for was the Treasurer. Michael Rouleau was the first person nominated, followed by Keith Yoerg nominating Xavier Marshall. Finally, our current Treasurer Larry Hoffing nominated himself. This is the first time in many years that any office has been contested, and we’re very pleased to see such enthusiasm among the administrative membership.

The second office to receive nominations was the Secretary, for which Joel Cool-Panama will run unopposed. The Vice-President was next, and Keith Yoerg was the sole nominee. Finally, we held nominations for the President. Frank nominated Dimitri, but he refused. Following this, Frank himself was nominated.

Past Business

The first piece of old business discussed was the 60′ launch rail project. Despite taking on the project, Polaris has yet to produce any schematics for a launch rail, for which reason our President Dave Nordling has personally taken on the project. Dave, Dimitri, Waldo, Rushd, and some others went out to the MTA, looking over assets available to the Society for a 60′ launch rail. While there they also decided on the location, which is to be 30′ north of Claybaugh’s launch rail. As of now, they plan to meet again the weekend following Thanksgiving, during which time they hope to have National Concrete pour a 12′ x 12′ x 1′ rebar reinforced pad for the project. They will be using the previously donated telescoping radio tower as a base, extending it to reach 60′, and will likely use a well qualified welder known by Dimitri.

Following this was a discussion of the surplus generator. The US Navy generator was purchased by Dimitri on our behalf for $5,500 on October 17th. Along with it comes a DVD containing a several hundred page manual. Starting up the generator is apparently a task in itself, so Dimitri is to produce a SOP for us. A 10′ container and pad are planned for this item, but will be discussed at a later date.

An unfortunate turn of events occurred around the time of last month’s meeting, when the beta website went offline without warning. After trying to contact the developer, Franklin, about this for a few weeks, he eventually responded by telling us we’d need to pay $200 to bring the website back online for a year. Meanwhile, Joel has been working on rewriting, reorganizing, and updating the current website. At the meeting Joel was asked if he thought
we needed the beta website, to which he responded resolutely in the negative. Joel’s expected to continue updating the current website from here on.

During the previous month, Joel discovered to our email campaign manager, MailChimp, offers an automated mailing list signup form. Joel suggested using this as an automated membership application form. Our Treasurer Larry had a problem with this though, insisting that this automated form must have a waiver attached to it. The membership discussed the viability of an online release waiver, and Larry insisted that our most up to date membership
application form included this waiver. Upon prompting further discussion over the waiver, Larry stated he only wanted to discuss it in an Executive Council meeting.

In the following month, Joel successfully gained administrative rights to our Facebook account. Keith Yoerg still had access to it, and granted admin rights to Joel and Vice-President Frank Miuccio. Joel also created a Reddit account, Twitter account, and regained access to the Gmail and Youtube accounts. Richard Garcia commented that he had previously made a Twitter account, ReactionResSo, and suggest Joel look into it.

Tabs for a Cause was a source of charitable donations suggested by Joel in the previous meeting. However, upon further investigation of the group, Joel discovered that they use Charity Navigator to determine the worth of causes that Tabs for a Cause supports. Charity Navigator likes to receive budgets from charities, and tracks the portion of their proceeds which go towards actual charity work. The Society at this time doesn’t strictly hold to any budget, so this would be a new project for the Treasurer. During this discussion, Frank stated that as President, one of his goals will be for us to audit the past few years of the Society’s expenses, so that we can create a budget.

On October 22nd, Larry bought a drill for the Society, and left it at the MTA. It’s an 18v power drill, and it turns out that it didn’t come with any bits. It was commented that there should be bits somewhere at the MTA.

USC RPL held their Shockwave static fire at the MTA on October 21st. The rocket produced a maximum thrust of 3,772 lbf, and a total impulse of 45,698 lbf-s. This was apparently a record for a student-led project, and we congratulate USC on their success.

A week later, October 28th, the Hot Nozzle Society held an event at FAR. The group apparently does low-power and high-power rocket launches. Someone from the group, Jenna Foertsch, saw fit to contact us about their activities, though she seemed to suggest a familiarity with the RRS that none of the current council can explain. Regardless, Derek tells us that their activities went without a hitch.

In light of Jerry Irvine’s passing in Nashville last month, Dave has asked that someone try to learn more about him, and write an obituary in his honor. Unfortunately, no one currently active in the Society seems to have been close to him or know much about him. However, Derek suggested that we talk to a Davie, to learn more about Jerry. In the meantime, Larry stated that he would put something to together.

This past month the Society paid our insurance premium for the MTA. Unfortunately, the price went up over 10% from last year, coming out to about $4,600, compared to about $4,000 last year.

We’ve received word in the past month that Berkley’s Space Enterprise program has won the first Lander Challenge prize. We congratulate them on this milestone, and hope to hear more developments from their team.

In a surprising update, there is apparently going to be a Space Center built in Alameda, California. There’s apparently been an effort to move more of California’s Space industry from LA to northern California, and this Space Center is part of that effort. If it produces more hobbyist rocketry events the Society will be glad for it.

Current Business

The first bit of current business discussed were Constitutional amendments. Proposed by President Dave Nordling, these amendments would attempt to rectify some issues regarding conflicts of interest, duplicity in the Executive Council, and removal of members. During the discussion Keith Yoerg brought up that our pyro-op fees that we offer could potentially violate the conflict of interest amendment. Frank stated that these amendments have only been proposed, and that official language will be produced by the Executive Council at a later date.

At this month’s meeting, Joel brought up a proposal regarding cash dues payments. These have often been poorly tracked, leading to issues with resolving current membership status by the Treasurer. Joel suggested that any officer accepting cash dues payments must carry carbon copy receipt books with them, give a receipt to the member in question, and then record the transaction by depositing the dues amount received in the Society Paypal account. Larry brought up that this is an awful lot of work to take in dues, and he’s correct, but many in the Society have voiced their support of continuing to accept cash payments, and the current system clearly isn’t working.

Another suggestion Joel brought up was that the Society get VoiP lines for the Executive council. This would allow members and others outside the Society to always have a phone number for the current members of the Executive Council, and would make communicating with them easier. However, concerns were raised regarding the price of such service, the least expensive quote Joel could find being around $10/line/mo.

Next was the donation of William Claybaugh’s launch rail. He built this rail for his own purposes at the MTA, and earlier this year he officially decided to donate it to the Society. However, he wants liability and usage waivers. The Executive Council is still working on the issue.

Regarding our recently acquired 20′ office and 40′ crew cabin containers, Dave has sent out the message that he’d like furnishings for each. He’d like a desk, chair, and lamp for the office, and also bunkbeds for the crew cabin. In particular, he’d like the bunks to be large enough to fit a man of his own size, about 6’3″. These would be expensive, but Dimitri commented that they can be made fairly cheap, maybe even using 3 beds per bunk instead of 2, to maximize space utilization. Frank also would like the desk dimensions, to see if he can find anything.

An update on the LACMA has finally come in recently. The Executive Council has been negotiating with LACMA on several issues, but the most important was their requirement for a very large amount of insurance coverage, which the Society certainly can’t afford for a project expect to last into next Summer. However, LACMA’s legal department recently gave us a revised agreement, and it looks promising. Frank hopes we’re close to a deal regarding the project.

Tom Mueller’s company has recently been growing, apparently having recently reached 85 employees. Frank hopes that he’ll begin launch activities soon, and that he’ll be a patron of the RRS.

In the past month we’re pleased to announce that we’ve gained three new members. Anthony Padilla is a Compton College student, apparently looking to get into rocketry. Zach Lesan is in the US Space Force, and is apparently interested in turbo rocketry. The final member was accepted the same day as this meeting, Spencer De La Torre, a personal friend of Joel, and someone who is interested in model rocketry.

Finally, at this meeting we were blessed by the attendance of Kevin. He apparently heard about the Society from a Falcon-1 documentary, and looked us up, wishing to learn more about us. We hope he’ll return.

Future Business

The first future business item discussed was the 2024 Symposium. Scheduled Saturday, April 13th, 2024, Frank has already had the flyer updated for the event. Regarding attendees Mark Ventura has already confirmed, however, governmental organizations can’t declare their attendance yet or not, due to money not yet being allocated. Frank has already declared that our monthly meeting in April should be to focus on setting up for the Symposium of the following day, and so we won’t have a meeting on the 12th. Frank also suggested having two presentation rooms, scheduling such that schools can watch eachother’s presentations. Frank also has made himself another air rocket launcher, and hopes to have an air rocket event at the Symposium. Frank also commented that the Society will need more volunteers for this Symposium, and said even a couple hours can help greatly.

Next was the discussion of the 2024 dues and donations solicitation email. It’s been decided that the dues reminder will be sent out in December, with a late fee warning in January. In regards to donation goals, suggestions included Insurance, our public display license from the Fire Marshall, and our general priority list. It was also suggested that we should let people donate for specific causes, but Dimitri pointed out that tracking that information, and restricting ourselves, would be difficult.

A suggestion for a future MTA project was given by Joel in the past month, that being insulating and finishing the interior of the Dosa Building. He suggested that a one story frame could be built inside the building, insulation installed between the metal exterior and inner drywall, and that a space could be left open in the ceiling portion of the building as a roof/solar panel access, and for storage. It would ideally also prevent sand from getting in, but the bay door would make that practically impossible. Dimitri suggested that he would inspect and potentially service this door when next he is at the MTA.

In the past month UCLA held a static fire at Polaris. Dave contacted them during October, and discovered that UCLA is apparently obligated to use Polaris once a year. However, our contact with UCLA confirmed with us that they wish to hold another static fire with us at a later date.

A suggestion for the December meeting was made by Larry, who would like the Society to hold its long awaited pizza party. It was agreed that we have the requisite funds, and it was decided that Joel will send out an RSVP email in December. On that same note, Dimitri intimated that he would dance for us, if everyone paid their 2024 dues by the meeting.

The next Society meeting will be on December 8th, 2023, at the Compton/Woodley Airport location. Contact the Secretary for details.