Tag Archives: Astro-Jet newsletter

March 2018 meeting

Posted on by

The RRS held its monthly meeting on Friday, March 9, 2018 at our usual location at the Ken Nakaoka Community Center. We got a timely start at 7:31pm. After the reading of the treasury report, we proceeded to discuss the agenda items.

The first item is the release of the Astrojet newsletter. We’ve sold the first twenty copies already. Copies are $10 each and proceeds go to benefit society activities in this 75th anniversary year. The RRS’s newsletter hasn’t been in print for nearly 20 years. The RRS is very proud to offer a tangible token for the public’s reading pleasure. The RRS is grateful to member Bill Janczewski for making a very professional looking newsletter to commemorate this milestone year for our society.

75th anniversary issue of the Astro-Jet is now on sale for $10/copy.

The second item on the agenda was to get an update on the on-going RRS educational event with the students at Florence Joyner Elementary supported by the growing and successful LAPD CSP program. The program that started in February is going well and the students were able to visit the California Science Center as part of the five session program. The rocket build was completed today and the painting will commence on Saturday. Frank had the students make the paper tube rockets for use with the air launcher. The launch event at the MTA was rescheduled to April 7th. The forum has also been updated with this change.

Flo Jo Elementary students visit the California Science Center with the RRS

Frank has compiled a lot of educational materials from the many Powerpoint presentations over the last few classes, but the amount of material is getting pretty large. Some work should be done to pare down the content to have a greater impact to our younger audience. Also, Frank has bound the information in a booklet which might make for a fine publication as we refine our content with the great questions we get from the students.

For the third agenda topic, we discussed the progress on the RRS symposium. All is going very well and our speaker list is nearly fully confirmed. We held our first teleconference and will hold the next one on Tuesday, March 13th to continue the many planning activities left. 116 free tickets on Eventbrite have been sold already. Frank has been putting out flyers to local high schools such as Redondo Beach, Torrance, and Gardena. We ask all members to download the flyer and spread the word to colleagues, friends and other fans of rocketry both past and present.

The RRS 75th anniversary symposium will be Saturday, April 21st, 2018 and will have speakers and exhibitors from academia, industry and government agencies on topics related to professional and amateur rocketry. If there are any questions, please contact Frank Miuccio our society vice president and symposium coordinator.

vicepresident@rrs.org

At the symposium, the RRS would like to show photos of people and projects throughout our long history. We have received a lot of great items from members past and present and we encourage everyone to contribute whatever they can to the on-going RRS history project. In particular, photos, articles or stories from the 1970’s and 1980’s are of particular interest to us as we have little from this time period.

I am happy to lead this project and hope to give a nice montage to display before all of our symposium attendees and also invite people to write articles describing their experiences and past projects with the RRS. It is through storytelling that the RRS history is kept for future generations to learn and appreciate those that have come before us. Please email the RRS secretary if you have anything to share for the RRS history project.
secretary@rrs.org

On the next agenda topic, we discussed the possibility of moving the meeting start time to 7:00PM. The purpose was to try to have more time to discuss the growing activities at the RRS. The RRS is growing and the meeting time is important. After some discussion, it was decided to keep the meeting time at 7:30PM. The meetings will start on time and discussions will have to stay on the topics of the agenda. Many people come from great distances, but if other topics want to be discussed they can be done before the meeting starts.

For the next topic, a lot of progress was made on the horizontal thrust stand that will be used at the MTA on the small concrete slab just in front of the old blockhouse at the MTA. I had the load cell adapter pieces made and they fit quite well. Many thanks to Matt Moffitt of CNC Specialty Machining in Huntington Beach.

adapter blocks made for the S-type load cell

The horizontal thrust stand will go out to the MTA on the April 7th launch event, but this will be only for final fit checks. Osvaldo is also helping with getting the last mating hardware pieces to complete the set.

load cell adapter matching a standard alpha payload tube

The main frame pieces were welded, but we will not be able to use the thrust stand at the next launch event until the foot plates are aligned and welded. Many thanks to Jim Shirley of Shirley Design and Custom Fabrication in Huntington Beach for his welding skills. I hope to complete the thrust stand and have it ready to static fire alpha rockets at the next launch event after April 7th.

main structure of the horizontal thrust stand to be used for alphas at the RRS MTA

Richard spoke briefly about the progress he’s made to date on his liquid rocket vehicle build. The RRS standard liquid rocket will be the result of a few builds and a lot of testing to arrive at what will be a practical and effective standard design. Richard has built his thrust chamber with a G10 fiberglass internal liner insert and a graphite nozzle. Richard found a good supplier of fiberglass tubes and pipes that are sold in convenient 5-foot lengths.

Richard’s liquid rocket thrust chamber with fiberglass interior wall liner

Richard’s design also includes a pintle-type of injector which is in the works. We hope to see more details when he finishes this piece in the coming month or so.

The last agenda topic was about that fact that we are flying a lot of alphas, but few of them have payloads besides the smoke grenade which works well to help spotting them in flight at apogee. I have looked into making flight speed sensor and my parachute system. I am hoping this will be a semi-regular topic in future meetings.

A future topic for next month’s meeting will be to discuss the pyrotechnic operator’s exam. Licensing is done by the California Fire Marshall’s office and it is an important qualification to have. The RRS is working to get more members trained to help us expand our rocketry activities at the MTA and help us expand knowledge about safety in our hobby.

The meeting adjourned at 9:03pm. The next RRS meeting on April 13th will likely be spent working on the final details of the RRS symposium which will take place 8 days later at the same Ken Nakaoka Community Center in Gardena, Saturday, April 21, 2018.

If there is anything from the meeting that I missed or misstated, please let me know. I am also trying to keep the email list updated. Please let me know if anyone isn’t getting the meeting notices.

secretary@rrs.org

December 2017 meeting

Posted on by

The RRS held its monthly meeting, December 8, 2017, at the Ken Nakaoka Community Center. With the wildfires throughout Los Angeles and Ventura counties, many of our members had difficulty making it, but we were still well attended. We started late at 8:01pm.

Larry announces election results for RRS officers in 2018

In old business, we discussed the successful launch event on November 18th with the LAPD CSP and the kids of Grape Street Elementary and the Imperial Courts housing project in Watts. The kids actually recovered 11 of the 13 rockets launched and even found two others from the previous program. This was a very impressive feat given how easily an alpha can get lost in the desert scrub.

The event with Imperial Courts included a tour of Los Angeles AFB in El Segundo. At this event, the kids made paper rockets and used a pneumatic launcher provided by the officers at the Space Heritage Center. This was a very popular event so Frank bought a launcher for the RRS. We may build another one to have at the MTA. They simple and a very easy way to demonstrate the principles of good rocket building.

In new business, Larry Hoffing, our RRS election chair announced the results of officer elections for the new year, 2018.

Osvaldo Tarditti, president
Frank Miuccio, vice-president
Chris Lujan, treasurer
Dave Nordling, secretary

I am glad to serve the RRS for another year as your secretary.

Osvaldo brought coffee!

In the second order of business, I reminded all of our attendees and to our members reading this, that your $40 annual dues should be paid to keep the society running. I like to remind people at the start of a new year to pay their dues. We have a lot of things planned for our 75th anniversary year and we should start things right by renewing our memberships. The “DONATE” button on the RRS website works through Paypal and for some can be a convenient way of getting their dues paid straight to the RRS. Osvaldo gets a note once donations and payments are received, but each member can help the process by writing down in the comments segment what they are paying for such as “DUES” and include their name.

The students at Chaminade College Prep school in Chatsworth had a successful firing of two solid motors at the MTA that they made. They have approached the RRS on how they can continue their research. We have invited Chaminade to come to our meeting to present the results of their testing and discuss future endeavors.

The next RRS educational event through LAPD CSP will be early in the new year. Frank will be meeting with LAPD on January 12th to discuss the upcoming event with Florence Griffith Joyner Elementary school.

The RRS has been discussing the purchase of resources to continue supporting our growing launch events and the current projects we have started such as the SuperDosa project. After some basic discussion, this topic will be addressed in detail at the next month’s meeting when proposals and actual costs can be compared. The RRS needs to prepare specific cost proposals on improvement projects to better assist ourselves and potential donors in seeing what our needs are and how to best help us.

Frank was able to produce a short quantity of business cards for Larry who is running the education events for the RRS. We hope to get more schools involved and having a card helps leave our contact information with the right people.

The use of digital membership cards instead of paper ones was discussed. Given our membership numbers today, we are still able to provide paper membership cards to anyone specifically requesting one. Bill Janczewski has worked up a new design for these membership cards. To any of our membership desiring a membership card, please renew your dues, then contact the secretary by email providing your mailing address to receive this card. Or, send me an email letting me know you’ll be coming to the next monthly meeting.

secretary@rrs.org

Steve Majdali was in attendance at the meeting and brought his membership card from 2002. The new ones will look considerably better.

Steve Majdali’s RRS membership card from 2002

A short discussion about the details of the symposium in April was discussed. Food vendors will be solicited and we hope to make our vendor selection soon. Next month’s meeting will spend more time on the subject of the symposium which is coming soon. Frank Miuccio and I have begun soliciting speakers and exhibitors, some of which have already confirmed their attendance.

Submittals for the Astro-Jet newsletter are about to be closed. This was the last meeting to bring in articles. We have had some submittals, but we are still missing many others. PLEASE submit your articles to the secretary as soon as possible. Sale price of the Astro-Jet print copies will be $10 which is roughly the same cost as the quarterly newsletters of the society back in 1946 when scaled for inflation. Bill has worked up a basic layout and all we need is the final content to make it complete.

secretary@rrs.org

In other items that were not on the agenda, Bill Janczewski attended the downtown LA (DTLA) Maker Faire on Saturday, December 2nd. He felt this would have been an excellent venue for the RRS to have a booth and inspire people to join the RRS. The RRS will try to be part of next year’s event.

DTLA Maker Faire

Richard Garcia has had some success in working with the Friends of Amateur Rocketry next door. The FAR group had interest in Richard’s methane dewar and will borrow it for events at the FAR site. In exchange, the FAR group has made some modifications to the dewar including a cart for easier transportation of this heavy, vacuuum-jacketed vessel. Our thanks to John Newman and Steve Harrington. Richard will provide the RRS next month with a piping and instrumentation diagram (P&ID) to show the different features of the LNG dewar to assure safe operations.

As a last minute item, I reported some progress with modifying my timer circuit for my alpha parachute system which will hopefully fly at the next MTA event. Many thanks to Andrew Ning for his advice and practical skills. After replacing the relay with a lower-current solid state device, the circuit works much better. Still, I need a 3D printed plastic part to mount my recessed switch into the PVC payload tube I have made. Frank said he could help me get a prototype printed if I provided the solid model files.

The RRS welcomes two new members: Dr. Nancy Squires and Mr. Michael Lunny. Michael came to his first meeting last night and we were glad to show him the fruits of our labor from this busy year.

Our final event at the meeting was watching the final program made by the USC Impact News team who followed the entire progress of the Imperial Courts class with the RRS including the launch event. It was very professional and a touching reminder of why the RRS has our mission to educate and inspire. We hope to have copy of this program to show our audience sometime in the near future.

We adjourned at 9:17PM.

Please let me know if I have missed or misstated anything here. Our next meeting will be January 12, 2018. In the next meeting, we will discuss the next launch at the MTA and expand upon the work necessary for the upcoming symposium. I will also present the quarterly update to the SuperDosa project.

Hope to see you there.