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https://www.northhoustonspace.org/about-us/
The Chapter President is Nathan Price.
Mr Price has undertaken an ambitious project to interview folks about space, and he has set a goal of interviewing one person a day.
The active membership of the NewMars forum could help him to reach this goal.
NSS North Houston Space Society is a chapter of the National Space Society (NSS) and is governed by the chapter bylaws. Our vision is “People living and working in thriving communities beyond the Earth, and the use of the vast resources of space for the dramatic betterment of humanity.” If you share this vision, please join us. (If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to our chapter president Nathan Price by email at Nathan.Price@gmail.com or phone 832-620-6385.
We are working to achieve this vision through our monthly meetings where we seek to educate the community about the potential of space, the current activities going on to achieve the promise of space, and to inspire people of all ages. Our meetings are usually the first Saturday of each month at 2 PM at the Barbara Bush Library.
I have asked Mr. Price if there is a chance there might be interest in helping RobertDyck with his Large Ship project. Mr. Price responded favorably, and asked if there might be smaller tasks that might be undertaken. RobertDyck responded with a list of needs that I will forward.
In addition, RobertDyck provided suggestions for activities for youngsters in the middle school age range, because Mr. Price has been encouraging young people in that age range to think about space.
Edit#1: The Chapter web site Links section includes a link to the Mars Society.
I'll ask Mr. Price if he could provide a link to the NewMars forum. The NewMars forum is not accessible from the Mars Society main page.
(th)
Last edited by tahanson43206 (2020-11-09 07:20:25)
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As a follow up ...
I sent email to Nathan Price with links to this invitation topic, and to the start of the series of posts by RobertDyck in the Large Ship topic, where RobertDyck offers suggestions for ways members of the Houston North NSS chapter could help, and with suggestions for activities for kids relating to space, and specifically to activities that relate to making food for space travel.
(th)
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Speaker announcement for tomorrow's meeting of North Houston NSS ...
Meetup
TOMORROW
[Online] Dr. Amelia Greig – Ablative Arc Mining for In-Situ Resource Utilization
NSS North Houston Space Society
Saturday, September 4, 2021
2:00 PM CT
Online event
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85216600533
I'm going
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12 Members going, including:
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Today's speaker was excellent!
The subject was research at a University in El Paso that has grown and matured in recent years. I think it is fair to say that the audience of 25 was impressed by the current capability and future prospects in Space Research (and other fields).
This talk was about research on collecting volatiles from lunar regolith. In response to a question, the presenter seemed to think that the modest atmosphere of Mars would NOT preclude using the same technique there.
The presentation is saved as a video. Check northhoustonspace.org.
SearchTerm:Plasma volatiles collection
16:45:58 From Amelia Greig to Everyone:
For everyone wondering about the power for the arc system and collection rates - i dug out the values from my files.
Early estimates are: a 10 cm arc at 1 Hz frequency would ablate 131 kg of lunar volatiles for collection each year at a continuous power of 75 W. To scale the system for collection of 10 metric tons of lunar volatiles per year, a total area of 76?2 would need to be mined
Join us for our Monthly NSS North Houston Space Society (http://NorthHoustonSpace.org) meeting. Connect with others who are excited about exploring the cosmos, learning how to use the resources of space to improve human life, and who want to go and spread humanity to the rest of the universe.
Agenda:
2:00 PM – Opening Remarks – Nathan Price
2:10 PM – Recent Space News – Greg Stanley
2:30 PM – Ablative Arc Mining for In-Situ Resource Utilization – Dr. Amelia Greig – UTEP Aerospace Center
3:30 PM – Q&A
3:45 PM -Share your personal space experiences since the last meeting. Rocket Launches, Other Meetings, Research, etc.
4:00 PM – End of MeetingAblative Arc Mining for In-Situ Resource Utilization
As space exploration expands to include human expeditions to the surfaces of other solar system bodies, sustainable in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) infrastructures to harvest local resources for water, building materials, and propellants must be developed. Water is the most critical component in the near-term and is therefore the focus of many studies. However, being able to mine other resources with the same system will become critical in the future. A good mining system should therefore encompass extraction and collection of water in parallel with as many other local materials as possible. Ablating surface material using electric arcs creates free ionized particles that can be sorted by mass into material groups and transported to a relevant collector by electromagnetic fields. Collectors specific to each material type are used in parallel to enable maximum collection efficiencies and storage conditions for retention. The ionizing ablation arc, electromagnetic transport and sorting, and collector modules are housed within a mobile surface crawler, potentially leading to diverse, efficient, and wide-coverage in-situ resource utilization for human space exploration.
About Dr. Amelia Greig
Dr. Amelia Greig is an assistant professor in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas in El Paso (UTEP), where she leads the Aerospace Center’s electric propulsion and small satellite programs. More recently, her work has expanded to include applying electric propulsion and plasma techniques to improve lunar mining technologies. In 2021, Dr. Greig was named a Phase I NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Fellow
for her innovative work into ablative arc mining for in-situ resource utilization.Originally from Tasmania, Australia, Dr. Greig completed a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and a Bachelor of Science in Theoretical Physics at the University of Adelaide and completed her Ph.D. in Plasma Physics at The Australian National University. She also spent a year as a postdoctoral scholar at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in the applied plasma physics group. Prior to joining UTEP, Dr. Greig was an assistant professor in Aerospace Engineering at the California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) and faculty advisor for the Cal Poly Cube Sat Lab where the CubeSat standard was first developed.
Outside of work Dr. Greig is a competitive Scottish Highland dancer that has competed at events around the World and performed in the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. She also plays and umpires field hockey, has recently started learning Kung Fu San Soo, and enjoys exploring America’s National and State Parks on her motorbike.
About the Meeting
Meetings are open to all age groups and interest levels. Come explore with us the potential that developing and exploring space has to better life here on earth and to open up new frontiers creating new perspectives that can help enrich the human experience.
(th)
Last edited by tahanson43206 (2021-09-04 17:38:01)
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