AAA Meeting Report
24 / 02 / 2023
Richard Shaw, our Chairperson, opened our meeting with his customary warm welcome to all, members and visitors alike.
{Note the hyperlinks to clips and images may not be the same as those we were shown}.
Andy Nairn (Member) was introduced as our Space News Round presenter for this evening.
Andy kicked off with news of a Chinese Commercial Space Company called Galaxy Space:
{https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202312/1304464.shtml#:~:text=GalaxySpace.commercialaerospace,intopresetorbit }, which was described as being modelled on Space X and Blue Horizons.
We heard about the Russian space agency’s plans to send a rescue rocket to retrieve 3 astronauts stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) : https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230111-russia-to-send-rocket-to-rescue-crew-from-iss .
Followed by an update on the Boing Starliner and its key testing: https://blogs.nasa.gov/boeing-crew-flight-test/2023/02/#:~:text=MonthFebruary2023&text=TheyworkedwiththeStarliner,panelsidehatchoperations .
Andy told us about the Starship and the static Booster fire test: https://youtu.be/94Q2su9fshE and shared recent reports about the Chinese ‘weather’ balloon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Chinese_balloon_incident#:~:text=From%20January%2028%20to%20February,the%20coast%20of%20South%20Carolina.
Andy moved on to a subheading — Rockets…
Update on February 26 plans for the Falcon 9 Crew 6 Space X launch https://www.space.com/spacex-nasa-crew-6-launch-february-26 and showed us a list of intended rocket launch dates for 2023 : https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_chr/lau2023.htm . Andy pointed out that sadly many of the launches in March were for commercial missions with none for scientific purposes.
We learned about Moondust theories to protect Earth’s climate — dubbed crazy idea of the moth: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/02/could-space-dust-help-protect-the-earth-from-climate-change/ .
Andy shared a pass over list from the ISS — https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings/view.cfm?country=United_Kingdom®ion=Scotland&city=Glasgow (2024). Andy noted that, as of February 2023, 397 amateur radio satellites Passover Glasgow every day145 m/h am/Fm or 137 m/h and gave us a list: https://www.n2yo.com/satellites/?c=18 .
We heard about the vernal equinox on March 20th: https://www.space.com/equinox-march-2023-not-so-equal and the planned end of the NASA NEOWISE JPL mission: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-neowise-celebrates-10-years-plans-end-of-mission & https://youtu.be/uGKY-XzFeNU .
We learned about strange green laser lights seen over Hawaii and National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) tweeted that the space agency’s Subaru-Asahi Star Camera on Mauna Kea: https://nypost.com/2023/02/11/green-laser-beams-spotted-off-hawaii-from-chinese-satellite-experts/ and were shown a clip {embedded}.
We saw a clip of the Space X launch — and Andy shared an article about three images captured by the Subaru-Asahi Star Camera which had attracted worldwide attention: https://subarutelescope.org/en/news/topics/2023/02/23/3237.html .
From the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), we saw a images of the occultation of a light curve: https://earthsky.org/space/chariklos-rings-webb-telescope-stellar-occultation/; the surface composition of Titan: https://www.ipgp.fr/en/research/research-projects/james-webb-space-telescope-jwst-guaranteed-time-observer-cycle-1-titan-climate-composition-and-clouds/ and of a star formation in the early universe: https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/star-formation-early-universe-jwst-nasa-collaboration/161647/ … {All embedded images}.
Also from the JWST — evidence which might dispel theories re the ‘Big Bang’: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/feb/22/universe-breakers-james-webb-telescope-detects-six-ancient-galaxies .
Andy, bringing his whirlwind tour of the space related events of February nearer to an end, HEB Dark Skies festival: https://lanntair.com/creative-programme/darkskies/#:~:text=TheHebrideanDarkSkiesFestival,from2D20March202023.
Sharing one of Andy’s favourite sites came next: https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/blog/astronomy/night-sky-highlights-march-2023 {Not the same site?}. https://science.nasa.gov/resource/whats-up-february-2023-skywatching-tips-from-nasa/ and an image of Jupiter, Venus and the Jovian moons: visible in the night sky on Wednesday 22 February 2023.
Wow! What a richly packed Space News report from Andy! Fantastic!
Richard returned to make a presentation to Isabel to show AAA’s appreciation of her sterling service for so many years in the role of Chairperson, before taking over as AAA Treasurer.
After tea Break….
Member’s Short Talks Night
Isabel Morrison, (our Treasurer and ex Chairperson), who has always been a keen advocate of this short presentation topic exposure opportunities for members as co-ordinator of these periodic occasions, started the ball rolling with her favourite short talk medium ‘Snippets’, {newspaper cuttings — short news items of report about space related topics gleaned from current newspaper articles. The benefit being that using a journalist’s pre honed / pared down report makes for ease of delivery and audience reception}.
Isabel Morrison:
Introduction to ‘Snippets’, taking ‘Welsh Lauded for Being the First Site in Europe to Be Certified as an International Dark Sky Sanctuary’… as an example, (from the Metro newspaper): {Couldn’t find the Metro snippet itself: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-wales-64736076 }. As Isabel reminded us, a presentation doesn’t have to be with slides and tech backup — it can be, as she demonstrated, just as interesting andengaging for an audience using such examples of low tech media delivery.
Member Tony Kapelko with his presentation: ’20 Facts and Figures’.
Tony regaled us with 20 random, (perhaps little known to our members), fascinating fun facts about our solar system, the Milky Way and our universe. Just goes to show that there’s truth in the old adage ‘Learning is Fun’. Great stuff Tony!
Member Graham Dale was next up with his presentation on the Space Technology Scotland Group, a group which he, Jack Frederick and William Lawrie formed and which meet every Saturday morning at the Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life.
Graham passed around an example of a ‘mini sat’ (miniature satellite), while he explained their aims and ambitions to have one that they have built launched into orbit as soon as they could find a rocket launch partner: { https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_satellite }
Graham explained that costing varied greatly, was dependent upon weight and launch site location and access. We were shown several images of viable rockets, of launch successes and failures: https://skyrora.com/ & https://orbex.space/ etc.
We saw example images of cube sats and Pocket Qubes: http://www.albaorbital.com/hardware/pocketqube-kit . Graham relayed the details of a couple of commercial manufacturers of these small satellites, and we learned that there was an internationally agreed radio frequency,(very low), and told about a company https://www.semtech.com/lora Semtech LoRa Technology and its chipsets: { http://www.albaorbital.com/ & https://fossa.systems/ etc }.
There were several questions from the members once Graham had finished his presentation, reflecting a great deal of interest and engagement from our members.
Keith Love was our final short talk participant with a presentation based on quiz questions from his trusty standby book ‘ABC of Space’
With a mixture of audience participation and laughs along the way Keith guided us through some of the randomly selected letter of the alphabet.
Garnering a similar level of engagement and a boost of fun, Keith’s contribution rounded off an interesting and fun filled evening on a high note.