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February 2021 Virtual Meeting

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by Keith Yoerg (RRS Secretary)

The latest meeting of the Reaction Research Society took place this past Friday, February 12th and had 19 attendees – including several guest presenters. The meeting started with a discussion of the logistics surrounding the upcoming MTA launch & work event next Saturday, which overlaps with ongoing construction on Dave Crisalli’s adjacent land. The construction workers will be utilizing some of the MTA facilities, and following a discussion among RRS members it was agreed that the planned launch & work event could still be held without interfering with construction activities.

Screenshot of discussion during the monthly meeting

GUEST PRESENTATION – POLY RABBOTICS

Members from the Long Beach Polytechnic High School First Robotics Competition team made a presentation on their project and the adjustments they have had to make due to COVID-19 restrictions. Without being able to meet in person to fabricate and assemble parts on their robot, the student-run group has had to shift their work to virtual workshops and at-home competitions to keep their skills sharp. One such competition required teams of 3 to build a mini-robot able to climb a pole.

Title slide for the Poly Rabbotics presentation – checkout their cool logo!

Their team is currently meeting 3 times a week to prepare for competition later this year, which features an altered “at-home” layout. Despite the many challenges, it’s clear that this team is making the best of the situation and continuing to help their members gain knowledge and improve their skillsets.

GUEST PRESENTATION – CSULB ROCKETRY

A second guest presentation was provided by members of the Cal State Long Beach Rocketry team. They compete in the NASA Student Launch Competition which challenges teams to design, build, and fly a rocket to between 3,500 ft and 5,500 ft while carrying a drone payload. The drone must deploy away from the rocket and fly to a specific position.

Presenter Dan Dao in the CSULB campus lab in Feb. 2020.

Fortunately, this team has been able to continue fabrication work on their rocket by following strict precautions to avoid the spread of COVID-19. Their shop site is on the Starbase campus at the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base, and only a small number of specific team members are allowed on site. During competition last year the team placed 12th out of 46 total entrants, and they hope to finish in the top-10 this year.

PLANS FOR THE UPCOMING MTA EVENT

The primary focus for the upcoming MTA event is construction of a new pit toilet on the property. Dimitri plans to build a wooden platform this week and transport it out to the MTA site on Saturday, along with a sonotube liner for the pit. The wooden platform will rest on posts dug into the ground, and once in place we will remove the port-a-john from its current concrete plinth and secure it to this new platform. Work on welding the new plate on the vertical test stand, clearing nearby brush, and other site maintenance could take place if time allows.

Bill Inman plans to continue work on his solar-powered steam rocket, which uses mirrors to heat water with sunlight. Seemingly unsatisfied with any energy source other than the flaming ball in the sky, Bill has decided to modify his setup so that the tracking mechanism (which automatically tilts the solar collector to track the sun) is powered by a solar panel. Bill will be testing this new setup at the next event and may attempt a launch of the steam rocket.

Mockup of the internals for Dimitri’s hybrid rocket module

Keith will bring his high power solid rockets “Charlie Horse” and “X2”, and intends to launch at least one of them. The goal of the launch will be to test whether the LoRa GPS trackers, which have been discussed at previous RRS meetings, can be used as a cheap way to track rockets. Dimitri is finishing work on a 4-pad solid rocket launch controller (a layout is shown above) as well as a water rocket launch controller, both of which should be ready for testing on Saturday. A discussion on what food should be grilled at the event was concluded immediately after Dave Nordling’s suggestion – brats.

RRS HISTORY

An additional guest with a connection to the society joined us for this meeting – Tom Hendricks. He was a member of the RRS from 1959 – 1960 while he was a student at Glendale High School. He recounted launching micrograin rockets fueled by zinc dust and sulphur, displayed a rocket nozzle he had once launched, and recalled that the only test stand at the MTA site at that time was a lone I-beam (there’s a lot more on-site now!).

Tom also mentioned that back when he was an active member, the majority of the fabrication for the RRS was provided by 1 society member who had a lathe in their home. Many current members were excited to have Tom back in the fold, and he expressed a desire to join us for an event at the MTA soon. We’re looking forward to having him!

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEETING RECAP

The final item of business was a recap of topics covered during the January 2021 meeting of the RRS executive council. Council members have received the recommended edits to the constitution from the 2020 Constitutional Committee, and expect to have a version ready for the voting membership to review during the March meeting.

Image of Chris Lujan explaining different setups for security cameras

Council members Keith and Larry have been working on plans to install a security camera at the MTA, and presented the current status of the project. The goal is to have a network hotspot run WiFi security cameras. The project will start with the installation of a hotpot in the Dosa building (once shipped from backorder). The plan is to power the hotspot with a solar panel and determine the installation location that provides the maximum WiFi signal range. This will allow for optimum placement of WIFi security cameras. Chris Lujan has a lot of experience with home security cameras as a result of personal research, and shared that knowledge to help with the project.

NEXT MONTHLY MEETING

The next RRS monthly meeting will be held virtually on Friday, March 12th at 7:30 pm pacific time. Current members will receive an invite via e-mail the week of the meeting. Non-members can request an invitation by sending an email to:

secretary@rrs.org

April 2019 meeting

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The RRS held our monthly meeting on April 12, 2019 at the Ken Nakaoka Community Center in Gardena. We had a full agenda with the 2019 RRS symposium just around the corner on Saturday, April 27th.

The symposium is just around the corner

We first welcomed two new members, Keith Yoerg and Jonathan Martinez. Keith is active with Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum (TAM) at the Compton Airport and has given many educational programs to local schools. He’s also a graduate of USC and a former member of their Rocket Propulsion Laboratory (RPL). Jonathan Martinez joins the RRS as a student member from Compton High School. He’s been working at TAM and the RRS hopes to help him in his new project to hot-fire a liquid rocket.

Keith Yoerg (left) watches Waldo Stakes (right) show off the gas generator injector he brought to the meeting.
New RRS member, Jonathan Martinez (left) and Wilbur Owens (right) at the April 2019 meeting of the RRS.

We next talked about the recent launch event with LAPD CSP and Compton Elementary. The “Rockets in the Projects” program is going strong and we were glad to welcome Compton Elementary to our workspace and launchpad in the Mojave Desert.

Dave Crisalli, our pyro-op for the event, gives the safety briefing to all attendees including Compton Elementary, LAPD and USC RPL

Under very pleasant weather, we had a good launch event starting with a tour, safety briefing and the kids finally getting a chance to see their rockets fly into the blue sky. Osvaldo had a seventh alpha rocket with a parachute system, but somehow failed to deploy. USC static-fired a six-inch custom solid motor.

An alpha assembled at Compton Elementary streaks away from the box rails at the RRS MTA
USC’s six-inch solid composite grain motor burns for full duration at the RRS MTA. A second motor will be integrated into the Traveller IV vehicle that USC will launch from Spaceport America in New Mexico

After Compton Elementary and LAPD CSP went home, Osvaldo, Frank, Larry and I did a little reconnaissance for the alphas we flew at the event. We were able to find 3 of the original 6 and one more alpha from the past MTA launch event. The higher level winds have been carrying the alphas in a more northerly direction west of the launch rails. For reference, Osvaldo recorded the following coordinates for one of the alphas found: 35* 21′ 16.83″ North, 117* 48′ 50.03″ West.

Using the local wildflowers, Larry marks the location of a newly recovered alpha from the last MTA launch event

The 2019 RRS symposium was the next topic. We have over 300 Eventbrite tickets sold at the time of the meeting. The symposium has confirmed a full roster of speakers including AFRL Edwards AFB, Northrop-Grumman, USAF SMC. We decided not to hold the panel discussion this year. The symposium will start at 8:45AM on Saturday, April 27th.

Frank Miuccio goes over the preparations for the 2019 RRS symposium to be held on Saturday, April 27, 2019

The Ken Nakaoka Community Center in Gardena will allow us to set up the night before (4/26/19) at 7pm until they close at 9pm. There’s a lot of work to be done and we hope all of our membership can come out on Friday and help us with setting up tables and hanging the sign outside.

We also hope all of our membership can help at the symposium on Saturday (4/27/2019) as well. The Ken Nakaoka Community Center opens at 8AM, we will have just a little bit of time to get ready before the event begins at 8:45am with our RRS president, Osvaldo Tarditti, giving the introductory presentation.

RRS member group photo from last year’s 75th anniversary symposium (1943-2018)

The next topic of discussion at the April 2019 meeting was facility improvements at the RRS MTA. The society has decided to invest in upgrading our blockhouse and building a new restroom facility at the site for better creature comfort for the increasing number of guests we’re having each year. Osvaldo has been working up the plans for these two facility improvements and will get bids very soon.

We also hope to solicit donations from the public at the symposium to help the society reach our goals for these facility improvement projects. To anyone wishing to make a monetary donation to the RRS, you can use the “DONATE” button on the RRS.ORG homepage which connects to Paypal. Please leave us a note and accept our thanks. The society is striving to improve our facilities as we prepare to have more events this year.

Osvaldo also told us more about the RRS participating with CALFIRE in their review of the state laws governing amateur rocketry. Members of the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) organization have also been working with CALFIRE on this important committee. It is the goal of the RRS to inform the public and governing agencies on ways to make the law reasonable, practical and just to the amateur rocketry as we uphold our commitment to public safety. CALFIRE has been very supportive of our hobby and we are building stronger relationships with the State of California and our fellow rocketry organizations.

Dave Crisalli (RRS member), Larry Hoffing (RRS events coordinator), Ramiro Rodriguez (CALFIRE) and Osvaldo Tarditti (RRS president) at the RRS MTA launch event on 4/6/2019

Discussion on our last topic on the agenda was about the RRS’s participation with the base11 project. We were not able to talk about this subject in much detail as closing time had fast approached. As an educational non-profit group, the RRS has a charter to support university groups. The base11 project is very ambitious in its goal of student-run teams building and flying a liquid rocket to an altitude of 100 km or higher. This multi-year program will be a challenge on many levels both financial and technical. The RRS is happy to support the base11 Space Challenge at the RRS MTA.

The RRS is proud to support teams for the Base11 Space Challenge

The remaining agenda topics will be covered in next month’s meeting including the quarterly progress update on the SuperDosa project and the RRS partnership with Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum (TAM).

The Reaction Research Society meets the 2nd Friday of each month at the Ken Nakaoka Community Center in Gardena, California, at 7:30pm.

The RRS is very exciting about the projects we have planned for this summer. Our next monthly meeting will be Friday, May 10th, 2019 at 7:30pm.