July Public Meeting | SPACEFEST VII

07:00 PM – 10:00 PM 25-07-2016
Caulfield RSL, 4 St Georges Road, Elsternwick

This is the free monthly meeting of the Space Association of Australia - all welcome!

We'll be in the Function Room on the first floor of the Caulfield RSL. The venue is disabled friendly and includes a lift. Meals are available at reasonable prices. Ample car parking is available immediately behind the RSL or in St Georges Road.  Trams and trains run within 200 metres of the venue.


SPACEFEST VII | June 9-12, 2016 Tucson, Arizona - A report by Dr Len Halprin

Spacefest is THE event for space enthusiasts of any stripe – Astronomy, Manned Space Exploration, Robotic Space Exploration, Commercial Space Development or Space History Enthusiast. For the Professional and Amateur.

Spacefest is an annual reunion of NASA Apollo astronauts, famous space scientists, authors, astronomers, space artists, and fans. It is produced by Novaspace, a Tucson space art gallery & memorabilia dealer with a six-person crew. Two of those six are ‘Mom & Pop’ owners Kim and Sally Poor, who opened their gallery in 1978. The couple takes on the arrangements of the monumental Spacefest effort themselves, with help at the actual event from family, crew, friends, and volunteers.

Dr Len Halprin has a Bachelor of Science (Honours) and a Ph.D. in Physics and Astronomy from Monash University, and a Graduate Certificate in Scientific Leadership from the University of Melbourne. He has also served as President of the Monash Astronautical Society, the forerunner of the Space Association of Australia.

After retiring from a 31-year career as a Senior Research Scientist with the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Dr Halprin decided to become a science teacher and is currently in the final semester of a Master of Teaching (Secondary Physics and Mathematics) at Monash University.  

As a lifelong aficionado of space exploration and a student of all things Apollo, Dr Halprin has toured throughout the U.S. visiting space facilities and has met and corresponded with several former astronauts.  In 2011 he was invited by DARPA to present his views on spaceflight at their 100 Year Starship Symposium.  His paper on the way forward for manned spaceflight was published in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society in July 2014. 

Agenda

7.15 - 7.30 Association business: A review of the Final Frontier Festival and SpaceUp Australia 2016
7.30 - 8.30 Member activities: A report on SPACEFEST VII with Dr Len Halprin
8.30 - 8.50 Break for socialising
8.50 - 10:00 Space news: A report on Juno at Jupiter and other planetary and space science missions with Andrew Rennie | New Space: a roundup of commercial space news with Angelo Di Grazia & Michael Abdilla including a report on the SpaceX CRS-9 mission to the International Space Station carrying the second International Docking Adapter (IDA-2) and Falcon 9 first stage landing attempt at LZ-1.