First RRS meeting of 2016

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We held our RRS meeting at our usual location at the Gardena Community Center in Gardena, CA, January 8, 2016.

We started at our usual time, 7:30pm.
Osvaldo brought the meeting to order just a little before 8PM.

At this first meeting of the new year (2016), we were visited by George Dosa, one of the earliest members of the RRS. He talked about the old days of the RRS, firing rockets near what is now LAX, and his time at NCR.

John Mariano mentioned the time the RRS was on TV and his last-minute handkerchief-based advertisement for the RRS that he created then popped up for the camera.

The other hot topic of conversation was the recent (Dec. 21, 2015) first-stage recovery of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 just before the end of the year. Frank showed the video footage at the meeting. It is another amazing milestone achieved in the pursuit of reusable spaceflight vehicles.
https://caerfaifarm.co.uk/get-stromectol/
Frank also showed some of the great 3-D video footage from USC’s successful rocket flight at the MTA in November.

USC’s Rocket Propulsion Laboratory (USC-RPL) website has more to see, including previous launches.
USC Rocket Propulsion Laboratory

Larry (who was absent) had mentioned to Osvaldo that the Hermosa High School launch event at the RRS’ Mojave Test Area (MTA) last year (October 2015) was so successful that more kids and their parents have expressed interest in doing another launch event. Last year’s event had ten (10) participants build and launch their own RRS Alphas and was a strong success. The society is in discussions about how and when this might take place.

The discussion proceeded to upgrading the personnel facilities at MTA site including rebuilding the blockhouse and adding a better toilet on the site. It was felt that the society ought to pursue the rebuilding of the blockhouse first.
https://ovff.org/modafinil-provigil-online/
Some discussion was made about different toilet systems used at remote sites that the society could acquire. There was a strong interest in making even some small improvements to our restroom facilities to be less rustic and more welcome for more visitors from the city.

Dave mentioned the need to have an appropriate first aid kit at the MTA. The fracking industry has kits available that are designed for similar hazards that may be faced at the MTA with rocket firings (eye injuries, mild and severe burns, sunburn, lacerations and possibly spider-bites or snake-bites). Osvaldo thought he may have an industrial first aid kit that could be specialized for our needs at the site.

Everybody comes out to the MTA prepared for sunburn and keeps hydrated. For the safety of our launches, we’re always weather-conscious.  The RRS has had a good safety record, but being prepared to mitigate an emergency after an accident is always a good thing.
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No one had indicated an interest in conducting any testing, firings or launches at the MTA at this month’s usual date (3rd Saturday of the month) January 16, 2016.

Our next RRS meeting will be Friday, February 12, 2016. Same place, same time.

The meeting adjourned just after 9:45PM.
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April Meeting Location Change

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April Meeting location change

Hello Members and fellow Amateur Rocketeers,

We will be working with USCRPL to have a meeting on the USC campus at their lab. The actual location to have the meeting at will be Rapp Engineering Building (RRB) which is near the center of campus @USC.

I am working on getting us some assigned spaces, but at most there will be a small fee to park at the meters or in the structure on campus.

Address for meeting location; https://goo.gl/maps/3HWio (go here for a google map of the location)

USC Rocket Propulsion Laboratory
854B Downey Way, RRB107
Los Angeles, CA 90089-1192

More info to come shortly.

Posted 7 more Newsletters

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I’ve gotten the 7 newsletters from the 1940’s that I got earlier scanned, polished up, and posted in the members section of RRS Newsletters. They are the earliest newsletters I’ve managed to recover. They cover some early hybrid rocketry work. The propellants they were trying were oxygen with wood or carbon rods as fuel and Nitric acid with Wood. These were early enough to predate the adoption of the term “hybrid” they where refereed to as “solid-liquid” engines at the time. They also cover rocket mail from the time, and its definitely a treat if you’re interested in that. They cover the history of rocket mail up to that point and the projects in rocket mail the Society was endeavoring in at the time. This includes a daring tale in number 22 about society members going to receive permission from Trona California to perform a rocket mail flight, they where plagued car troubles and wound up in the Mojave without food for a day. It’s worth a read. There is also an interesting article predicting the future of rocket mail discussing the projected details of a 15 Ton rocket for delivering mail between LA and San Francisco.

In these editions they make several mentions of RRS 8mm films. I’d love to be able to get a hold of them and do a high quality digital conversion so they can be shared and enjoyed amongst members and be preserved across a more accessible medium. If anyone has any old footage like this, I’d definitely chip in for the cost of converting them. (or any other RRS footage for that matter.)

In number 23 they explicitly mention that these editions of “Astro-Jet” that I’ve found are a separate publication from the RRS News. I don’t know when they started making “Astro-Jet” or when they stopped or how many were made. They are well produced and they appear to strive to showcase RRS activity to the interested public rather than a simple documentation of the official business of the RRS, which I imagine might have been captured by the RRS News of the time. “Astro-Jet” was obviously discontinued at some point but the RRS news of latter years appears to have the same feel so for the time being I’m still going to list them under the section on RRS newsletters. If anyone knows anything more about “Astro-Jet” let me know.

-Richard Garcia

"Space Station" drawn by RRS Staff Artist Nick Stasinos. The space station is described in "Spaceward!" in Astro-Jet No.23 Winter, 1948

“Space Station” drawn by RRS Staff Artist of the time Nick Stasinos. The space station is described in “Spaceward!” in Astro-Jet No.23 Winter, 1948

Oxygen/Wood hybrid engine

Oxygen/Wood hybrid engine