in the Tallan Cellar Restaurant at the corner of M.L. King, Jr. Blvd. and Carter Street in downtown Chattanooga
"Volunteers In Medicine - New Free Medical Clinic in Chattanooga" - Barbara Weinhold, Clinic Director
The Chattanooga Engineers Club works with the medical community to sponsor the Science Fair every year. Here is an opportunity for us to work with the medical community on a free clinic that opened this year in Chattanooga. You don't have to be a doctor or nurse to volunteer. Barbara Weinhold, Clinic Director of Volunteers in Medicine (VIM) in Chattanooga, will tell us they need an army of volunteers to keep this clinic running smoothly. VIM needs people who can write grant proposals, handy men and women for odd jobs, greeters, eligibility screeners, receptionists, schedulers and translators.
Invocation: Ron Burton
Menu: A buffet lunch for $11 will be available for attendees beginning at 11:30 a.m. Lunch will include a salad, meat loaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, roll, and banana pudding. Reservations are not required, and guests are welcome. For more information, call Judy Driggans at 751-7616 or Brad Baucom at 751-4696.
Parking: Free parking (for those who leave a notice on their dash indicating they are with the Chattanooga Engineers Club) is available for attendees at the Days Inn on Carter Street. There is also a parking garage behind the Tallan Building.
PREVIOUS MEETING_____________________________________
Monday, October 24, 2005: "Electrodynamic Tether and Other Space Propulsion Systems" - Les Johnson, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
Our
speaker, Les Johnson, is a physicist who manages the In-Space Propulsion
Technology Project (ISP) at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. The
resulting products of this project are for robotic missions only and not for
manned missions. Specifically, these robotic missions explore deep space
requiring propulsion systems that are less bulky and more efficient than, say, a
mission to our moon. The Cassini probe sent to explore Saturn, took seven
years to get to the ringed planet, was the size of a school bus, and 80% of its
mass was dedicated to propulsion. Such missions can be made smaller and
faster with more advanced propulsion systems.There is a future mission called an interstellar probe that will be launched in about 20 years and will travel 250 times the distance between the Sun and Earth. One technology considered for such a mission is called Aerocapture which utilizes orbit capturing to propel the probe. The current practice is to turn a probe around in its flight path and use its jets to slow it down. The new approach is to use a planet's atmosphere for slowing. The robotics would have to be pre-programmed since the distance would be too far to do it live. Aerocapture is not suitable for the gas giants such as Jupiter but more for smaller gas entities and planets. Mr. Johnson said more is known about these remote atmospheres than one might think. Another new technology in the early stages of development uses "ballutes," or balloon parachutes and the Russians have conducted a preliminary test with this device.
Solar Electric Propulsion is an in-space propulsion technology that utilizes electrical energy to produce an electrostatic reaction (with a propellant) to obtain thrust. These ion engines have been flown in space and now are increasing in efficiency and power. This type of system will also speed up transport times due to a continuous thrust. For example, two years could be shaved off the seven-year trip to Saturn.
Yet another new science, Solar Sail Propulsion, uses sunlight pressure on sails for motion and requires orbits to work. Photons don't have mass but do have momentum that can be harnessed. This approach abandons the rocket system entirely. Sails are deployed in space rolled up in a canister and then unfurled. The Pegasus mission to be launched in 2010 will have sails that are 40 meters on a side. The sails can propel a probe with very high velocity, 50 kilometers per second or more.
Other emerging propulsion technologies mentioned included Advanced Chemical Propulsion in which advanced propellants (perhaps cryogenic propellants with cryo-coolers), lightweight and optimized components are used. And Momentum Exchange Electrodynamic Reboost (MXER) is a multi-strand tether using momentum exchange and giving payloads a rapid increase in orbital energy and velocity. Benefits are that little or no propellant is required (less mass) and it is reusable.
Our thanks go to Tiffany Gibby for providing this meeting summary.