Long Island Space Society - http://www.lispace.org/

February 2003 Public Meeting
Thursday February 27, 7 - 9 PM
Cradle of Aviation Museum

Present: Arthur Smith, Rich Santer, Susan Raizer, Frances Cervone,
  Eugene Cervone, Joshua Stoff, Cheryl Dodes, Eugene Edelstein

Joshua Stoff, the museum creator, again welcomed us warmly
with coffee (although the room started out a bit on the cold side).
We mingled for a few minutes, and then started the real meeting at
about 7:15 with a moment of silence in memory of the Columbia astronauts.

We then watched the space.com video of the Columbia astronauts,
"in their own words", talking about the challenges, science,
adventure, and beauty of space travel.

Arthur Smith then opened the discussion about where to go
from here, with a few comments including a mention that,
with the shuttle now grounded, it had just been announced that
the ISS crew would be reduced to 2 people at the next transfer,
and that they would get to the station via the Russian Soyuz craft.

Rich Santer had visited Star City, and said he felt very
disturbed to be relying on Russian technology, given the conditions
he saw there.

Gene Cervone and Gene Edelstein both commented on the need for
cheaper access to space - that in the short term of course we
need to get the shuttles fixed and running again, but in the long
term realize the shuttle is too expensive. The work on the X-33 and
crew transfer vehicles was mentioned - why does NASA start these
projects and then give up half-way through after spending so
much money?

Does the Space Station make sense? There was mention of a bet
by Neil Tyson that it would be in the ocean by 2015.

Cheryl raised the goal of getting to Mars - we seem to have the
technology, what we need is the money. And a will to do it.
Do we need competition? From China, for instance?

Can funding come from the Defense department? The recent
report of the presidential aerospace commission recommended
a new space "imperative" to make sure we have the technology
base for future defense needs, for example.

Our teachers mentioned that studying space has been removed from
the science curriculum, and if there is any at all, it
is in "technology" classes - teachers who used to do "shop", for
example. Although there is some Astronomy covered in the
Earth Science standards.

Susan talked about all the people who have been coming to the
museums - especially since the Columbia disaster. There does
seem to be some public sentiment to do something about space
now. We talked about political options, and inviting
Congresswoman McCarthy in particular, who has been heard
to have some enthusiasm about the space program. The Space
Day event at the museum seemed like a good place to organize
this.

We discussed several things people could bring to the Space
Day event, including some items Cheryl had that had been
supposed to fly on the space shuttle! Local author Mark
Brown was suggested as a good speaker/guest. Some Long
Island people who worked on the Lunar Module; maybe
even an astronaut? But getting an astronaut costs at
least $2000 per event!

Other suggestions were a traveling space station exhibit
(from NASA?), press contacts, a video conference, etc.

Can we do more public outreach to children? Having a
day on the regular school schedule helps a lot - astronaut
day, for example (Russia has a widely celebrated "Cosmonaut day").
July 20th is a logical choice - but not during the school year!

We returned to the discussion of what next - what could
be a follow-on to the shuttle? And why are we doing this?
Adventure, eventually we will go beyond where we've been -
and just advancing technology: we never know what can be
done, until we go out there and try to do things.


Action items:
* Organize an event at the museum for Space Day May 10th, where we
  can have some politicians state their vision for space, and
  see and be photographed with young people, etc. who are
  enthusiastic about it.
* Invite NY chapter to also contribute to Space Day event.
* Invite local authors, others to participate
* Ask for NSS display/exhibit for space day.
* Explore other options for the event.