Chris Boar is a self professed Apollo program space nerd, having met 12 Apollo astronauts including 4 moonwalkers. This presentation is about his visit to Johnson Space Center in Houston back in November 2019, interspersed with tales of meeting the Apollo Astronauts. Chris attended the JSC Level 9 VIP tour, which includes visits to NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab, where current astronauts train for spacewalks. Also visiting “Building 9” containing mockups of the International Space Station, Soyuz, and SpaceX hardware. And finally visiting the current ISS Mission Control Center, and personal highlight of the tour for Chris, stepping inside the recently restored historic Apollo Mission Control room, a designated US National historic landmark.
Chris Boar – Apollo Mission Control room
Chris Boar is the President of the Nanaimo Astronomy Society and an avid Apollo space nerd along with being a keen astrophotographer. Chris is a full time professional photographer living in Nanaimo shooting weddings and real estate.
2019 visit to Johnson Space Center in Houston
VIP Level 9 Tour – 4-5 hours
Lunar Exploration Module (LEM)
Neutral Buoyancy Lab
Met Micheal Collins: Gemini 10, Apollo 11
ISS Mission Control
Saturn V rocket with F1 engines
Apollo 8 mission
Jim Lovell – Gemini 7, 12, Apollo 8, 13
Space Vehicle Mockup building – ISS, SpaceX, Soyuz
Apollo 9 mission
Alan Bean, Apollo 12 LMP, Skylab II
2016 Spacefest
Restored historic Apollo Mission Control room – all original and working consoles
Apollo 13 mission – Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, Jack Swigert
Apollo 15 mission – Dave Scott, LEM
Apollo 16 mission
Apollo 17 mission – Gene Cernan, the last man on the Moon
Robotics for the Ocean Worlds – Vickie Siegel of Stone Aerospace
Vickie spoke to us about underwater exploration using remote autonomous vehicles. Vickie is a system designer and also directs the robotic field operations for testing prototypes in analogous terrestrial environments. She has been with Stone Aerospace since 2005. They are working on prototypes for NASA, such as Sunfish, with the goal of exploring ocean worlds like Europa.
Ocean worlds found in the Solar System: Europa, Enceladus, Callisto, Ganymede, Trion, Titan, and possibly other moons and Pluto.
Europa
Ice shell, liquid ocean, rocky core, possible water plumes
Mission would look for possible life
Mission could include
Lander
Cryobot
Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUVs)
14 – 30 kms of ice
Cryobots
Nuclear power is the only option – Compact Fission, Large RTG, GPHS Stack
Valkyrie – original laser cryobot
Steerable, ice sampling, spectrometer
Archimedes
5 kW direct laser penetration
22 metres /hour
Sub-surface mission environments
Suface
Cold ice
Obstacle avoidance, targeting
Warm ice
Breakthrough to ocean
Ocean
Thor
High voltage AC
To be tested on an ice lake in Iceland, drilling down to a subterranean lake
DEPTHEX – Mapping Cenote La Pilita in Mexico
Cenote Zacaton is the biggest sinkhole in the area
Testing underwater mapping, water chemistry to detect life
ENDURANCE – Taylor Glacier in Antarctica in 2009
Measurements on 100 metrre grids
Sub-Chemocline mapping
ARTEMIS – Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica in 2015
100-1,000 metres
Based from McMurdo Station
Sonar sensors
Size of a minivan
SUNFISH – much smaller robot
Peacock Springs, Florida
chooses it’s own route through the labyrinth of caves
Dragon’s Breath Hole, one of the largest underground lake in northern Namibia
Will deploy to Devon Island in a couple of years
Q&A
Communication pucks to help transmit through deep ice from the bot to the surface
Financing model? NASA research grants and other institutions. SUNFISH Inc is a spinoff company for inspection jobs.
How about a documentary?
Dealing with fear in underground/underwater environments. Focus on mission, not emotions.
Europa Clipper – measuring the depth of the ice with ice-penetrating radar – critical to subsequent missions
Tom Swift and the Atomic Earth Blaster – 5th book in the series (book cover) – Peter Jedicke
What about not drilling, but using the cracks in the ice or the plume holes?
Member Reports and Discussion
Lunar Sketching – Randy Enkin
Lunar sketch on March 20th – observed an occulted star appear just past the terminator!
Stadler 2mm sketching pencils for Randy’s birthday
Vancouver Island Regional Science Fair – Dorothy Paul (email)
Speciality judges needed – 8 subject areas of interest to astronomers
Fun to talk with 5th to 9th grade students this year about their posters and studies
Council meeting tomorrow – Randy Enkin
Astronomy Day on May 7th – Randy Enkin & Lauri Roche
RASC participating with FDAO
Volunteers needed
Daytime program at the Royal BC Museum – RASC
FDAO has sent a request for a public event in the evening on Observatory Hill
Astronomy Cafe – contact Randy Enkin (email) or Chris Purse (email)
Hybrid model requires some volunteers
Hosting involves room setup and hosting Zoom
New room at Fairfield complex
Edmonton Astrophotos – Dave Robinson
NGC 2022 – challenge object for Edmonton Centre members
Deborah Lokhost presented to us about the Dragonfly Telephoto Array. She is an Instrument Science Research Associate at the NRC Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre in Victoria, BC. During her PhD in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto, she worked with the Dragonfly Telephoto Array to observe and study galaxies. She designed an upgrade to Dragonfly and built a pathfinder telescope based on this design which she then used to study gas in the surroundings of galaxies. She is currently leading the construction of a full-scale upgrade to the telescope which has the ultimate goal of imaging gas in the “cosmic web” of dark matter.
A printed copy of the Hubble history book “Not Yet Imagined: A Study of Hubble Space Telescope Operations” written by Chris Gainor can be requested from NASA by email for no cost. Kindle, ePub and PDF electronic versions are also available for free download.
Locating Endurance– Randy Enkin
Shackleton’s exploration ship Endurance in Antarctica has been located on March 5, 2022
Crew manned a lifeboat from Elephant Island to South Georgia and all crew were eventually rescued
Review of navigation in that era
Refer to: On the Location of Shackleton’s Vessel Endurance by Lars Bergman and Robin G. Stuart, published in the Journal of Navigation: 29 July 2021
Endurance had 24 chronometers!
Chronometers were referenced to occultations that happened along the route at the time
Ship was found 6.4 km south of the original reported position of the sinking
The just-completed National Geographic mission was privately funded – about $20 million
The Perfectionists by Simon Winchester – describes Harrison’s chronometers – Martin Gisborne
Report on construction of new 32″ telescope for Edmonton Centre by Roman – Dave Robinson
Astrophoto of NGC 2264 Cone Nebula in RGB – Brock Johnston
May use narrowband next time to tease out more detail
Hickson 44 group of galaxies – an exceedingly deep field image, but missing NGC 3185
Painting of a tiny Arctic plant by Marjie Welchframe
Fr. Lucien Kemble – Roman Catholic Franciscan priest well-known as a visual observer from Alberta and Saskatchewan. Kemble’s Cascade, chain of stars in the northern sky. Photo by Charles Banville – Bill Weir
Speaker for Mar 21 Astro Cafe: Deborah Lokhorst will be speaking about the Dragonfly Telephoto Array
Comet 19/P Borrelly is passing by the California Nebula (chart) – March 23-27 – Bill Weir
Recent Astrophotos – Dan Posey
From recent Plaskett Photography 12-hour session for RASC Victoria Centre members – Horsehead Nebula, more later (data available from Dan through Astrophotography SIG)
Artemis Mission Launch coming up – Canadian Space Agency is looking for promotion to the public by RASC. April 16th FDAO event is proposed with a speaker from CSA.
GA is online again this year – June 24-27
Virtual observing across the country on two evenings – solar observing from Victoria?
Edmonton Astrophotos – Dave Robinson
Bi-marathons – Messier & running marathon in the same night
Andromeda Galaxy & Ha regions & Cepheid Variable VI – Abdur Anwar
Artemis 2 mission will take humans around the Moon
The Ukraine war will probably affect space launches from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Russia. Other space exploration may be affected. Discussion about International Space Station.
Bill Weir
Equatorial Poncet platform for the 20″ Truss Dobsonian built by Guy Walton is now working again
Will be used at the Centre of the Universe for public viewing when restrictions permit events
