Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show March 7 2013

Today President JOHN had so many to thank!  PP STEVE ANDERSON led the pledge.  ALICE SALISBURY gave us a thought for the day.  PP SAM HARDING led a song we all know (“You Are My Sunshine”). MARV PATTERSON, PP MARLENE COWAN and PP BOB ADAMS greeted at the door.  JERRY TOMANEK snapped photos. FRANK VERLOT, FRANK ELMER and MIKE ABRAMS kept busy as Sergeants-at-Arms.

The steady influx of guests to our club continues, as visitors were introduced by PAT FARRELL, JEAN MORDO, PP ROY LAVE, GEORGE STAFFORD, PP BOB ADAMS, and PP SAM HARDING.

New members received their red badges after introduction by Membership Chair RANDY GARD. The three new faces were MARK ROGGE, sponsored by KATHY  BERRY, a retired civil engineer in Los Altos. HARRY PRICE, co-sponsored by ABBY AHRENS and PP SAM HARDING is an attorney focusing on real estate and business law.  DIANA NEIMAN, sponsored by JEAN MORDO, is a chartered accountant and currently CEO of Family & Children Services of Silicon Valley.  All three newcomers were welcomed with a standing ovation.

Brief, to-the-point announcements, as recommended by President JOHN

PP TRACIE MURRAY revealed voting results. Our three new LARC Board of Directors members are KATHY LERA, JEAN MORDO, and FRANK VERLOT. Congratulations to all; we’re counting on your insight and dedication.

Traveling PP SAM HARDING presented a club flag from Hanalei Bay, HI and told of their community service project posting 350 yellow lifesaving tubes on remote beaches which have already saved 38 lives.

FRANK VERLOT encouraged participation in the Young at Art judging at his home 7:30 pm.

PP DICK HENNING surprised PP DICK DUHRING by leading a group sing-along of Happy 90th Birthday, and then presented him with a birthday muffin (bran muffin, of course).

DAVID SMITH invited Rotarians and other community members over 50 to attend Encore! on March 23rd  to meet the oldest living Olympic gold medal winner. A banner will be hung over Main Street starting March 12.

RANDY GARD announced a meeting of the Membership Committee next Thursday, 11 am in Garden House.

LONNIE GARY called for more sponsorships to make our May 18-19 Fine Art in the Park another fundraising success. So far, $10,000 in sponsorships has been committed.

CRYSTA KRAMES, Art Show Director, reminded all LARC members that they are expected to fill two jobs during the show. If impossible, we should take on other pre or post-show duties. FRANK ELMER is in charge of staffing.

CYNTHIA LUEDTKE happily announced the Cioppino Feed, sponsored by Honorary LARC Member DAVE, had been a great success. With help by many club members, over $6,300 was raised and will be matched by the Los Altos Town Crier to bring the total for Welcome Home Veterans to nearly $15,000. Way to go, Luedtkes and Cioppino Team!

Our “soft touch” Finemaster was RICK GLAZE. Contributors today included PAUL SCHUTZ “celebrating” his birthday and entry into Social Security largesse, STEVE BIANCHI announcing his 30th wedding anniversary, STEVE SHEPHERD honoring his father’s 90th birthday and offering a big $9. Following up on this, CRYSTA KRAMES roundly dissed STEVE by offering a full $10 in honor of his father, though STEVE retorted with a smile that he actually thought she was giving him a compliment. PP MONA ARMISTEAD publicly thanked GREG DABB for sending a nice glass of wine to her table at the Palo Alto Golf Club. KRYSTA also offered $10 to shame GREG for “trying to get Rotarian women drunk”.  NANCY DUNAWAY beamed about her son accepting a 2 year post-doc at Oxford, though the Finemaster did question “which Oxford?” BILL BALSON also enjoyed sharing that his son has just been named Director of Sales and Marketing at Cloud 9 in Redwood City. WYATT ALLEN paid $20 for estate tax and RON PACKARD also paid $40 to join the President’s Club. PP STEVE ANDERSON requested better guest badges than today’s flimsy labels, and he even escaped a fine; that sounds like a valuable suggestion.

PROGRAM
Today’s speaker taxed our non-engineering brains but inspired us to watch for future developments in rocket technology and public space travel. Tom Gregory, JOHN CARDOZA’s friend and tennis partner, updated us on the history of spacecraft designs and future private sector innovations. Born and raised in Los Altos, Tom spent his 37 year career designing aircraft and spacecraft.  At NASA-AMES he was Assistant to the Director for Advanced Systems Designs. He reviewed and planned viable successors to the shuttle with lower cost of space flight.

Gregory first described oblique wing research aircraft designed in 1979 with wing rotation on a center pivot to reduce drag at high speed. However further research at NASA on oblique wings was cancelled. The design problem with space planes and rockets was that their oxidizers comprised 58% of the vehicle’s weight while only 2% could be assigned to payload. He suggested using oxygen instead as fuel. Lockheed’s SR71 Blackbird was the fastest air-breathing, manned aircraft, but when it lost its tail and its crew, funding dried up.

Rockwell’s X-30A was designed in 1994 to replace the space shuttle. It launched and landed horizontally like traditional airplanes in response to President Reagan’s call for an “Orient Express” craft capable of traveling from Washington, D.C. to Tokyo in just 2 hours. However the ratio between the cost to develop this aircraft versus its hardware weight was so burdensome that only a national budget could afford the continuing charge. Gregory described four rockets in use today: the Pegasus is an air-breathing first stage rocket, the Delta IV and Atlas 5 are used to launch huge reconnaissance satellites, and France’s Ariane V launches all current television satellites. However, in today’s economy, governments are unlikely to spend $10 - $20 billion to design new launchers.
Today a small coterie of entrepreneurs interested in designing spacecraft for the public has developed. It includes Robert Bigelow with his huge inflatable habitat that nobody was able to launch and win his $50 million launch prize. Burt Rutan and Paul Allen have joined forces in SpaceShipOne, the first non-government manned space program. Their White Knight, a manned twin turbojet research aircraft, provided the airborne launch for SpaceShipOne. Well-experienced Rutan has already flown 44 of his own designs. Sir Richard Branson, aka the father of Virgin Airlines has designed the Virgin Galactic, a commercial sub-orbital spaceship system offering public access to sub-orbital space. Its six portholes will allow paying passengers to view their progress through space. His Virgin Mother Ship Eve, named after his own mother Eve, is slated to transport passengers into space in a little over one year.  The Stratolaunch, designed by Paul Allen, is now under construction. With a wingspan of 117 meters (the equivalent of a football field plus end zones), it will be the largest airplane ever built. NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Project Administration (DARPA) are still planning vertical air launch vehicles, and a towed glider craft has just been completed. According to Tom Gregory, only the French have a viable commercial spacecraft today, the Ariane V.

Gregory suggested that “social entrepreneur” Elon Musk might be the one to dedicate his wealth and genius to public space flight projects. Musk has proved himself through his prior successes with Paypal, Tesla, and Solar City.  Musk is CEO and Chief Designer of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) which designs and manufactures space launch vehicles. Last week SpaceX’s private rocket, Falcon 9/Dragon completed its second flight to the International Space Station (ISS). It is the first commercial company to launch and dock a vehicle to the ISS.

How to make sub-orbital flight affordable to the public? The payload cost to go into orbit is now about $5,000/lb, which is still prohibitive. Will Elon Musk succeed in developing technology capable of sufficiently reducing the pricetag? The cost would have to drop to about $2,000/lb. Then the next price point would be $200/lb, bringing the future traveler’s ticket price to just $40,000/orbit. Who is ready to fly?

THIS THURSDAY'S PROGRAM:

Shawn & Laura Sears
"Vida Verde Nature Camp for Youth"

 Shawn and Laura Sears are the co-founders of Vida Verde Nature Education, located in San Gregorio, CA. Since 2001, Vida Verde has provided free, 3-day, overnight environmental education camps for 8,000 inner-city youth of the Bay Area. This program introduces children, most for the very first time, to the nature wonders of the California coast side. Shawn and Laura will speak about the need of this camp for local children, and will also share the incredible impacts and outcomes for them. The talk will include a 12-minute documentary film about Vida Verde.
Shawn grew up in West St. Paul, Minnesota. He attended The Colorado College for a degree in psychology. Laura grew up in rural western Kentucky and received a degree in geology from Colorado College.  They both taught 4th grade for two years (1999-2001) in underfunded public schools in the Mississippi Delta. They both have a lifelong love of the outdoors and a deep appreciation for the importance of a nature camp for youth.