The San Diego Space Society is looking … looking for someone like… you!

Do you
• have a passion for Space Exploration?
• enjoy posting to social entities like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, & Google+?

Then this might be of interest to YOU!

To find out more or to send your resume, email to president@sdspace.org.

For other ways to volunteer, check out our wishlist Give to SD Space.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 11, 2011

Contact:
Jesse Clark
San Diego Space Society
(619) 512-3592
info@sdspace.com

The San Diego Space Society is proud to announce two new additions to the Space Travelers Emporium. Jess Sanders will be joining as Emporium Manager focusing on store operations and facilities management while Rick Nichols will be joining as Emporium Marketing Manager focusing on space travel related experiences and industry relations.

The new appointments follow a year and a half of storefront operations in the South Park area of San Diego. Seeing the increased interest in commercial space operations and the many opportunities developing in and around space travel, the Directors of SD Space agreed to bring additional management on-board dedicated to facilitating and expanding the offerings of the Space Travelers Emporium.

Jess brings a strong focus in science and education and an interest in telling the space story.

Jess enjoys learning about all areas of science. Presently, he is focused on exploring concepts in quantum physics and cosmology. An avid reader of science fiction, Jess believes in the inspirational value of writers dreaming up possible futures for humanity, especially those that involve space exploration. He hopes to share his passion for science fantasy and fact with the public as a volunteer with Space Travelers Emporium.

Rick brings many years of “big ticket” item sales and marketing as well as a strong enthusiasm for space travel and related experiences.

Rick came to San Diego through the U.S. Navy, and made his home here working in sales and marketing in both the wireless communications and recreational boating industries. His lifelong enthusiasm for space exploration (Rick grew up fifteen minutes away from the childhood home of Neil Armstrong) and SCUBA diving has led to a keen interest in neutral buoyancy for both training and recreational purposes.

Look for new and exciting changes to the Emporium coming in 2012, including new space travel related products as well as activities and programs hosted at the Emporium.

About the SD Space

The San Diego Space Society (“SD Space”) was founded in 2008 with the purpose of raising awareness and educating the general public to the benefits of human exploration of space and San Diego’s role in space development, as well as to the idea of creating a spacefaring civilization within our lifetimes.

SD Space is headquartered at the Space Travelers Emporium, a storefront and workshop in the South Park neighborhood.

NASA has successfully launched the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft, including the new SUV sized rover, Curiosity!

The MSL rover will assess whether Mars ever was, or is still today, an environment able to support microbial life. In other words, its mission is to determine the planet’s “habitability.”

After a 60 million mile flight, the spacecraft is due to arrive at Mars on Aug. 6, 2012.

For more information on MSL and it’s Mission, check out the JPL website.

Safe journey Curiosity!

SDSpace submitted this op-ed about the end of the space shuttle program for publication in an upcoming edition of the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper.

On July 21st in the early morning, Space Shuttle Atlantis touched down at Kennedy Space Center, capping NASA’s 135th and final shuttle mission after 30 years of flight. It also marked the end of an era for the American manned space program.

There are two ways to look at this historic event. Some see the retirement of the space shuttle fleet as bad for America, because it leaves NASA unable to send American astronauts into orbit, giving up our technical lead in space and bringing an end to the manned space program. Others, including many of us at the San Diego Space Society, believe instead that the end of the shuttle program opens up a new beginning for NASA and human space exploration.

Click here for the full text.

Also posted on SignOn San Diego.

Local space historian Francis French wrote an article about Gargarin’s visit to Manchester England that was published in the British Interplanetary Society in Spaceflight in July 1998.

In the rush of publicity that followed Gagarin’s extraordinary transformation from an unknown pilot to one of the world’s most famous names, the Soviet press was quick to highlight Gagarin’s working roots. Indeed, this useful publicity aspect was a consideration in his selection as a cosmonaut. In 1951, Yuri Gagarin had been a foundry worker. He completed a course at a vocational school in Lyubertsy, outside Moscow, with distinction, qualifying as a moulder. A few years later, while still studying, he joined an aero club, which set him on the road to becoming the first person in space on 12 April 1961.

Check out the full article republished on the yurigagarin50.org website for upcoming 50th anniversary celebration.

On January 29th, members of the San Diego Space Society participated in the RHFleet Science Center’s public Challenger Mission. This two hour mission was in honor of the Challenger disaster of January 28th, 1986.

Dave, Scott, Rylee, Adrian, Gerry and Jesse joined children and adults from the community in a simulated manned mission to Mars. Set in the future where voyages to Mars are routine, each member of our “crew” had to perform specific roles to contribute to mission success.

Our mission included a voyage to Mars, building a probe to send to Phobos and a landing at the Mars Base. There we encountered a Martian sand storm which hastened the crew exchange and departure of the return flight. Flight navigation, remote geology sensing and life support were a few of the other important roles, each with it’s own activities and tasks.

Everyone had a great time and expressed interest in setting up another mission adventure for SD Space members and family in the near future. Sound interesting? Let us know at events@sdspace.org if you’d like to participate in a future SD Space Challenger Mission.

The Moon Landing Stamp will represent the USA in the International Gallery Exhibit of the new William H. Gross Stamp Gallery in the National Postal Museum, a Smithsonian Institution museum. Your votes for the Moon stamp totaled 50%, as much as all the rest combined!

William H. Gross, the founder of PIMCO and a stamp collector, has donated $8 million to the National Postal Museum to create a new 12,000-square-foot gallery that will be named in his honor. The new gallery, which will give the museum public space at the street level, is expected to open in 2012.
In addition to the financial donation, Gross will loan three extraordinary philatelic objects: A cover from the Pony Express service; a cover featuring the 10-cent George Washington stamp, dated July 2, 1847; and a block of four 1918 “Inverted Jennys.”

The new William H. Gross Gallery will house the three rarities from Gross and other great items from the National Stamp Collection. In addition, there will be space for educational exhibits, temporary exhibitions and public programs.

The new William H. Gross Stamp Gallery will be comprised of five unique sections, resulting in a powerful and engaging experience for museum visitors. Each area will showcase the museum’s world-class collection of philatelic and postal history objects and provide the public greater access and the Collection greater visibility.

The Gems exhibit will display some of the most distinctive and intriguing items in the Museum’s collection. The six featured gems in this exhibit include the Inverted Jenny, Hawaiian Missionaries, 1765 Stamp Act Revenue, 1847s: America’s First Stamps, Pony Express Mail, and Moon Mail.

There were so many exciting space news stories for 2010. Here is the Top 10 chosen by members of the San Diego Space Society!

10. Tons of Water Likely at the Lunar Poles (more)
9. NASA Discovers New Life: Arsenic Bacteria With DNA Completely Alien To What We Know (more)
8. Secret X-37B Robot Space Plane Lands in California (more)
7. SOHO spots 2,000th comet (more)
6. Halfway to Pluto, New Horizons Wakes Up in ‘Exotic Territory’ (more)
5. 500th ‘extrasolar’ planet discovered (more)
4. Opportunity Rover Reaches Halfway Point of Long Trek to Mars Crater (more)
3. Bigelow Aerospace Soars with Private Space Station Deals (more)
2. SpaceShipTwo Free Flight (more)

and the #1 top 10 space news story is …

… 1. SpaceX’s Dragon Spacecraft Successfully Re-Enters (more)

What’s likely to happen in 2011? Leave us your predictions in the comments.

On Saturday, October 16th, Derek Nye and several SD Space members led a telescope building workshop at the Space Activities Lab in South Park. Five students attended the free hands-on activity, the second in a series offered by SD Space.

Before starting the build project, the students learned about telescopes from Phil Blanco, a local astronomy professor and Project ASTRO leader. They talked about how telescopes work, Galileo’s discoveries with them 400 years ago, and the kinds of things one could see with the Galileoscope (which has far better optics than Galileo’s telescope!).

After completing their new telescopes, everyone had fun trying them out in the lab, and then looking up and down the street. With a telescope mount – such as a camera tripod, some of the night time objects that can be observed in the next couple of weeks include: craters on our Moon, Jupiter and its moons, and even a special appearance by comet Hartley 2. We’ll be getting together at the Emporium soon to do just that when we have a clear night.

Contact projects@sdspace.org if you’d like to participate, or if you’re interested in attending future workshops.

On Saturday, October 9th, SD Space Members, old and new, gathered for an evening of celebration and sharing. Scott Olson, emcee for the evening, welcomed everyone and made the introductions. Then SD Space president Jesse Clark presented an overview of our achievements over the past year. What an adventuresome year we’ve had.

The evening continued with a presentation by Dr. Erick Young, Director of Science Mission Operations for NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) observatory – a modified 747 with a 2.7 meter (almost 9 foot) infrared telescope mounted inside. We learned a lot about what it takes to build the worlds largest flying telescope and the advantages this kind of telescope has. There were lots of good questions afterward.

After Dr. Young’s presentation, we enjoyed a beautifully crafted San Diego Space Society cake while we watched a special video created by Derek Nye (if you missed it, catch it here).

Throughout the evening, we raffled off Science of…Aliens and Museum tickets (provided by the San Diego Air & Space Museum) and IMAX theater tickets (provided by the Fleet Science Center). The final drawing was for a 80mm refracting telescope (provided by OPT). The winner of this prize? None other than Kelley Clark!

As a volunteer organization, members make everything happen. Thank you members for a wonderful year!