MARS meeting minutes

2/4/2018

MaryBeth called the meeting to order.
Members present introduced themselves.

Attendance

Brett Carrier
John Sentiff
Martin Pepe
Kevin McBride
Tony Hurd
Dave Plankehorn
Mike Pleban
Bill Wojtyla
Tom McCarthy
Dennis Jurus
Greg Young
Evan Brown
MaryBeth Clune
DeWain Feller
Bill Clune
Steve Rea
Matt Rea

Report of Officers

Treasurer:  Currently have 4,549.99 in our accounts ($3,133.24 in our Key Bank account, and $1,416.75 in our PayPal account).  This is a very good balance from this time of year, especially given the investments in launch equipment that we have made recently.

Old Business

We will have our information table/display at the Rochester Museum and Science Center (RMSC) on Feb 24.  Members are encouraged to help staff the table.

New Business

Saturday May 19^th will be an outreach day at the National Warplane Museum.
The NWM airshow will be July 13-15 in Geneseo, and we will have a setup there.  Will have our away cell.

Mary Beth said that we are looking into setting the date of next year’s July launch to July 20-21 to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.  We could encourage flyers to bring Saturn V’s to the launch.

NSL 2018

MaryBeth sent around draft concepts for NSL t-shirts for members to vote on.  A design was selected.

Greg confirmed that Vern and Gleda Estes have committed to at NSL.  Greg will pick them up at the Buffalo Airport.  Vern and Gleda will speak at the banquet.

The Rocketry Show will have a podcast from the field.

This will be a very large launch– we will have about 79 pads.  We are checking to see if 3 Legged Pig BBQ (our food vendor at NYPOWER for the last several years) will bring in more help to handle the volume of flyers, and we are also looking into bringing in a second food vendor.

We will use three launch systems to handle to volume of pads:  the old MARS launch system, the new Wilson launch system, and a system borrowed from NAR.

The flyer has not yet been developed.  The graphics for the flyer will be based on the t-shirt.

The Syracuse club will bring their large tent, and this will help to provide shelter for spectators.

There will be a couple of new contests.

Show & Tell

Dennis Jurus displayed his bomb-shaped rocket.  The body and nose cone was made by Python.  The body was made of fiberglass-reinforced foam, and the nose cone is made of wood. He wants it to land upright on its box fins.  He wants to fly it on a K White Thunder motor, and he expects it to fly rather low.

Kevin McBride showed off his recently-finished Estes Sequoia that he used to learn rocket-building skills.

Bill showed off his Mad Cow Prion.  It came with an Aero Pack motor retainer.

Evan Brown showed off his Estes Super Big Bertha that he painted in silver and red (instead of the original white and red).  He also showed off his New Way Higgs Farm square rocket, which is a downscale of Tom Cohen’s BFR.

Bill Clune showed off his Estes Patriot missile that was modified with micro rail buttons and a micro rail.

Martin Pepe, an RIT professor who works with the RIT Launch Initiative, talked about their research on igniters.  They are designing a hybrid motor this semester, and will be designing the rocket next semester (which they estimate will have a 7.5” diameter).  The hope to fly a scaled down version at Potter Field, and a full-sized version that they hope to fly to 30,000’ in New Mexico.

Raffle

An Estes Crossfire was raffled off and John Sentiff won it.

Quest Pipsqueak and Brett Carrier won it.