AIAA SF, P.O. Box 1548, Mountain View, CA 94042-1548
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AIAA SF, P.O. Box 1548, Mountain View, CA 94042-1548 |
The San Francisco section of the AIAA serves about 1100 members of AIAA in the San Francisco Bay area. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world's premier organization for professionals in aerospace and aeronautics.
Send questions to webmaster@aiaa-sf.org. We also have an archive of past events.
AIAA SF/SVSC Small Payloads TechTalk
Monday, May 14, 2012; 6:30pm-8:00pm
Hacker Dojo, Mountain View
Students at Valley Christian High School (VCHS), San Jose, created the first high school experiment to fly on the International Space Station in early 2011. The VCHS NanoLab contained a plant incubator for six plants, a water storage and distribution system, LEDs to simulate the sun, a digital camera to take photos of the plants, and a microcontroller to provide for the simulation of sun rise, sun set and rain. Environmental sensors monitor the NanoLab temperature and humidity. The students' NanoLab returned to earth on a Russian Soyuz Return Vehicle on March 16, 2011. The ISS Project showed that for today’s students, "The Sky is No Longer the Limit".
Encouraged by the experiences of that first experiment, the program expanded to other high schools in the current academic year. A set of seven experiments were created by 83 students from four high schools; they are packaged as two NanoLabs. The NanoLabs were launched on an Ariane 5 ATV-3 Automated Transfer Vehicle from French Guiana on March 22, 2012. They are now operational on the ISS, and are scheduled to return to Earth on a Russian Soyuz return vehicle on July 1, 2012. [ More info and RSVP ] [ More TechTalks ]
AIAA SF Dinner
Wednesday, June 20, 2012; 6:30pm-9:00pm
Michael's at Shoreline, Mountain View, CA
We welcome back Dr. Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute, in Mountain View. He will discuss the search for life beyond planet Earth. In addition, we will introduce the winners of the AIAA Essay Contest for 7th and 8th grades. We will also introduce the Section officers for the year running from June 2012 to May 2013.
For much of his career, Dr. Shostak conducted radio astronomy research on galaxies, and has published approximately sixty papers in professional journals. He has written over four hundred popular magazine, newspaper and Web articles on various topics in astronomy, technology, film and television. He lectures on astronomy and other subjects at Stanford and other venues in the Bay Area, and for six years was a Distinquished Speaker for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is also Chair of the International Academy of Astronautics' SETI Permanent Study Group. Every week he hosts the SETI Institute's science radio show, "Are We Alone." [ More info coming soon. ]
AIAA SF Dinner
Wednesday, July 11, 2012; 6:30pm-9:00pm
Michael's at Shoreline, Mountain View, CA
We welcome back Larry Rinek, resident aviation historian and senior technology consultant at Frost & Sullivan. This presentation will trace the origins of rotary wing flight, bring the story up to present, and look into the future. Inventors and experimenters over time have had to overcome major technical obstacles, including issues with propulsion power, weight management, and stability/control. Thus, rotorcraft lagged fixed-wing aircraft development by 30-40 years. A dedicated group of technical professionals and aero researchers for decades have sought to advance understanding of the unusual flight dynamics and aerodynamics of rotorcraft. They attempt to mathematically model nonlinear rotorcraft behaviors, and then use such models to: improve rotorcraft performance, predict the flight qualities of new rotorcraft, build better flight simulators and find paths to mitigate on-going problems (such as high levels of acoustic noise and vibration). After reviewing some rotorcraft basics (controls, aerodynamics, flight dynamics), Rinek will walk through key historical milestones of rotorcraft development, outlining successful solutions. [ More info coming soon. ]
AIAA SF Council
Are you under 35 and want to help create events for other young aerospace enthusiasts in your community? The AIAA SF Section is looking for a volunteer to serve as Chairperson of the Young Professionals Committee. You can organize as many or as few events as you'd like, and you will have free reign to think of new ways to get young professionals excited about aerospace. If you are interested in this role, contact Sylvee Walenczewski at chair@aiaa-sf.org.
SVSBR Roundtable Event
Wednesday, April 25, 2012, 6:00pm-9:00pm
NASA Ames Research Center, Building 152
Each quarter, Silicon Valley Space Business Roundtable (SVSBR) holds an event with invited government guests and speakers. This event will feature a special presentation by Frank Cepollina, from the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center. Mr. Cepollina is a pioneer of in-orbit satellite servicing, and was the lead on the Hubble Servicing Mission. The panel discussion will feature Domenick Tenerelli from Lockheed Martin, Vytas Sunspiral from NASA Ames/SGT, and Frank Cepollina from NASA Goddard. There will be hardware on display at the event, including some astronaut space tools. Food and drink will be provided. AIAA SF is a partner in this event. [ More info and RSVP ]
AIAA SF Saturday in Marin
Saturday, April 21, 2012
This is a three-part activity at Pacheco Plaza, in Novato -- pizza lunch; an update on the Kepler mission; and a visit to the Plaza's recent addition, The Space Station.
Since mid 2009, NASA's Kepler space telescope has been constantly watching about 160,000 stars, looking for signs of planets orbiting those stars. As of February 2, 2011, 1235 candidate planets have been identified, 15 of which have been confirmed as exoplanets. This talk will start with the design and operation of the Kepler mission. Steve Bryson is Target Scientist for the Kepler Mission to find Earth-size planets around Sun-like stars. He also leads the false-positive identification effort and monitors Kepler performance at the pixel level. [ More info and RSVP ]
AIAA SF Distinguished Lecturer Dinner Meeting
Tuesday, April 17, 2012; 6:30-9:00pm
Michael's at Shoreline, Mountain View, CA
The American space program stands at a crossroads on how to most efficiently move forward while maintaining US leadership in space. Space programs in Russia, China, India and other nations are embracing open markets and commercial practices; the US is debating its approach.
Commercial space pioneer Jeffrey Manber will use his current company NanoRacks as an example of the new relationship that is emerging between government and the space industry and offer suggestions on how the American space industry will evolve as we move beyond low-earth orbit. [ More info and RSVP ]
AIAA SF/SVSC Small Payloads TechTalk
Monday, April 16, 2012; 6:30pm-8:00pm
Hacker Dojo, Mountain View
GomSpace is an entrepreneurial company that grew out of research work at the University of Aalborg in Denmark. The founders were the driving force behind the the first European CubeSat, AAU-Cubesat, launched in June 2003. Since then, the company has grown a product line of CubeSat and nano-satellite components and continues to drive the CubeSat Space Protocol. The company is preparing to launch GOMX-1 in September. It will include an experimental payload to test and demonstrate a software defined radio (SDR) to receive ADS-B signals. They are also improving attitude determination and control system (ADCS) algorithms and will test them in flight.
The founders developed the CubeSat Space Protocol (CSP), a small network-layer delivery protocol designed for CubeSats. It enables One-Step Integration (OSI), which allows teams to skip effortlessly across the interface definition and iteration phases and go directly to integration. An open source implementation of CSP licensed under LGPLv2.1 can be found on GitHub.
GomSpace now builds an array of hardware components for use by other nano-satellite teams.
[ More info and RSVP ] [ More TechTalks ]
SpaceUp Unconference
Saturday-Sunday, March 31-April 1, 2012
San Francisco
SpaceUp is an unconference on space, where the participants decide the topics, schedule, and structure of the event. Everyone who attends SpaceUp is encouraged to share their passion for space by giving a talk, moderating a panel or starting a discussion. Sessions are proposed and scheduled the day they're given, which means that the usual "hallway conversations" turn into full-fledged topics. In between sessions, participants can check out the "Artware Alley" where space hardware, art, and projects are displayed. AIAA SF is a co-sponsor of the event. [ More info ] [ SpaceUpSF site ]
AIAA Public Policy
CVD: March 20-21, 2012, Washington DC
Most local members cannot afford to go to Washington, D.C. The San Francisco Section will at least send two; they want to know what the rest of you think.
AIAA Congressional Visits Day (CVD), March 20-21, will put AIAA members in face-to-face meetings with members of Congress, their staff, key Administration officials and others. AIAA has assembled a list of 10 key public policy issues for 2012. To be effective CVD and other activities during this year, the AIAA SF Public Policy Committee wants to know which of these issues matter to you and your congressional representatives.
An e-mail update with link to a members-only survey was sent out to section members. For those unable to access the link from e-mail or are not members of AIAA, you can use this separate version of that survey.
AIAA SF wishes to thank and recognize those who have been continuous members
of AIAA or its predecessors (IAS and ARS) on their 25, 40, 50, 60, and 70 years
of membership. These dedicated members include:
70 years:
John A. Stern
60 years:
Frank M. Friedlaender
50 years:
Stephen C. De Brock, Robert F. Flagg, John T. Hart
40 years:
Brian J. Cantwell, Anthony R. Gross, John M. Klineberg, Mohamad A. Yousef
25 years:
Jay H. Ambrose, Bimal L. Aponso, Larry L. Chien, Leroy E. Dove,
Dennis M. Haas, Dean A. Kontinos, Sastri Kota, Bernadette Luna,
Nagi N. Mansour, Gary L. Martin, James W. McDonald, Frank S. Milos,
Jayanta Panda, David R. Schleicher, Duc T. Tran, Ethiraj Venkatapathy
People with 25 and 40 year anniversaries receive certificates from HQ. Those that have 50 years become emeritus, and they receive a special notification also. Please join us in congratulating these dedicated members.
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Silicon Valley Space Business Roundtable | Hacker Dojo |
Silicon Valley Space Center |
With the roll-out of the new AIAA website, the AIAA videos have a new location.
Recent videos include:
Highlighting a few conferences that might be of interest to our membership.
Organized by AIAA unless noted otherwise.
[More AIAA conferences.]
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