Presentation: February 2020

This month's AE presenter: Kailash
Date of presentation: 24 Feb 2020
Subject: Starliner - A NASA / Boeing Joint Mission
Description: For February, Kailash presented an overview of the NASA/Boeing mission Starliner - an alternative to SpaceX's "Crew Dragon" project that will hopefully bring American astronauts to the International Space Station in the not-too-distant future, and perhaps even farther after that.  The presentation touched on such subjects as: cost/benefit vs. alternatives such as Crew Dragon and/or Soyuz; reusability of at least some of the components (the crew module, for one); details of the spacecraft and launch vehicle; supply chain and operations; crew and cargo accommodations; and a bit about the various forms of testing the craft has undergone so far.

Presentation: January 2015

This month's AE presenter: Jeff
Date of presentation: 26-January-2015
Subject: Astrophysical Fitness
Description: January's presentation was an exploration of the effects of prolonged space travel on the human body.  Some effects can be controlled - analgesics help with general body pain, exercise prevents muscle atrophy, sleep medications help with disrupted sleep cycles, etc. - but some are not so easily controlled at all, and very little research has been done with psychological effects - loneliness, isolation, etc.  The presentation touched on an upcoming ISS mission in which astronaut Steve Kelly (brother of Mark Kelly, who was in the news recently when his wife, Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona congresswoman, was shot by a would-be assassin) will spend over a year traveling to and from the ISS plus time spent onboard the station.  His physical and psychological effects will be closely monitored and studied.

Download a zipped PDF file of this presentation (83KB).