Posted by Jesse Clark in Chapter Updates, Events, News on January 29, 2011
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.
Posted by Jesse Clark in News on January 21, 2011
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.
Posted by Jesse Clark in News on December 31, 2010
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.
Posted by Jesse Clark in Astronomy, Chapter Updates, Education, News, Project ASTRO, Projects, SAL, Science on October 20, 2010
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.
Posted by Jesse Clark in Chapter Updates, News on October 12, 2010
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!
