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Recent Activities

Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

Other Activities Listed by Date

February 12, 2013 Winter Social and Dinner

The JSC Chapter of the NASA Alumni League "Winter Social and Dinner" was held on Feb. 12, 2013 at the Gilruth Center. Mr. Kirk Shireman, NASA Deputy Program Manager of the International Space Station Program was our speaker and we had approximately 70 attendees. Mr. Shireman provided an update on the International space Station Program with emphasis on "WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED AND WHERE ARE WE GOING." Details are provided in the Program flyer. Thanks to Mr. Shireman for an outstanding presentation and for allowing us to publish his briefing charts on the our web site. (See the video shown at the event and the full video).

November 16, 2012 Strategic Planning Meeting

The Officers, Board of Directors, and Committee chairpersons held a five hour Strategic Planning Session at the Gilruth Recreation Center on November 16, 2012. The primary objective of the session was to develop an organizational strategy that ensures the NASA Alumni League (NAL) is well aligned to provide needed products and services to its stakeholders. To accomplish this goal, we will:

The team made significant progress toward achieving our objectives and we plan to meet again in late January, 2013 to continue our planning. Thanks to Jason Nelson, the NASA JSC Human Resources Development/AES Training and Development Lead for being such an effective facilitator for this meeting.

November 14, 2012 Dinner Program Meeting and Social

The NAL held a dinner program meeting and social on November 14, 2012 at the Gilruth Center with Dr. Adam D. Steltzner from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory as our speaker. Approximately 85 people were in attendance.

We held a short business meeting prior to the program and briefly reviewed the NAL activities since our last dinner program. We announced the establishment of four new committees and two Senior Board Advisors positions. We introduced our newly elected Officers and Board of Directors as well as the Committee chairpersons and our new Senior Board Advisor.

The topic of Dr. Steltzner's presentation was: "Putting Curiosity on Mars and Why We Did It". Based on the questions following the briefing and the informal discussions after the presentation, all attendees seemed to be very interested and impressed with Dr. Steltzner's briefing, the overall Curiosity program and the innovative landing concept utilized.

Thanks to Dr. Stiltzner for an outstanding briefing and we will post his briefing charts on our web site as soon as we receive his permission.

RESULTS OF BIENNIAL CHAPTER ELECTION FOR OFFICERS AND EIGHT DIRECTORS

TERM OF OFFICE: SEPTEMBER 1, 2012 TO AUGUST 31, 2014

OFFICERS

PRESIDENT - CHESTER VAUGHAN
VICE PRESIDENT - WAYNE HALE
SECRETARY - NORMAN CHAFFEE
TREASURER - SUSAN BRAYMER

DIRECTORS

BILL BATES
LARRY BELL
PHIL DEANS
ESTELLA GILLETTE
DENNY HOLT
GARY JOHNSON
RICK NYGREN
E. BOB STEWART

THANKS TO NOMINATING COMMITTEE
GARY JOHNSON
CARL SHELLEY
WAYNE YOUNG

THANKS TO AUDREY RIVERS FOR CREATING THE CANDIDATE INFORMATION BROCHURE

August 14, 2012

Dinner Program Meeting and Social – The NAL held a dinner program meeting and social on August 14, 2012 at the Gilruth Center with Dr. Paul Spudis as our speaker. Approximately 50 people were in attendance. We held a short business meeting prior to the program and briefly reviewed the NAL activities since our last dinner program. We also reviewed the recent election process and introduced the new Officers and Directors. (Biennial election results chart). The topic of Dr. Spudis presentation was: "Develop Cislunar Space to Create a Sustainable Space Program." Dr. Spudis and others believe that the development of the Cislunar concept should be the primary focus of the future NASA Human Space Program. Based on the questions following the meeting and the informal discussions after the presentation, all attendees seemed to be very interested in this subject. Dr. Spudis is a Senior Staff Scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston. Thanks to Dr. Spudis for an outstanding briefing and for allowing us to post his briefing charts on our website.

June 21, 2012

The JSC Chapter of the NAL sponsored a special presentation on the topic "MARS EXPLORATION FROM ITS MOONS" by distinguished scientist, Dr. S. Fred Singer. Dr. Singer discussed his proposal to conduct human exploration of Mars robotically from a human base established on Phobos (or Diemos). See the flyer.

Dr. Singer proposes that the most effective way to explore Mars may be with a fleet of robotic rovers, tele-operated in real time from a manned base on Phobos (or Deimos). There were 32 people in attendance with a significant amount of audience participation. THANKS TO DR. SINGER FOR AN INTEERESTING AND INFORMATIVE EVENING PROGRAM. Briefing charts are attached.

June 18, 2012

The JSC Chapter of the NAL sponsored a special presentation on the DESIGN, OPERATIONAL PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE APOLLO ERA LUNAR RECEIVING LAB. It was presented by our members, Dr. Don Bogard and Mr. Gary McCollum, as a follow-on to a tour of the Lunar Sample Repository facility that Dr. Bogard conducted for us on May 16. See the flyer.

This informal presentation was about how the Lunar Receiving Lab came into being and how it operated. Thirty people were in attendance and all seemed interested and engaged as evidenced during the briefing based on the many questions and comments during and after the briefing. Thanks to Dr. Bogard and Gary for an excellent program. Briefing charts are attached.

May 16, 2012

On Wednesday, May 16, our member, Dr. Don Bogard, offered our Chapter members an opportunity for a brief tour of the JSC Lunar Sample Repository and Sample Preparation Lab in JSC building 31 North. Dr. Bogard is a distinguished Lunar Scientist and worked in the lab to receive the lunar samples, to prepare them for investigation, and to undertake and evaluate studies of the materials. He also was a key player in the design of the original Lunar Receiving Lab at JSC.

Dr. Bogard was able to offer three tours of the facility on May 16, at 1:00 p.m., 2:00 p.m., and 3:00 p.m. The facility could only accommodate 11 visitors at one time so it was necessary to break up the attendees into the three groups spaced an hour apart. Each tour was well attended and all those attending were very appreciative of Dr. Bogard's efforts and all learned a great deal and were able to ask many pertinent questions.

Thanks to Dr. Bogard for the "SUPER TOURS"!!!

April 12, 2012

A dinner program meeting and social was held at Space Center Houston with approximately 60 people in attendance. Ms. Lauri Hansen, Chief of Staff for the Center Director of theJohnson Space Center was our guest speaker. She provided an excellent briefing on the activities of the Johnson Space Center which was extremely interesting and timely for our members. The audience was quite engaged as evidenced by the questions during and after the formal presentation as well as the individual member engagement with her after the meeting. There were many very positive comments on her briefing from members that evening as well as since the meeting. We want to thank Ms. Hansen for her briefing and also thank her for allowing us to post her briefing charts on our website.

December 13, 2012

A holiday social and dinner meeting was held on Dec. 13, 2011 with Astronaut Dr. Lee Morin (STS – 110) speaking on "ROCKS TO ROBOTS: A POSSIBLE APPROACH TO LUNAR INDUSTRIALIZATION". The presentation was based on worked performed by Dr. Morin and a small team working on their own time to identify possible methods to utilize existing technology and launch vehicles to place robotic capability on the lunar surface. The robots would utilize lunar material to manufacture small building blocks which could be replicated. They believe the key to success is to utilize the lunar material to minimize the mass that would be required to be launched from earth. They suggest that this concept could be demonstrated over the next few years with the very limited dollar budget available to NASA and be a start toward lunar industrialization. There were approximately 75 people present for this very thought provoking, innovative and interesting briefing. See briefing charts.

An Engineering Approach to Understanding the Climate Change Controversy

The first of two planned symposiums was held on September 12, 2011 and was quite successful with 77 people attending. The meeting was conducted as planned, (see agenda below for details on the schedule and the speakers) We had a significant amount of discussions between the panels members and the audience especially during the panel discussions and after the formal meeting. Briefing charts used by the speakers during the meeting will be posted on our web site within the next few weeks as they become available. Thanks to all the speakers for their excellent presentations and for allowing us to put their briefing charts on our web site.

September 12, 2011 Agenda

12:30 – 1:00PM ATTENDEE SIGN-IN AND MIXER
1:00 – 1:05PM WELCOME: Chester Vaughan, NAL-JSC President
1:05 – 1:10PM OPENING REMARKS: Dr. Harold Doiron, Symp. Chair
1:10 – 1:40PM WALTER CUNNINGHAM: Reach Your Own Conclusions
1:40 – 2:25PM LEIGHTON STEWARD: Fire, Ice and Paradise - A Geologist’s View of Climate Change
2:25 – 3:10PM ALEX POPE: Stability of Present Climate Change Cycles
3:10 – 3:55PM TOM WYSMULLER: Climate and Sea Level Changes
3:55 – 4:10PM BREAK
4:10 – 4:55PM PANEL DISCUSSION with Our Four Speakers + Q&A
4:55 – 5:00PM CONCLUDING REMARKS: Chester Vaughan
5:00 – 5:30PM INFORMAL MIXER WITH AUDIENCE AND SPEAKERS
5:30PM CONCLUDE

 

The second of two planned symposiums was held on October 28, 2011 and was quite successful with approximately 60 people attending. The meeting was conducted as planned except Frank Hughes was unable to attend due to illness and Chet Vaughan filled in for him. We had a significant amount of discussions between the panels members and the audience especially during the panel discussions and after the formal meeting. Thanks to all the speakers for their excellent presentations and for allowing us to put their briefing charts on our web site.

October 28, 2011 Agenda

12:30 – 1:00PM ATTENDEE SIGN-IN
1:00 – 1:05PM WELCOME: Chester Vaughan, NAL-JSC President
1:05 – 2:00PM DR. ANDREW DESSLER: Our Understanding of Climate Sensitivity
2:00 – 3:00PM DR. BARRY LEFER: Earth's Climate Change Over Tectonic, Orbital, and Human Timescales
3:00 – 4:00PM DR. JOHN NIELSEN-GAMMON: Multiple Causes of Extreme Events: A Case Study of Texas Drought
4:00 – 4:45PM PANEL DISCUSSION with Our Three Speakers + Q&A
4:45PM SESSION ENDS

 

June 28, 2011

Mr. Larry Price, Lockheed Program Manager for the NASA Multipurpose Crew Module (previously the NASA Orion Program) was our speaker. Approximately 70 people were in attendance. Based on the Q&A session participation, as well as comments later, all were engaged and enjoyed the program. Thanks to Mr. Price for an excellent presentation and also for allowing us to post his briefing charts on our website.

The following videos (.wmv format) are intended for the briefing charts:

January 25, 2011

(Completed - A copy of the ppt slides is available here)

PROGRAM
Presented by Ken Bowersox - Vice President of the Astronaut Safety and Mission Assurance Department at Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX).

Bowersox is a retired US Naval Aviator, with over 19 years of experience at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Selected to the astronaut corps in 1987, he has flown five times on NASA's Space Shuttle, serving as pilot, commander and mission specialist, and once on a Russian Soyuz, where he served as the flight engineer during descent. During his five orbital missions, Bowersox has logged over 211 days in space, including five and a half months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), where he was the mission commander of the 6th expedition. He was also a crew member for the first two Hubble Space Telescope repair flights and two United States Microgravity Laboratory flights.

Subsequent to his mission aboard the ISS, Bowersox served as the director of the Johnson Space Center 's Flight Crew Operations Directorate, where he was responsible for the NASA Astronaut Office and all aircraft operations at the Johnson Space Center . Prior to Joining SpaceX, Bowersox worked as an independent aerospace consultant, serving on the NASA standing review boards for Space Shuttle, ISS, Constellation, Orion and the Constellation Suit System.

Lessons Learned Activities

We are working to schedule another panel at JSC with the general workforce. The first few were done in support of the JSC Knowledge Manager (Jean Engle). They were huge successes. There was standing room only in the meeting room. A repeat of propulsion panel will occur in later as well.

We have had a total of four events coordinated by the Knowledge Management Office:

 

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