Additional contents (only in HTML and PDF formats) at http://aiaa-sf.org
"Mars Rovers Past, Present, and Future" and Essay Contest Awards Presentations
Astronomy Evening at Foothill College
Thanks for a Great Year, San Francisco Section
Galileo Memorial Scholarships Presented for 2001
AIAA SF Applies for Entry into Flugtag (Flying Day) Contest!
Welcome from the New Chairman
In Memoriam
Section Honors and Awards
Thursday, July 19, 2001
This dinner meeting combines awards for the 13th Annual Essay Contest and a talk by NASA Ames engineer Maria Bualat on Mars exploration rovers.
The Annual Essay Contest, open to 7th and 8th graders, commemorates the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. The contest theme for this year is "What should we be doing in space?" US Savings Bonds of $500, $250, and $100 will be awarded to the first, second, and third place winners at each grade level.
Mars Pathfinder, with its rover, Sojourner, was a hugely successful mission; far exceeding it's mission goals and capturing the imagination of the public. Over the course of 3 months, the Sojourner rover traversed 100m around the lander and explored 200 square meters of the surface. It returned 550 images and 16 chemical analyses of rocks and soil. Sojourner proved the utility of surface mobility for planetary exploration.
NASA's current plans for the exploration of Mars includes larger, smarter rovers capable of carrying many sophisticated instruments and traveling long distances over the surface. In 2003, two rovers will be launched to search the planet for evidence of liquid water that may have once been present. These rovers will be capable of traversing up to 100m per Martian day, or sol, with a nominal mission duration of 90 sols. For the 2007 launch opportunity, NASA proposes sending an even longer range, longer duration rover.
In the more distant future, when humans travel to Mars, rovers will be an integral part of mission operations, as helpers, scouts, and safety monitors.
In this talk, Ms. Bualat will discuss Mars exploration rovers of the past, present, and future. She will briefly describe some of the enabling technologies that NASA is developing in order to create more and more capable robots. She will also discuss how these technologies and operational concepts are tested in field experiments.
Maria Bualat is a native San Franciscan and has been working at NASA Ames Research Center for nearly 15 years. She has been working in the mobile planetary robotics field for the last 7 years. Maria is currently the project lead for K9 rover field testing. The K9 rover is a prototype and autonomy testbed for future Mars rover missions.
Maria's main areas of interest have been in visual navigation for mobile robots and user interfaces.
Maria received her bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1987, and her master's degree in electrical engineering, emphasis control systems, from Santa Clara University in 1992.
Saturday, July 14, 2001
The AIAA SF Section has arranged for special evening of astronomical viewing at Foothill College Observatory. The event is being arranged with the help of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
This is an excellent opportunity to bring your family to view Mars, other planets, and various star formations.
Date and Time: Saturday, July 14, 2001, starting at 9pm, weather permitting. A Go/No-Go decision will be announced on the AIAA SF website after 5pm on Friday, July 13.
Place: Foothill College Observatory, 12345 S. El Monte Rd., Los Altos, CA.
Reservation: Space is somewhat limited. Please e-mail Matt Jardin at pastchair@aiaa-sf.org to reserve.
Parking: Park in Lot 4. Bring $2.00 in quarters for parking.
Cost: FREE (but recommended $5 per family donation to the Astronomical Society of the Pacific would be nice.)
The Year in Review (2000-2001)
by Matt Jardin, Past Chairman (2000-2001),
AIAA SF Section
Thanks for the great year everyone! I was very fortunate to have a great council this year so that we were able to accomplish a lot, and to have fun at the same time.
At the beginning of the year, I had planned to try to balance the two disciplines that constitute our organization's name: Aeronautics and Astronautics. Within Astronautics, I had wanted to try to emphasize a topic of personal interest: Mars Exploration.
Month |
Program Title |
Speaker |
Aero |
Astro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
9/00 |
Micro Air Vehicles |
Dr. Steve Morris |
X |
|
10/00 |
Mars Airplane |
Dr. David Kinney |
X |
X |
11/00 |
Air Traffic Control Research Successes |
Barry Scott |
X |
|
1/01 |
Space Hazards |
Dr. William Ailor |
X |
|
2/01 |
History of Aviation Banquet |
John W. Boyd and the Kelly family |
X |
|
3/01 |
Crew Resource Mgmt for Space Operations |
David Fuller |
X |
|
4/01 |
Lunar Prospector |
Tim Maloney |
X |
|
5/01 |
Aerobatics |
Cecilia Aragon |
X |
|
6/01 |
Mars Exploration |
Dr. Benton Clark |
X |
|
7/01 |
Mars Rover |
Maria Bualat |
X |
With the help of our Programs Chairperson, Fanny Zuniga, we held four dinner meetings in the area of Aeronautics, five meetings in the area of Astronautics, and one meeting which had a nice mix of both (Mars Airplane research, by David Kinney).
Of the six meetings within Astronautics, half of were on the topic of Mars exploration. So, we'll say "Mission Accomplished" on that one! Thanks for the great job, Fanny!
Our big event of the year was certainly the History of Aviation Banquet that was held on February 15, 2001. Because of the tireless efforts of the council, the event was a great success with nearly 100 people in attendance. The event featured a 100th birthday celebration for AIAA member Ray Kelly, and a presentation by John Boyd on the contributions of NASA Ames to the aviation sciences. Thanks are in order for our past Chairman, Steve Jaeger, for his work as Evolution of Flight Director. In that capacity, Steve was the one who established contact with Ray Kelly for the purpose of an interview on the history of aviation. The interview may be found on our section web site.
The History of Aviation Banquet was sponsored by United Airlines, Raytheon, and Lockheed-Martin. Special thanks goes to our Career Enhancement Director, Prasada Gogineni, for help in securing these corporate sponsorships. Without these, the event would not have been possible.
In addition to the banquet and our dinner programs, we were able to hold a number of other exciting events this year. In December, we held the first astronomy viewing event at the Foothill College Observatory. The second of these astronomy evenings is coming up on July 14, where we will be having a good look at Mars (see front page for details).
John Van Arsdall, our Young Professionals (YP) Director, did an excellent job this year. In December, he put together the first YP ski trip up in Lake Tahoe. In April, along with Prasada Gogineni, Morgan Bracken, and Anthony Logan (San Jose State AIAA Chairman), John held a very successful resume workshop that brought together recent graduates with several engineering hiring managers.
In Precollege Outreach, Juanita Ryan continued to go above and beyond the call of duty by organizing and hosting several parent/teacher education workshops. Precollege Outreach is vital to the continued success of our profession, and because of Juanita's work, I anticipate a sharp increase in the number of aerospace scientists during the next decade. This year, Juanita applied (and was accepted!) to participate in one of several scientific research studies in Antarctica. Congratulations, Juanita! We can't wait to hear her reports from the field.
In December, Gano Chatterji continued providing excellent technical activities for the section by organizing a field trip to the Oakland Air Route Traffic Control Center. In February, he put together a very popular technical seminar at NASA Ames Research Center on the B-36 Bomber. Gano finally turned over the Technical Activities Directorship to Larry Chien this year, and we're looking forward to Larry's contributions on the council.
We again sent a member of our council (Roger Martinez, Secretary) to the annual AIAA Congressional Visits Day (CVD) in Washington, DC. Roger's full report may be found in the May-June, 2001 issue of our newsletter. The CVD has become an important way for the AIAA to provide information to our congressional leaders in the fields of aeronautics and astronautics, and to take back information to our members on the current status of aerospace legislation.
Morgan Bracken continued to produce an excellent set of newsletters for the section this year, and we are all grateful for her efforts. Morgan is responsible for the excellent layout and design of our newsletter, which is constantly receiving compliments and accolades from our members, and even from other sections within the Western Region. Morgan will be turning the newsletter over to Rick Kwan this year so that she can concentrate more on her duties as Public Policy Director.
Another major accomplishment this year was the upgrade of our web site. We moved our site to a new web hosting company, introduced our newsletter on-line for the first time, and expanded our on-line content. Needless to say, this all took considerable effort from our web site staff. I am grateful to Corky Lakin, Rick Kwan, Fanny Zuniga, Steve Jaeger, and Paul Zakian for their efforts which have made the San Francisco Section web site the envy of the AIAA.
Seth Kurasaki did an excellent job by keeping us "in the black" all year as Section Treasurer. In addition to his work as Treasurer, Seth was always there to help out when called upon, and I am grateful to him for his help and advice, and for not running off to Tahiti with the section's funds!
In the area of Communications, we are very lucky to have Norm Bergrun within our council. Norm was the first chairman of the San Francisco Section, and has been an invaluable source of support and advice. Thanks Norm!
I leave the council in the very capable hands of Gano Chatterji. Gano has been a tremendous help to me this year, and because of all of his experience, I am certain that he will have a great year as Chairman of the AIAA SF Section. I wish him well.!
OK, it's time for me to move on. Last-minute pardons, anyone? Unfortunately, bribes were due yesterday...
Cheers!
by Matt Jardin
Winners of Galileo memorial scholarships for 2001 were announced at a banquet dinner at the Wyndham Garden Hotel in Sunnyvale on Thursday, May 17. This year's scholarship recipients are: Jesse Alejandro from San Jose, Ivana Chang from San Jose, Gregory Donaker from Berkeley, Tammy Ma from Fremont, and Saini Swati from Tracy. They are all among the top students from their respective high schools, are accomplished athletes and musicians, and are heading to prestigious universities throughout the country to study science and engineering. Each of them received a check for $1000, except for Tammy Ma and Gregory Donaker, who each received $1750. Each student was also presented with a scholarship certificate at the awards banquet.
In addition to the awarding of the Galileo Scholarships, world-class aerobatics champion Cecilia Aragon gave a fantastic presentation entitled, "From Fear of Flying to the World Aerobatic Championships." During her presentation, Ms. Aragon encouraged everyone to take on those challenges that may initially frighten them.
The Galileo memorial scholarship was established in 1973 by Ames and the San Francisco Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) to commemorate the crew who perished in the Galileo I aircraft accident on April 12, 1973. The Galileo I was a Convair 990, operated by Ames as an airborne laboratory for research in aeronautics, astronautics, astronomy and earth observations. The scholarship program is supported through donations. Residents of the Bay Area or children of Ames civil service employees, retirees or on-site contract employees are eligible to apply for the scholarship. The scholarship recipients were selected from a pool of 158 applicants.
Administrative management of the scholarship program was provided by Anita Borger of NASA Ames Research Center. Additional scholarship review support was provided by Antoinette Price, Sidney Sun, Gano Chatterji, Matt Jardin, Steve Jaeger, Prasada Gogineni, Seth Kurasaki, and Corky Lakin.
by Matt Jardin
from the Red Bull Flugtag web site:
http://www.flugtagsf.com
The American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics San Francisco Section (AIAA SF) is fielding a team to enter the Red Bull Flugtag ("flying day"), to be held on September 29. The basic idea is to build human-launched gliders that will be judged not only on distance flown, but also on Creativity and Showmanship. The devices must be launched under human power from Pier 30 out into the San Francisco Bay. Due to official design constraints, sustained flight is basically ruled out, so these machines are almost certainly going into the drink.
Thanks to a generous donation from AIAA member Stuart McHugh, and additional funding from the AIAA, we now have the seed money required to design and build the flying contraption now known as the Sinkendes Flugtier 2001 (SF-2001). In case you don't have your German-English dictionary handy, Sinkendes Flugtier roughly translates to Sinking Flying Animal.
The idea behind the design selected for the SF-2001 came from Andrew Hahn and Fanny Zuniga. (See images below.)
For more information about the event, including how to join our team, please visit our web site at http://aiaa-sf.org.
by Gano Chatterji, Chairman (2001-2002),
AIAA SF Section
I am taking this opportunity to introduce myself and outline the major themes for the 2001-2002 year. I received the B. Tech. degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India; received the M. S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Mississippi; and the Ph. D. degree in mechanical engineering from Santa Clara University. I started my professional career at Integrated Systems, Inc. in 1985. Since 1990, I have worked at the NASA Ames Research Center as an employee of Sterling Software and Raytheon. Currently, I am Principal Scientist with Raytheon ITSS. My interests are in the areas of guidance, navigation and control, and air traffic control.
As Chairman of the AIAA San Francisco Section for the 2001-2002 year, I am excited about serving our members. We have put together a dedicated council to achieve our goals. We will focus our efforts on public policy, newsletter, precollege outreach, young professionals, career enhancement, membership, honors and awards, dinner programs, technical activities, education, and evolution of flight.
Since our involvement with the AIAA-sponsored Congressional Visits Day, we have learned from the staff and representatives on Capitol Hill that the Congress needs grass-roots feedback for the national aerospace agenda. With this as the motivation, we are planning to start a new topic in our newsletter, tentatively called "View from the Top." We will ask leaders from the aerospace industry to write articles on the national aerospace agenda. We also want to solicit ideas and comments from our members and readers as to what should the national aerospace agenda be. You can write to me at chair@aiaa-sf.org or to the newsletter editor at newsletter@aiaa-sf.org. We will put these views together to formulate the San Francisco Section's position, which we will forward to the national AIAA.
Every year, the AIAA San Francisco Section gives Engineer of the Year awards in the areas of Aeronautics, Astronautics, Engineering Design, Engineering Educator, Information Systems, Project Management and Young Engineer. Although the nominations for this award are not due until May 2002, I want you to think about these awards now and nominate your colleagues who have made significant contributions to the arts and sciences in the noted areas. Please forward your nominations to vicechair@aiaa-sf.org. In addition to these awards, there are several awards that are given out by the national AIAA. The forms for these nominations are available at the AIAA web site -- http://www.aiaa.org. I urge you to consider nominating your colleagues for these awards and membership upgrades to Associate Fellows and Fellows.
As part of the evolution of flight celebrations, we will participate in Red Bull Flugtag. The team lead by Matt Jardin will build a human-powered flying machine that will be launched off the San Francisco Bay Pier 30-32 on September 29. The entries will be judged not only on distance flown, but also on creativity and showmanship.
Finally, we would like to propose a historical aerospace site from the bay area to the AIAA Historic Sites Committee. Some of the sites that have received recognition in 2001 are: Allegheny Ballistics Laboratory in West Virginia; NASA Langley Aeronautical Laboratory in Hampton, Virginia; Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Canoga Park, California; Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tullahoma, Tennessee; the site for first balloon launch in Annonay, France; and Air Force Flight Test Center Edwards Air Force Base, California. We want to hear from you about possible aerospace historical sites in the bay area along with the description of the historical facts related to them.
AIAA member James Sturrock passed away at his home in Saratoga on June 1, 2001, at age 80. Sturrock had a life-long fascination with aviation, dating back to Charles Lindbergh's solo flight over the Atlantic. His son David remembers him as a "born engineer and consummate planner and organizer."
During World War II, he was an Army Air Corps lieutenant involved in missile research at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. He later was a Air Force captain during the Korean War.
Sturrock then worked for 29 years at Lockheed. He was a member of the Polaris Underwater Launch Missile Team. He was engaged in test planning and was instrumental in obtaining range-safety clearances for Polaris missiles.
His other life-long devotion was scouting. He earned an Eagle scout rank in Florida, became a troop master with the Santa Clara County Council, and was a district official and chair of the national jamboree committee. His family has produced nine Eagle scouts.
The AIAA San Francisco Section honored its own in presentations made at the June 21 dinner meeting. These included several AIAA Engineer of the Year Awards, a special Service Award, and several membership Anniversary Awards.
The AIAA San Francisco Section announced Engineer of the Year awards in the following catagories.
The national AIAA announced 20 recipients of the Sustained Service Award. It was awarded to Norman Bergrun
He was the first chairman of the San Francisco section when AIAA was chartered in 1963 from the joining of the American Rocket Society (ARS) and the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences (IAS).
The AIAA recognizes the following members for their continuous membership in AIAA or its predecessor societies -- the American Rocket Society (ARS) and the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences (IAS).
60 Years: John Stern
50 Years: Frank Friedlander, Temple Neumann, Antoni Oppenheim, Perry Stern, Michael Tauber
40 Years: Dah Yu Cheng, Stephen De Brock, Dietrich Fellenz, John Hart, Donald Smith, Robert Strite
25 Years: Cecil Acree, William Bachalo, Michael Brown, Enrico Chen, Frank Crossman, Ramarao Digumarthi, Apostolos Doxiadis, Cray Foley, Michael George, Constance Golden, A. Stewart Hopkins, Charles Hopkins, Ike Hsu, Gary Hudson, John Lawless, Lawrence Mistretta, Eric Parsons, Bernard Pfefer, Omer Savas, Clarence Syvertson, Arthur Throckmorton, Fredric Van Wagenen
The AIAA San Francisco Section In4m-Letter is a publication of the San Francisco Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a non-profit society whose primary purpose is to advance the arts, sciences, and technology of aeronautics and astronautics and to foster and promote the professionalism of those engaged in these pursuits.
Section Officers and Council: A complete directory of the section council can be found at http://aiaa-sf.org.
Chairman Gano Chatterji 650/604-1639
chairman@aiaa-sf.org
Vice-Chairman Seth Kurasaki 650/604-6636
vicechair@aiaa-sf.org
Secretary Roger Martinez 408/919-9180
secretary@aiaa-sf.org
Treasurer Fanny Zuniga 650/604-2017
treasurer@aiaa-sf.org
Newsletter Editor Rick Kwan 408/635-0589
newsletter@aiaa-sf.org
Production Notes: This publication was produced using Adobe FrameMaker 6.0, and converted to PDF by Adobe Acrobat Distiller.
Saturday, July 14, 2001
Astronomy Evening at Foothill College
Thursday, July 19, 2001
"Mars Rovers Past, Present, and Future" and Essay Contest Awards Presentations