Attending: Attending were: Julie P, Dan S, Gerald N, Stellan L, Michael W & Stu C
Call to order: The meeting was called to order at 1238 Prescott Ave. by President Julie Porter
at 20:07 Tuesday 15 June 2010

Report of Officers

    President

    • Received email confirming registration for lecture on accelerometers etc. all day Thursday, June 17th.
    • Julie can’t go. Does anyone else want to?

    Vice-President

      (absent)

    Treasurer

    • Michael W reported that we still have money
    • An update to the members list is in the works
    • Is still working on bank statements and back taxes. We may have to do manual data entry.
    • There are six and a half years of data to catch up on.

    Secretary

      Nothing to report (because Michael W forgot to bring the paper copies of SI100 notice, etc, that were recently filed on behalf of the group).

Outreach & News

  • Maker Faire booth went very well.
    • We had a prominent table in front of the HRP and model rocket groups.
    • Stellan had the mockup of the BiProp rocket, which stood taller than any other exhibit
    • Dan brought several engines along:
      • a 5 lb thruster engine,
      • a 30 lb POGO engine
      • one of Kevin’s spun-cast 50 lb engines, and
      • the KISS engine, tank and pressurant module

    • Michael used his laptop and Gerry’s projector to show launch videos, presentations and data
    • The people who staffed the booth spent a lot of time talking to passer’s by
    • Despite lots of interest, no new joiners so far

State of Test Site

  • Dan reported on site issues.
    • Plumbing and ditch work is needed
    • Brush clearing work needed too
    • The old blockhouse forms need to come down and a new structure built

  • We discussed the possibility of doing static engine testing at NASA Ames
    • It would take contact with (and the likely intervention of) Center Director Pete Worden, but that might be possible.
    • We should probably not approach him until we are ready to do some actual testing.
    • Stewart C volunteered to take part in a “Notional” committee to initiate when, assisted by Michael W.


State of Engines

  • Dan showed some preliminary lathe work on an Inconel 718 catalyst-pack base
  • Temperatures within the cat pack are expected to be about 1300K, much hotter below, thus necessitating Inconel

State of Vehicles

  • The mockup shown at Maker Faire has been stored at Stewart’s place
  • Dan discussed the possibility of flying the K.I.S.S. vehicle again, for practice/experience
  • Possible improvements (for K.I.S.S. IV) might include:
    • higher tank loads (previous flights were just 1 gallon of 85% HTP)
    • higher HTP concentrations with newer cat packs
    • constant pressure option (vs. the “blowdown” used previously)
    • stronger fin attachments to support Mach 1+ speeds

Old Business

    Bylaws update

      Michael Wallis and Gerald Nordley are still working on getting an updated document put together.

New Business

  • Possible new meeting sites
    • Michael Wallis mentioned the Denny’s at Mathilda and 101
    • Julie mentioned Hacker Dojo
    • There seemed no immediate reason to change.
  • Michael mentioned preliminary work on a wiki for the group has been done and content is needed
    He’ll try to move content from older versions of the web site to the wiki.

Adjournment

    Stellan moved to adjourn at 2132, seconded by Stewart C
    The Meeting adjourned without opposition at 21:25 15 Jun 2010

General Meeting #351
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