Odyssey

The Odyssey is our newsletter. Below, we’ve given you just a monthly sample of all of the articles in each issue:

January 2010

Generational Transference
By Phil Turek, OASIS Chapter President
If you come to our monthly dinners you’ll get a sense of who we are. The dinners aren’t formal; they take place after our monthly guest speakers have concluded their presentations. An OASIS member familiar with the immediate neighborhood will suggest one local restaurant or another. Soon a consensus is reached, directions are shared, and off we go. On some occasions we’ll all bring a dish to share at someone’s home for a holiday potluck. The guest speakers are traditionally treated to dinner by OASIS; all are welcome to come and dine with us.

Our conversational threads weave around space. After all, OASIS stands for the Organization for the Advancement of Space Industrialization and Settlement. Our collective dream is to explore space, to live in space, to see humanity mature into stewardship of life on multiple planets – including taking better care of Earth. We are a mature group, looking to transfer our hopes, dreams, and ideals to the next generation. Come and dine with us.

Power to Dream
by Erland Injerd
What would you do if the majority of the world was convinced you were a nutcase, simply because you’re forging ahead where no one’s ever gone? Or how would you react if the masses simply couldn’t grasp what you were trying to accomplish? If your name is Copernicus, Galileo, Goddard or that of a hundred other pathfinders, you would simply set your face forward and keep going (or avoid being burnt at the stake, at least).

XCOR Aerospace is doing exactly that. With the economic times, they’ve been forced to lay off half of their workforce, with the remaining employees put on half-pay — or even no pay. When asked, Loretta “Aleta” Jackson agreed that their work really was a labor of love. “We have a lot of irons in the fire, hoping one of them takes off.” It will all come to a head in 2011, when the Lynx manned spaceplane is slated to be completed. They’ll either become rich or, as Aleta succinctly put it, “go down with the ship.”

Started a decade ago, XCOR is perhaps best known for its EZ-Rocket, a Long-EZ frame with rocket engines installed, and its Rocket Racer, originally intended to compete in the Rocket Racing League. Currently, XCOR is working on a number of projects, the most high profile of which is the Lynx spaceplane. With that in mind, our intrepid band of OASIS pioneers trooped out to the Mojave Air and Spaceport to peek inside the XCOR hangar and see what the visionaries here have been up to recently. We were first treated to 1/24th scale models of various craft made by XCOR, as well as a number of videos, with expert commentary by Jackson, one of the four founders. As a flurry of flashbulbs went off, Aleta deftly fielded a number of questions, including information about their patented “Nonburnite” non-combustible composite material, some details on a few of their current projects, surprising news that XCOR and the Rocket Racing League have severed all ties and a volley of technical details on their various rocket engines. Next, we strolled into the main hangar itself, where we were given free rein to admire their test stand (a Home Depot trailer, complete with Apollo-era fuel tank containers and a real Lynx engine), see the actual pressure vessel that will be installed on the Lynx, paw over the partially dismantled Rocket Racer, meet several other staff and talk at length with Jackson about the struggles of a company doing what no one else has ever done.

For someone who only knew a bit about XCOR and had never seen their facilities before, it was a powerful experience. XCOR was started by four people with a dream to go to space, who knew that the only way to get there was to build the rocket themselves. Since then, they’ve created a number of rocket engines, with the primary focus being safety and reliability. They are currently building their suborbital craft and already have started work on plans for an orbital vehicle. The hardest part of the journey, stated Aleta, has involved dealing with regulation. In the early 2000s, the FAA simply could not grasp the idea that they were creating a “spaceplane” that was fully reusable. She mentioned that the seminal flight of SpaceShipOne helped matters, but even so, it has been an uphill battle. XCOR was the primary driver behind the Mojave Airport’s getting licensed as a spaceport; and on top of that struggle, they have a difficult time doing flight testing as there are restricted zones blanketing the surrounding regions. People send hate mail about the imminent destruction of the ozone layer, and some unfortunate partnerships (such as the failed Rotary Rocket endeavor) have slowed progress. Perhaps SpaceX is the best known of the New Space companies, but the same revolutionary spirit pervades the somewhat overshadowed XCOR facility, where they labor in virtually the same direction.

“But Wait! There’s More (OASIS)!” at LosCon 2009
By Seth Potter

Each year, during Thanksgiving weekend, the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society holds its annual science fiction convention known as LosCon. At the 2009 LosCon, themed “But Wait! There’s More!”, hundreds of fans descended upon the LAX Marriott Hotel to attend panels on science fiction, fantasy, science fact, and speculations on the future of society, as well as purchase items of interest, attend parties, and even participate as research subjects. Fans had a huge array of choices: various parallel panels, fan tables, a dealers’ room where attendees could purchase everything from books to costumes to mock ray guns (part of a strong Steampunk presence this year, which featured a Science Fair), and the chance to view and bid on an art show.

OASIS was present in full force, with a fan table staffed throughout the convention, as well as panelists and a party. In addition to serving as the OASIS-LosCon liaisons, making all the arrangements for OASIS’ participation, OASIS Vice President Steve Bartlett and Tina Beychok served on panels - Tina’s involving costuming (she was the moderator for one of the panels) and Steve’s on widely diverging topics: space exploration and indie filmmaking. Alternative energy was a major, as well as timely, topic: OASIS members Seth Potter and Dean Davis gave a presentation on space solar power, and a panel on the solar updraft tower included Jonathan Vos Post and Edward McCullough, familiar to ISDC attendees. In this concept, the sun heats air near the ground in a vast greenhouse-like structure. In the middle stands a large chimney in which rising warm air drives a turbine to generate electricity. OASIS member Warren James hosted a live rendition of his online broadcast, Hour 25, in which he interviewed Steven Barnes, Tananarive Due, Tim Rickard, Christian McGuire, and Marcia Minsky. Dr. Bill Ernoehazy presented his ever-popular presentation on space medicine.

OASIS’ annual room party, ably organized by the party maven David Bliss, honored the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon. Steve Bartlett held a free raffle in which space-related tschotchkes were given away every 15 minutes over several hours, making this one of the most popular room parties that evening.