low - AIAA Houston Section

72 Pages·2012·14.83 MB·English

Volume 38 The Newsletter of AIAA Houston Section November / December 2012

Issue 3 The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics www.aiaahouston.org

Hubble Revisited on NASA’s 50th Anniversary
The UP Experience - Houston 2012
Featuring Burt Rutan & his Interview with Horizons

Also, Continuing in this Issue!
Part 3 of 8:

Man Will Conquer Space Soon!

(Collier’s 1952-54)
AIAA Houston Section Horizons November / December 2012 Page 1
November / December 2012
Horizons, Newsletter of AIAA Houston Section
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
From the Chair 3
From the Editor 4
HOUSTON
Cover Story: The UP Experience 2012 in Houston featuring Burt Rutan 5
Interstellar First Stop? Detection of an Earth-Sized Planet at  Centauri B 10
Wings Over Houston 2012 Air Show, by Ellen Gillespie 16
A 2012 TC Gravity Assist From Earth, by Daniel R. Adamo 18
Horizons is a bimonthly publication of the Houston Section 4
of The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Current Events: NASA, Roscosmos Assign Crew to Yearlong ISS Mission 21
Douglas Yazell, Editor
Editing team: Dr. Steven E. Everett, Ellen Gillespie, Shen Voyages: Sustainable Human Space Exploration: A Review, Dr. K. Krishen 22
Ge, Don Kulba, Alan Simon
Regular contributors: Dr. Steven E. Everett, Philippe A New Work by Artist Trevor Paglen Launches into Space for Fall 2012 24
Mairet, Scott Lowther, Douglas Yazell
Contributors this issue: Dr. Patrick E. Rodi, James C. Staying Informed: LPI Lecture Series, Climate Change 28
McLane III, Wes Kelly, Triton Systems LLC, Dr. Martin
Elvis, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Dan- A Newly Discovered Highly Accessible NEO, by Daniel R. Adamo 30
iel R. Adamo, Marlo Graves, Franklin Zhang
Asteroid 2012 DA14’s February 2013 Fly-By, by Dr. Patrick E. Rodi 34
AIAA Houston Section
Executive Council
The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Chapter 12 (Houston) 35
Daniel Nobles
Chair The 1940 Air Terminal Museum at Hobby Airport 36
Jonathan Sandys Robert Plunkett Calendar, Cranium Cruncher, Section News, Student Section News 40
Chair-Elect Secretary
Creating an Economically Robust Space Policy, by Dr. Martin Elvis 46
Sean Carter Clay Stangle
An Update on the Chinese Space Program, Marlo Graves & Franklin Zhang 53
Past Chair Treasurer

Man Will Conquer Space Soon! from Collier’s (1952 - 1954) 54
Michael Frostad Brian Banker
Vice-Chair, Operations Vice-Chair, Technical
Man Will Conquer Space Soon! October 25, 1952 Man on the Moon 58

Operations Technical Aerospace Projects Review (APR Corner) by Scott Lowther 61
Dr. Gary Turner Dr. Albert A. Jackson IV
Dr. Pamela Loughmiller Bebe Kelly-Serrato James C. McLane, Jr. 1923 - 2012 72
Jennifer Wells Dr. Zafar Taqvi
Melissa Gordon Julie Mitchell
Horizons and AIAA Houston Section Web Site
Lisa Voiles Dr. Satya Pilla
AIAA National Communications Award Winner
Rafael Munoz Sheikh Ahsan
Svetlana Hanson Daryl Schuck
Tom Horn Roger Kleinhammer
Angela Beck Dr. Steven E. Everett
Eryn Beisner Gary Brown
Douglas Yazell Ted Kenny
Irene Chan Dr. Kamlesh Lulla
Shen Ge Ludmila Dmitriev-Odier
Ryan Miller 2004 2005 2006 2007
Councilors This newsletter is created by members of AIAA Houston Section. Opinions expressed herein other
Alan Sisson than by elected Houston Section officers belong solely to the authors and do not necessarily repre-
Christopher Davila sent the position of AIAA or the Houston Section. Unless explicitly stated, in no way are the com-
Dr. Larry Friesen ments of individual contributors to Horizons to be construed as necessarily the opinion or position
Shirley Brandt of AIAA, NASA, its contractors, or any other organization. All articles in Horizons, unless other-
Sarah Shull wise noted, are the property of the individual contributors. Reproduction/republishing in any form
Dr. Michael Martin except limited excerpts with attribution to the source, will require the express approval of the indi-
Alicia Baker vidual authors. Please address all newsletter correspondence to editor2012[at]aiaahouston.org.
Ellen Gillespie
Matt Johnson
Cover: Photo of SpaceShipOne in the Smithsonian in Washington DC. Image
Melissa Kronenberger
credit: ZnU. “The Exploration” is from the Collier’s series in this issue. Table
www.aiaahouston.org of contents page: part of Vincent van Gogh’s 1889 painting The Starry Night.
AIAA Houston Section Horizons November / December 2012 Page 2
Page 3
Congratulations to Dr. Ellen Ochoa, AIAA From the Chair
Fellow

DANIEL NOBLES, CHAIR

While it is sad to see Director nical background in research ments (25 were identified on a
Coats retiring after so many and development, and is sure popular online bookstore’s
years of strong leadership, it to be an asset as the NASA website).
is with great pleasure that the Johnson Space Center’s mis-
Houston AIAA can look for- sion grows. I have great hope
ward to the leadership of Dep- that we will receive strong
uty Director Ellen Ochoa. Dr. support from Dr. Ochoa as
Ochoa has flown on four mis- center director. Indeed she
sions (STS-56, 66, 96, & recently earned the prestig- [email protected]
110), has a PhD from Stan- ious title of AIAA Fellow. I (Daniel A. Nobles)
ford, three patents, and will be also recently learned that Links:
the first Hispanic director of there are numerous biog- https://people.nasa.gov
the Johnson Space Center. raphies that have been written
She has an extremely tech- about her life and accomplish-
Above: For more information about Dr. Ochoa, check out her Above: Early warning publicity flyer for our Section’s An-
official NASA biography at: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/ nual Technical Symposium of Friday, May 17, 2013.
htmlbios/ochoa.html. Image credit: NASA.
AIAA Houston Section Horizons November / December 2012 Page 3
Page 4
From the Editor The Late James C. McLane, Jr.
DOUGLAS YAZELL, EDITOR
James C. McLane, Jr. initiated lo accepted our request to questions and conducted the
and co-founded our sister sec- write an article in this issue. interview while I recorded
tion relationship with the Our June 2008 issue has arti- sound on my iPad and record-
Shanghai Astronautical Society cles about this work by Jim ed video with my digital still
in 1987. His first visit there and Marlo on its pages 13 camera. It was great to talk
was made as part of a delega- through 19. with this legendary aerospace
tion of professionals in the vehicle designer.
footsteps of Eisenhower’s citi- Jim McLane was our Sec-
zen-to-citizen diplomacy initia- tion’s 1971-1972 Chair. Our Thanks go to Wes Kelly for
tive. Jim wrote in Horizons newsletter started in that year accepting our invitation to
long ago that in China they are when a JSC contractor com- write in this issue about that
Chinese first and communist pany volunteered to produce major discovery, exoplanet 
second. Jim led our Section’s it. It was initially named Centauri Bb. Shen Ge suggest-
delegations to China in 1988 Newsletter (AIAA Houston ed the article in this issue from
(We have great photos!) and Section Newsletter), and the Dr. Martin Elvis, Creating an
E-mail: 1992 (We will soon have great name Horizons was selected Economically Robust Space
editor2012[at]aiaahouston.org photos from that visit.), and a much later, maybe in 1990. Policy, and we thank Dr. Elvis.
Chinese delegation visited us Jim McLane later filled re- The Collier’s series is historic
www.aiaahouston.org in the NASA/JSC community gional and national AIAA and inspiring. It continues in
An archive for Horizons on a in 1990. Marlo Graves volun- roles, including direction of this issue with part 3 of 8, and
national AIAA web site is here. teered in about 2008 as our technical activities and profes- with some introductory materi-
sister section contact person. sional development. He was a al starting a few pages earlier.
Submissions deadline: February She continues to do a great job great friend though we met Thanks go to Councilor Ellen
7, 2012, for the January / in that role today. She had rarely. It was a pleasure visit- Gillespie for this issue’s article
February 2013 issue, to be completed a summer session at ing with him and his son reporting on the 2012 Wings
published by February 28, 2013. International Space University James C. McLane III in the Over Houston air show. Astro-
(ISU) in Strasbourg, France. Heroes & Legends tent during dynamics consultant Daniel R.
Advertising The following year, she had the 2011 Wings Over Houston Adamo authored two articles

worked for ISU for that same air show, where Jim was one in this issue, one about Near
Please contact
summer session, but it took of the featured guests of hon- Earth Object (NEO) TC , and
the editor about rates. 4
place in Beijing, not Stras- or. Jim stepped up and deliv- one about A Newly Discovered
bourg. She traveled once more ered for AIAA. He provided and Highly Accessible NEO.
to China with some help from decades of high-quality AIAA Dr. Patrick E. Rodi writes in
AIAA and AIAA Hou- service and leadership. this issue about NEO Asteroid
ston Section. She visited 2012 DA14. All three are time-
both Beijing and Shang- This issue’s cover story is ly articles. Scott Lowther does
hai. Her role in our Sec- possible thanks to the gener- important ongoing work with
tion is now with our Chi- osity of the people at The UP our scans for the Collier’s se-
nese colleagues in Bei- Experience, Houston’s signa- ries. He also provides his regu-
jing, not in Shanghai. ture event since 2008. Shen lar column in this issue, Aero-
Franklin Zhang and Mar- Ge and I attended this year space Projects Review (APR
with press Corner). Our lunch-and-learn
credentials. summary article in this issue is

Shen took very timely, and we thank Nor-
Above: Map of the five space / the initia- man Chaffee, NASA/JSC re-
military sites visited in China by tive to ask tired, for adding to our report-
our 1992 delegation. We will for an inter- ing.
find those 1988 and 1992 trip view with
reports and restore them to our Burt Rutan. Until next issue (about Febru-
web site. Right: Li Furong (left) Shen pre- ary 28, 2013), happy landings!
and Jim McLane (right) ex- pared the
changing and receiving gifts at
a technical interchange meeting in Chi- Right: Astronauts for Hire
na in 1988 or 1992. Image credits: The (www.astronauts4hire.org)
McLane family. Image source: Pages published their third quarterly
15 and 16 of our June 2008 issue. newsletter.
AIAA Houston Section Horizons November / December 2012 Page 4
Page 5
Houston’s The UP Experience 2012 featuring Cover Story
Burt Rutan
SHEN GE, CONTRIBUTOR, DOUGLAS YAZELL, EDITOR
www.burtrutan.com
The UP Experience, similar to 1935 has been to the Moon. he worked on SpaceShipOne
TED talks, brought together This is quite sad for the space even before there was an X-
sixteen of the world’s bright- industry when one looks at Prize competition and did covert *[Editor’s note: Other crewed
est and interesting minds to the aviation industry in com- work on that for two years. He space systems are in the works,
Houston, Texas USA for one parison. In early 1908, there competed for and won the X- NASA’s Orion, Boeing’s CST-
day of talks on Thursday, were only twelve pilots while Prize hoping that this would spur 100, Sierra Nevada’s Dream-
October 25, 2012. There are five years later in 1913, there a revolution in more spacecraft Chaser and Blue Origin’s New
many free online video exam- were hundreds of aircrafts and being designed and fabricated. Shepard.]
ples of presentations from pilots in 39 countries. For The lack of an upsurge in new
past years of The UP Experi- space, there are only five and private spacecraft is surpris-
ence, such as the memorable manned space systems devel- ing to him since he thought his **July 6, 2010, ABC News
2009 presentation by Neil oped over a period of 42 X-Prize success would have
deGrasse Tyson, Director of years, from 1980 to 2012. spurred an explosion in activity. White House, NASA, Defend
the Hayden Planetarium. *They are the Space Shuttle, Finally, he believes the next Comments About NASA Out-
Shenzhou, SpaceShipOne, the revolution in technology will reach to Muslim World Criti-
Legendary aerospace engineer soon to be available Space- come from more virtual cized by Conservatives
Burt Rutan gave a talk on the ShipTwo and planned Dragon presences allowing people to
necessity of going back into (the capsule) from SpaceX. At interact with each other regard- …In response to criticism,
space. He reminded the audi- the short interview after his less of where they are. National White House spokesman Nick
ence that no one born after talk, Burt revealed to us that (Continued on page 6) Shapiro said in a statement that
“The President has always said
that he wants NASA to engage
[Starting below we present our Horizons interview with Burt Rutan. It took place immediately
with the world’s best scientists
after his presentation. The presentation will probably be available for free online eventually.
and engineers as we work to-
After the two of us were granted press credentials, Shen requested an interview with Burt
gether to push the boundaries
Rutan, a great idea! Shen prepared the questions and asked most of the questions. For brevi-
of exploration. Meeting that
ty, this is not an exact transcript.]
mandate requires NASA to

partner with countries around
The American federal government played a wonderful historic role in the 1960s with NASA
the world like Russia and Ja-
from the time NASA formed until Apollo and Skylab were done. Absolutely phenomenal work
pan, as well as collaboration
was done, and that kind of work is not being done now. NASA follows the President’s direction
with Israel and with many Mus-
from White House, and in the 1960s, NASA [was doing no] **Muslim outreach and [had no
lim-majority countries. The
initiatives related to] ethnic diversity. In the 1960s, NASA was acting like a space research
space race began as a global
company. [NASA was doing what it should] with taxpayer money. [Horizons: How did we ar-
competition, but, today, it is a
rive in this painful situation with NASA now and since 2010?] [That started with the] Clinton
global collaboration.”
years and the Shuttle-Mir program. It was political. It was not science at all. It was not about
science experiments in space. It was about the political goals of our interface with Russia. I am
not saying that is bad, it is just different from the 1960s. It is a change in political direction.

[How can we encourage the current generation to come into our aerospace profession?] In
2004, we learned that a private company can do manned spaceflight, thanks to the Ansari X-
Prize. That provides inspiration like the Wright brothers coming out of bicycle shop to be the
first in powered flight. I thought whole world would [follow our example of a private company
sending people into space]. [The situation is] not near what I expected after 2004. Nobody else
has flown. I don’t know why not. Ask them. I really don’t know. I was predicting [many more
following in our footsteps]. Remember, there were 27 competitors for the Ansari X-Prize. I
thought five or six of them would have done what I did. My whole program was 3.5 years, and
more than two years were covert. No one knew what we were doing for two years. [Why has no
one else followed in our footsteps?] That is a good question for you as a journalist to research. Above: Burt Rutan (left) and Shen
Ge at The UP Experience 2012 in
[What will you be doing in the future?] Conduct a Google search for our Scaled Composites to Houston, Texas USA, Thursday,
find that answer, but a lot what Scaled Composite is doing is secret. The biggest Scaled Compo- October 25, 2012. Image credit:
(Continued on page 6) Douglas Yazell.
AIAA Houston Section Horizons November / December 2012 Page 5
Page 6
The UP (Continued from page 5) (readily available and cheaper working to reduce the size of
boundaries will be less and than milk) before starting a 30 MRI machines by using to-be
Experience
less relevant as cultural geog- or 60-second demonstration, -developerd superconducting
raphy defines who we are. or he poured liquid nitrogen wires. A subway train using
on top of the disk. He men- these principles might travel
Dr. Boaz Almog of Tel Aviv tioned these magnets can only at speeds up to 6,500 km/
University gave a talk on be made in China since one hour. Applications include
quantum levitation with live ingredient is rare. The disk large motors, accelerators,
demonstration of how a su- components are mostly not power cables and energy stor-
perconducting disk maintains superconducting with only a age.
various initial orientations 0.5 micrometer thickness of
while, once it is given an ini- the material being a supercon- Editor’s notes from the audio
tial push, it follows the path ductor. This device can levi- file:
just above or just below a tate more than 70,000 times
circular ring of magnets its own weight. This is not Magnetic field lines behave
(about three feet in diameter) magnetic levitation. This is like quantum objects. Mag-
or a line of magnets, a “rail.” quantum locking, also called netic field lines behave like
The “line” of magnets was a quantum levitation. The rami- particles. The superconductor
bit like a roller coaster, a U- fications of further develop- does not like to have field
shaped line which the disk ment will be tremendous. For lines moving around. When
followed back and forth instance, current MRI ma- we cool it, we get quantum
whether it was above or be- chines are huge since they locking, three dimensional
low these magnets. He dipped need liquid helium to cool locking. We get frictionless
the disk in liquid nitrogen their superconductors, so he is (Continued on page 7)
Above: 1930 Collier Trophy.
Image credit: FlugKerl2.
(Continued from page 5)
sites projects with press releases are two space-related things. One is SpaceShipTwo with Virgin Galactic, and in mid-December of
2011, Stratolaunch was announced. Scaled Composites now has 430 employees, two 747-400s and is building the world’s largest
airplane.

[What exciting emerging technologies do you see coming soon?] Virtual reality. We don’t have to do travel. E-mail and Power-
Point are the reasons the need for business travel is only about a quarter of what it used to be. Last year our company had a travel bill
of only about 20% of what it [had the prior year]. You have a document in front of you, you make a few clicks and you send it to
people to review on their own time. In the past you had to fly and be together in a meeting. Telephone is poor communication com-
pared to e-mail. You have to want to talk at exactly the same time as the other person. Kurds live in separate countries, not their own
country. A Kurd country in cyberspace can be created. People don’t have to move there. People don’t have to form a country. Amer-
ica could have conservatives and progressives [in two separate cyber cultures]. There would be no need for silly political fights. You
could belong to a country that shares your beliefs. Why does a CEO have a Gulfstream V ready to use at any time? The CEO would
answer that maybe just one meeting per year will occur where the CEO can get there fast enough and beat the competition to a deal.
So the CEO maintains a fleet of six corporate jets. But if you fly to a meeting now, you get there last. Virtual reality can kill that
industry. [For space travel, we can view other planets with virtual reality, but we cannot] float around a room without going to space.
It is difficult to make that happen. We could put a collapsed star just above the room [to enable us to float around the room due to
gravitational effects]. That was a joke.

[Why are you so creative?] Large advances [in aviation, space and science] were being made when I was a child, [and as a conse-
quence] I had courage and inspiration. I had the courage to try hard things.

[Horizons is reprinting the Collier’s series from 1952 to 1954, Man Will Conquer Space Soon! We conclude we are the first to
reprint that series of space magazine articles page by page in high resolution.] At my new home, in North Idaho, I have two Colli-
er trophies and two Doolittle trophies. I am very proud of that. I am the only one alive that has two [Collier Trophies]. Glenn Curtiss
and Kelly Johnson have two Colliers.

[You are lecturing and staying active. What next?] I am developing a little airplane to let me explore the lakes and rivers where I
live. I do very little traveling. I had a talk to give to IBM at Maui, a large audience, and I took the redeye flight to go home after my
presentation, so you can see I don’t like to travel. I travel very little. But this is a wonderful audience here in Houston today, and I
am enjoying this very much. Have they closed that [NASA/JSC]? Is it still open? Why weren’t there more people here at this event
(Continued on page 7)
AIAA Houston Section Horizons November / December 2012 Page 6
Page 7
(Continued from page 6) ergy. length of fall. On average, the The UP
motion except for air friction. test subject estimated the time
Experience
We use a sapphire disk, and Neuroscientist and author Dr. passage to be 36% longer.
we grow superconducting David Eagleman started with Apparently, time and memory
material on it if we have the a talk on the perception of (Continued on page 8)
right recipe. The magnetic time. Apparently, cause and
field is the same along this effect can be mistaken which
rail. The amount of energy leads to the interesting theory
needed to move this, to start that schizophrenia may be a
this motion, is minimal be- disorder of time perception,
cause there is no friction ex- not knowing which of two
cept for air friction. The disk nearly simultaneous events
will keep going until it warms occurred first. To test aspects
up [and loses its superconduc- of time perception, an experi-
tivity]. There is no magnetic ment was conducted by drop-
repulsion. Forget everything ping 23 people from 150 feet
you know about classical high into a safety net. The
physics. Quantum locking and observer recorded the time Above: Once cooled with liquid nitrogen, the disk
frictionless motion combine length of fall while the test floats via quantum locking (levitation), not magnetic
when storing mechanical en- subject estimated the time levitation, above or below the rail of magnets. Image
credit: www.quantumlevitation.com.
(Continued from page 6)
today from NASA/JSC? I only saw a couple of hands when I asked the audience members today to raise a hand if they work at
NASA/JSC. It’s weird.

The following paragraphs about the Collier Trophy and the James H. Doolittle Award are taken from Wikipedia. Horizons is reprint-
ing Man Will Conquer Space Soon! from the weekly magazine Collier’s, a series of manned space articles from 1952 to 1954. Since
the same Mr. Collier owned the magazine Collier’s and commissioned the Collier Trophy, and Burt Rutan is the only living person
to win the Collier Trophy twice, we add a few details here.
The Collier Trophy is an annual aviation award administered by the U.S. National Aeronautic Association (NAA), presented to
those who have made "the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to improving the perfor-
mance, efficiency, and safety of air or space vehicles, the value of which has been thoroughly demonstrated by actual use during the
preceding year."
Robert J. Collier, publisher of Collier's Weekly magazine, was an air sports pioneer and president of the Aero Club of America. He
commissioned the 525 pound (240 kg) trophy in 1911, originally named the Aero Club of America Trophy. Collier also was the own-
er of a Wright Model B biplane which he purchased in 1911. After presenting it several times, Collier died in 1918 after the end of
World War I.
It was renamed in his honor in 1922 when the Aero Club dissolved, and the award was taken over by the NAA. The name became
official in 1944, and the award presented once a year by the NAA president, with the trophy on permanent display at the U.S. Na-
tional Air and Space Museum. As such, the trophy was in the custody of its 1969 co-recipient, Michael Collins during his director-
ship of the museum.
1911 Glenn Curtiss, for successful development of the hydro-aeroplane. The first award of the Collier Trophy.
1912 Glenn H. Curtiss, for the invention of the single-pontoon seaplane and development of the flying boat.
1958 Clarence "Kelly" Johnson of Lockheed Skunk Works, and Gerhard Neumann and Neil Burgess of GE, for leadership
in the development of the F-104 Starfighter (1958) and its J79 engine.
1963 Clarence "Kelly" Johnson, for his leadership at Lockheed's Skunk Works in the development of the SR-71 Blackbird.
1986 Dick Rutan, Jeana Yeager, Burt Rutan and the team of the non-stop unrefueled circumnavigation of the Rutan
Voyager
2004 Burt Rutan and his SpaceShipOne team for designing and launching the first commercial manned launch vehicle
The James H. Doolittle Award is an honor presented annually by the Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP). It is an award
for "outstanding accomplishment in technical management or engineering achievement in aerospace technology." The award con-
sists of a perpetual trophy on permanent display at SETP headquarters, and a smaller replica presented to the recipient. It is named
after General James Doolittle, famous for the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo during World War II.
1987 - Burt Rutan, Scaled Composites
2004 – Burt Rutan
AIAA Houston Section Horizons November / December 2012 Page 7
Page 8
The UP are intertwined and more memories rescue him was shot down by be a good place for testing
imply that time appears longer. The a 12-year-old boy with a innovations. Someone asked
Experience solution to make life longer is to Rocket Propelled Grenade him about fuel cells and he
make it seem longer by presenting it (RPG), killing all onboard. To said they require a lot of plati-
with more novel experiences. Wear survive, he stayed five days in num which is currently not
your watch on your other wrist to- a village while the Taliban feasible since the price of
day! Take a different route to work were hunting him down. He platinum is as much as
tomorrow! was finally rescued and re- $1,600/ounce. Someone else
mained with the SEALs until asked him about competition
Biochemist Dr. Gregory Petsko pre- 2007 when his knees were from a large company such as
The videos from The UP
sented on the rising life expectancy blown out. Throughout his General Electric. He an-
Experience 2012 are now
and the concurrent rise in Alzhei- life, his dogged persistence swered that he was not wor-
online and free for anyone
mer’s. While the cost for care in stemmed from his strict fami- ried since they’re investing in
to view. Just use that link
time and money is over $200 billion ly discipline and his first (ex- 40-year-old technology such
or start at
annually, the research on Alzhei- SEAL) trainer when he was as the GE Zebra battery.
www.theupexperience.net.
mer’s is a pitiful $0.6 billion. Com- just a teenager. He says,
We missed Dr. Wade Ad-
pare this to something like AIDS “There’ll be plenty of people Edward Conard, a best-selling
am’s presentation while we
research which has received much who can tell you, ‘You can’t author on economics and for-
interviewed Burt Rutan.
attention and receives $2.6 billion do it.’ You don’t need to tell mer Managing Director of
Dr. Adams, Associate Dean
annually to develop new treatments. yourself that.” Bain Capital, LLC, talked
of the George R. Brown
The simple reason is that Alzhei- about what’s needed for the
School of Engineering at
mer’s patients cannot promote re- Dr. Donald Sadoway, MIT government to avoid financial
Rice University in Hou-
search themselves. Dr. Petsko pre- professor and inventor, pre- crashes. He says that we
ston, Texas USA, spoke
sented a novel technique on over- sented his invention, the liq- should either invest or con-
about, “Nanotechnology
coming Alzheimer’s. uid metal battery. Though the sume with no hoarding. We
and the Future of Energy.”
electricity grid is the greatest shouldn’t increase govern-
His video is a great one,
Game designer Jane McGonigal machine ever made, the grid ment spending but instead
and it includes getting rid
described the power of games to do lacks the ability to store increase equity. Increasing
of cancer tumors, a new
analysis of real-world problems and charge. Pumped hydroelectric taxes just leads to private sec-
process already working
to help people overall. She suffered power has low dollars per tor spending less. The govern-
well with mice.
a serious concussion in 2009 after kilowatt hour (kWh), but un- ment is consuming equity
hitting her head on a cabinet door. fortunately, it has severe geo- without making equity for the
While in bed, she played a game to graphic constraints. Today’s long run.
heal her brain where she was “Jane lithium ion battery has terrible
the Concussion cost-storage efficiency. The Koen Olthuis, a Dutch archi-
Slayer,” the heroine batteries he’s currently testing tect, talked about his company
that slayed her con- had over 800 cells tested. Waterstudio and his idea re-
cussion. Through Some cost $100/kWh for lated to floats, flexible land
this experience, she electrodes and electrolytes. on aquatic territory. Just as
created the game He created a company called the elevator made more space
SuperBetter to help Ambridge for this purpose. possible in an urban environ-
people improve their This battery has no moving ment, the float will make
health by increasing parts and is designed to the more space possible for cities
resilience physical- market price point without near water. Cities can then be
ly, mentally, emo- subsidy. Furthermore, it’s dynamic instead of static. For
tionally and socially. simple to fabricate. The com- example, technology used by
Above: Game designer
She also created the game Evoke as mercial version of these prod- oil companies can be repopu-
and author Jane
a social entrepreneurship game for ucts is expected to be out in lated as sea trees where a di-
McGonigal on stage at
the World Bank. the first part of 2014. Dr. Sa- verse ecosystem ranging from
Meet the Media Guru in
doway made the joke that fishes in the water and birds
Milan, Italy, May 2011.
Image credit: Paolo Sac- Marcus Luttrell, the ex-Navy seal “What I showed you is one in the air is constructed. This
chi / Meet the media and best-selling author, talked about cell. When you put many cells can also be an excellent pro-
Guru. his experiences in the military. He together, it’s a battery. If I hit moter of oil companies as
jokingly referred to Navy as an acro- you once, it’s assault. If I hit more ecologically friendly.
nym, Never Again Volunteer Your- you many times, it’s battery.” He is currently working with
self. He was in a four-man team on a At the question and answer the Maldives on building
capture-or-kill-a-man-in- session later, he mentioned floating islands and hotels.
Afghanistan mission where his three that since part of Texas is not Imagine floating hotels that
friends died. The helicopter sent to part of the national grid, it’ll (Continued on page 9)
AIAA Houston Section Horizons November / December 2012 Page 8
Page 9
(Continued from page 8) other antics in later videos sources rapidly. China is fol- The UP
can be combined to form is- such as choreographed danc- lowing three strategies includ-
Experience
lands. He also talked about ing in seventy windows of ing symbiosis, deep pockets
wet slums that can be helped stores without permission. and monopsony. Symbiosis
with floating agriculture, sani- There are “site-specific ide- refers to the fact that China is
tation, energy and architec- as,” such as Operation Best going to the Axis of the Un-
ture. Buy where a large number of loved, i.e., places in Eastern
these tirades, he offered some
folks dressed in blue polo Europe, Africa, and South
legitimate comments such as
Barbara Corcoran, an energet- shirts and khaki pants and go America, and building up
how reaching your consumers
ic real estate mogul and Shark into a Best Buy to just stand local infrastructure while ac-
is dependent on both content
Tank investor, presented on around. The employees found quiring resources. Deep pock-
and context. Just posting up
her experience being fooled this very funny but the man- ets refers to the fact that Chi-
there doesn’t generate that.
by a real estate businessman agers and security guards na can afford to spend $1 bil-
He jokingly said that “Every
named Ramon. She thought didn’t and called 911. There lion a week on commodity
business online is acting like a
she loved him. He later mar- are numerous other cases and investments and is willing to
19-year-old on a date. They’re
ried their secretary. When his fame has reached a point overpay for mines which no
trying to close on their first
Barbara finally left to start her where in 2006 he pitched a private company can compete
move.”
own business, he told her she pilot for NBC. Charlie’s with. Finally, monopsony

would never succeed without dream is that “I hope by the refers to the fact that China
Tony Danza, the famous TV
him. This kindness / insult time I’m 78, I’m still being has power as the key buyer
actor from Taxi and Who’s the
motivated her while she built asked to leave.” where there are many sellers
Boss?, was the last to talk.
her own multimillion dollar but only one main buyer. For
Surprisingly, he didn’t talk
real estate business. Through David R. Dow, a law profes- instance, in 2007, China
about his acting career, but
this process, she learned many sor from University of Hou- bought a Peruvian mountain.
rather his brief teaching ca-
business lessons she shared ston, discussed death row The road from Cape Town to
reer. He only taught for a
with the audience. For one, inmates. Last year, there were Cairo through 15 countries
year. For the first semester, it
perception creates reality. By 43 executions with 13 execu- was built by China in another
was more of a TV series than
using the media, she became tions taking place in Texas. example of this monopsony.
actual classroom teaching.
who she pretended to be. Fur- One reason for the argument Dambisa also stressed that
The cameras left at the end of
thermore, always believe that against the death penalty is whereas many developing
the first semester due to low
you have the right to be here. that each death penalty re- nations will prefer the democ-
ratings, but this was good
Sometimes, you have to walk quires vast resources, primar- racy and private capitalism
since what was good for the
through the door even without ily due to the first stage of the promoted by the United
show was not always good for
knowing the answer. Finally, process called trial. The law- States, China is currently of-
the class.
she offered some fun family yer must learn everything fering these nations wealth

advice such as how her chil- about the client including and development, whereas the
The UP Experience for 2012
dren brought her a lot more interviewing every person United States either ignores
was enlightening. Interesting
joy than her husband. and looking at all records. them or gives them donations
and successful people shared
This can take weeks and instead of building up infra-
their stories and projects with
Charlie Todd, a YouTube months before a trial. Though structure.
us. The opportunity to talk
comedian, talked about his the death penalty applies to
with almost all of the speakers
various antics around New less than 1% of homicide Gary Vaynerchuk, the social
after their talks was a bonus. I
York. He’s the founder of cases, it costs $600 million media guru and wine guy,
would very much like to at-
Improv Everywhere and his per year. launched into his talk with
tend The UP Experience
videos on YouTube have been vivid enthusiasm. He first
2013.
seen over 250 million times. Dambisa Moyo, economist asked the audience how
In one of his first videos, a and best-selling author, dis- many people knew who
man in boxer shorts under- cussed her latest book on he was which only elicit-
wear wearing no pants, his resource scarcity and China’s ed a few hand raises. He
bare legs visible on a cold reach across the globe for wasn’t terribly offended
day, gets on the subway fol- resources. China has over 100 but he did joke that it
lowed by another guy that cities with over 1 million hurt. He threw around
gets onboard dressed the same people whereas the United funny offensive com-
way for seven consecutive States has 9 such cities and ments such as “We used
subway stops. The reactions Europe has 18 such cities. to pay $3/minute to get
of passengers are filmed via a Yet China has only 7% arable on Internet. AOL. Those Above: Barbara Corcoran. Im-
hidden camera. There are land and is consuming re- [idiots].” Aside from age credit: Press release kit.
AIAA Houston Section Horizons November / December 2012 Page 9
Page 10
Exoplanet Interstellar First Stop? Doppler Detection of
Earth 2 an Earth-Sized Planet at Alpha Centauri B
WES KELLY, TRITON SYSTEMS, LLC
On October 16, 2012, shortly exoplanet is a major discov- 1990s were. Here we have an
after the September adjourn- ery. This Earth-sized planet’s Earth mass object orbiting a
ment of the 100 Year Starship name is Alpha Centauri Bb high priority target– and the
A Major Discovery public symposium in Hou- (often written  Centauri Bb). difficulty of discovery is wor-
ston, a team of European as- thy of note.

tronomers announced the de- Unlike the recent discoveries
Exoplanet tection of the nearest extra- of extra-solar planets with the Saying that the Alpha Centau-
solar planet to date, a hot Kepler Observatory (reported ri binary star system is the
Alpha Centauri Bb
“ingot” orbiting the star Al- in earlier Horizons), detection nearest set of Sun-like stars
pha Centauri B (often written was not obtained by watching understates the hold this
 Centauri B), the somewhat for a planetary transit. In- southern sky bright object has
dimmer of the two Sun-like stead, detection came with on the imagination. Countless
binaries (stars in the binary or prolonged search for Doppler science fiction stories of arri-
two-star star system  Cen- spectral line shifts in the visi- val there have been written,
tauri, orbiting a common ble stellar spectrum, shifts including the 2009 film depic-
point, with stars named  indicative of a planet perturb- tion “Avatar.” Decades ago,
Centauri A and  Centauri B) ing the motion of the stellar in a collection of aerospace
4.3 light years away in the primary. With a single star essays, former AIAA presi-
southern celestial sphere. and planet, this analysis is dent Jerry Grey looked to-
Aside from Proxima Centauri, difficult enough. In a binary ward the as yet unnamed and
a dim red dwarf star adjacent stellar system like this one the un-built Hubble Space Tele-
to the binary system, these are target star also is moving scope discovering planets
our nearest stellar neighbors. much like the planet. Examin- orbiting the Alpha Centauri
The detected planet of rough- ing Doppler shifts, the easiest binary star system. Subse-
ly Earth mass orbits Alpha detections are close-in planets quently, when computer sim-
Centauri B once about every of Jupiter mass or greater – ulation tools were widely
3.25 days, less than 100th of a and that’s what most extra enough available, many as-
terrestrial year. Finding this solar detections since the mid (Continued on page 11)
12.5
10
7.5
5
s
U
A 2.5
e
n
a 0
lP
tib -2.5
rO
-5
-7.5
-10
-12.5
-17.5 -15 -12.5 -10 -7.5 -5 -2.5 0 2.5 5 7.5 10 12.5 15 17.5 20
Orbit Plane AUs
Figure 1  Centauri A & B with Planetary Track, Epoch =1,500 Days, Origin at Barycenter, Iner-
tial Coordinates, Mean Separation a* = 23.4 AU, e* = .52, P* = 79.9 yrs, Planetary Track about
A at 1.25 AU circular orbit
AIAA Houston Section Horizons November / December 2012 Page 10